Time to join the crew!
It's Wednesday, it is a school day - but from today, the school is a little more 'open air' and started a little earlier than normal. Today's the day our crew is complete and we get the party started for the Atlantic. The final hours of school yesterday, meant handing over classes to colleagues, ensuring the department are ready to take on the challenge and time for the fabulous humanities team final meeting over carrot cake and Heroes! My colleagues and new friends at work have been so supportive of this venture, I feel lucky to have found them and relieved I made the choice to look for them!
Final preparations were made a bit more entertaining by the Portsmouth city wide power cuts Monday and our postcode on Tuesday, meaning packing by candle light (didn't think I'd ever do that!) and enjoying the last evening with my beautiful sailor daughter - she's mightily annoyed I didn't bust her out of school to join me this time (next time!!).
Arriving at Gatwick for this flight reminded me of my first ever trip on a tall ship with the Sail Training Association (STA now Tall Ships Youth Trust). Dad dropped me at Gatwick on my own, I had no idea what to expect, I knew no-one and off I went. Seeing one of the other passengers at the boarding gate with a 'Gill' sailing jacket, I plucked up the courage to ask if she was sailing on the Sir Winston Churchill too and she was. She was Bosun's mate, I was crew and that was the beginning. We flew to the Canary Islands that time. The first of many sailing adventures that started with a bunch of strangers at the airport and ended with some of dearest friends and most amazing life experiences I've ever had.
This time, I know the boat, but not the ocean passage, I know the crew but not how life will be living together for a month. But standing in the line with my boarding pass this time, I see not one sailing jacket, but three in a group, cue the question 'Are you joining the ARC?' and now the journey has begun.
It was a family of 3; an experienced family of sailors joining their extended family on a Hanser to cross the Atlantic. With the son's bag full of GCSE books and mock papers (he's in Year 11) and a month at sea ahead of him, they're excited about the journey ahead! I didn't catch their names but for them this marks a stepping stone for the 3 of them as they support their extended family on leg one of a round the world odyssey, starting Saturday.
Two rows in front on the plane is a crew member of another yacht proudly in his crew shirt already, another sits behind me and I'm sure there are many more. The excitement of the ARC is building for me and for those around me... We're just a small group of sailors coming together from the UK on this flight; the rest - who knows where they've started and where they're planning to go. I can't wait to find out!
So midflight, my last bit of marking for year 11 done on the plane ready to be posted back from race HQ on arrival. Let the adventure begin.
We are (nearly) 5!