2. It's a GO! (I hope)
It's a GO! (I
hope)
It happened on May
2nd. I decided I would accept Richard's invitation to cross the Atlantic with
him this autumn. Wow! A lifetime ambition suddenly and unexpectedly in prospect.
Carol said 'You must go' straight away, bless her. Richard, the Skipper, must
have thought I was made of the right stuff. I can do a bowline, after all.
Anyhow I said 'I wanna go!'
On May 11th I drove
the 60 miles down to Walton to see the boat. Callidus means expert or
clever, so she is optimistically named. ..She was on the hard, being caulked
and painted. I had gone to do the VHF course, which Richard did and
separated me from £73 for the privilege. Dave was on the boat when I got there,
another adventurous yachtsman out of Titchmarsh, leaving for the Azores solo on
Tuesday. Dave had everything to hand - epirb, satellite phone, solar still,
flags, VHF, liferaft, grabbag, charts, self-steering, even a SCUBA set (he
was a Naval diver) - all the gear needed to give him the best chance of
surviving a bit of bad luck. We would need similar kit - did we have
it?
I agreed to do the
first leg from Harwich to Falmouth starting June 10th, with an option to do the
biggy - Tenerife to Trinidad, all 2800 miles of open ocean starting around
October 15th. I thought I could stay on board after Trinidad and see the
Windwards, the Leewards and the Lesser Antilles before landing at Fort
Lauderdale (via the Bahamas) by Christmas 2008. Then fly
home.
That's the plan
anyway