AZAB Nutmeg update

Nutmeg of Shoreham
Ollie Holden
Mon 17 Jun 2019 08:27
Position 37:44.3N 25:39.3W

Well we have had a lovely couple of days on Sao Miguel, not quite as relaxing as might be imagined, as there's always lots of jobs to do and problems to solve. Massive thankyou to Club Navale and all the lovely people who have supported the AZAB family here in Ponta Delgada - the hospitality has been just lovely.

Importantly I've had a chance to reflect on the amazing experience Emilia and I have had, and on what I want to do next. The outward trip with Emilia was an amazing achievement, much harder than we imagined it would be, but then anything worthwhile takes a big investment. Emilia got two big rounds of applause at last night's formal dinner - neither of us had really appreciated that she was going to be the youngest to ever do the race, so it has all been a bit surreal and has not really sunk in. There are other father and daughter teams, as well as father and son, husband and wife, and lots of friends sailing together (not many singlehanders) - and having sailed to the Azores I think it is just the most amazing experience to share with someone - only your crewmate can properly appreciate the intense mix of exhilaration, fear, fatigue, frustration, happiness, boredom and overall sense of accomplishment that you feel through undertaking a tough ocean passage like that, and I know all crews will be reliving the adventure for years to come.

My thoughts re sailing back that I set out in the last blog have been reinforced over the last few days. Put simply, sailing back on my own just feels like a bit of a chore, and I am confident enough in myself to therefore say - I'm not going to do it. I don't need to do it to prove anything to myself - I've sailed back from the Azores-UK before, as well as lots of longer passages, and I certainly don't need to do it to prove myself to anyone else. There's a few reasons that have combined to help me get to this decision and I'm certainly feeling some twinges of regret when I see the fleet preparing to leave tomorrow, but I'm comfortable in my decision.

So what does it mean for Nutmeg? Well, in typical pragmatic Ollie style, I am trying to kill 2 birds with one stone. Our aim when we brought Nutmeg back to the UK 2 years ago for a refit, was to get her out to the Med so we can spend some holiday time together in guaranteed sunshine, especially given we have a few years of exams coming up - it will be great to be able to escape post-exams to have some time together in the Med. Therefore, I'm getting a delivery crew to take her to Lagos on the Algarve, and we will base her there for the rest of the summer before taking her into the Med for next season. I thought about sailing her to Lagos myself, but then I thought - why not save your holiday to use to go out to her in July with the family?

We have had an incredible few weeks as part of the AZAB family. We've met some utterly inspiring people, had the extremes of all emotions and experiences, and both come away so much richer for the experience. Thankyou to everyone who has supported us, and a big thankyou to RCYC and everyone in organising this amazing event. --

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