Happy New Year!

W2N 'Where to Next?'
Rob 'Bee' Clark
Wed 31 Dec 2008 06:59
13:23.6N 16:37.4W
 
Hi everyone. I hope you're all recovered from the Christmas excesses.
 
Well, I'm back at Lamin Lodge now amongst the mangroves at the mouth of the River Gambia - back into relative civilisation - and the internet! It took a few days to get downriver from Manjumba where I spent Christmas with my Dutch friends Henk and Rietje but it feels strangely like 'coming home'. Everyone is so friendly here and it looks like they're organising a special evening for New Year celebrations. So, I'm not sure if I'm trying to convince you or myself when I say that as soon the party's over, I'm off - no, really, I am! Honest... My fuel tanks are full and I'm carrying another 160ltrs in anticipation of a windless slog across the equator. I've made arrangements to fill the water tanks tis afternoon and I'm heading off to Serrekunda this morning to provision for the voyage. I've even got books - finally! I was relieved to be able to swap a few with the crew of Eschaton anchored at Lamin Lodge. Reading books had become a bit of an obsession. They had become contraband - currency. I’d been offered crack cocaine in the Cape Verdes but I’d felt like saying “No thanks… but if you can get me some, you know, a kilo of Dean Koontz… a few grams… a page. I’ll take whatever you’ve got… Jilly Cooper even”. Okay, perhaps not Jilly Cooper. In Banjul, I persuaded a passenger on the British registered cruise ship Pacific Princess to steal a handful of books from the ship’s library although my conscience resisted and I relinquished three of my own to replace them with (I can’t say that was true of the cakes and the bottle of wine from the ship's buffet!). Quite by chance I even found a bookstore in the market town of Serrekunda and availed myself of as many books as I could carry. Well, I say bookstore but the makeshift stockroom was actually a telephone box in front of which was a trestle table buckling under the weight of an extraordinarily random selection of dated, dog-eared and obscure titles. Who was I to complain though? I was desperate, ‘cold turkey’, and at 20 dalasi (50p) each, I was in danger of overdosing. So, on Thursday, I'll be pointing the bow roughly towards Ascension Island in the middle of the South Atlantic which was described by James who contacted me via the MailaSail blogsite as...
 
"...a runway on a barren moonscape with some interesting people but not a lot else!"
 
He then went on to say
 
"I recommend staying in The Gambia."
 
He should know. He's just sailed his boat Rahula from the UK to Australia and described The Gambia as the highlight of the entire trip. Thanks for that James but as much as I agree with you, I really need to try and be at the Cape of Good Hope landmark by the end of February so I've really got to keep moving.
 
I hope you like the pictures. They're not in any specific order but most of them are of my time spent upriver at the village of Manjumba. Well, I say 'village' but you can see for yourself that it's little more than a handful of mud huts but the locals made us so welcome that I was genuinely sad to leave. There haven't been many times when I've regretted not being able to share an experience with someone special but while I missed spending Christmas with my nieces Emily, Hannah and Maddy in the UK, I couldn't help imagining what an unforgettable experience it would have been for them in Manjumba. Ah well, one day...
 
2008 was a huge year for me. Canasta is the sum total of everything I aspired to and dared to dream of. She is everything I had hoped for, worked so hard for and she still makes me tingle with pride under sail, at anchor, on a pontoon or whenever a total stranger feels compelled to complement her. 2008 will always be the year I moved out of the home I loved and sold my business, my Bristol house, my car and almost (but not quite!) sold Bright Flyer; the boat I bought four years ago with my dad and the inspiration for the 'Where to Next?' project. At the time they weren't easy decisions but with hindsight, particularly given the current economic climate and my nagging restlessness, they were the right ones. 2008 will be remembered for an incredible Round the Island Race, for the holiday in Shanghai, for the skiing in France, the mountain biking (well, most of it!). I'll fondly remember an unforgettable London Marathon, sailing Canasta's sister ship Swagman from Portugal to Brighton and rebuilding at least one metaphorical bridge. Whatever happens, 2008 will of course always be the year that I had my fifteen minutes of fame and set off looking for adventure. 2008 will always be the year, only just, that I found it.
 
If 2009 can match that then... bring it on! Somehow though, I think it might.
 
That was a bit self-indulgent I know but it's hard to believe that so much happened in 2008. It was a chaotic blur. With such a seismic shift in my life, there will inevitably be regrets and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't missing you; my friends, my family, my home comforts and even my work! Thank you all for your Christmas wishes and for your gracious messages of support. I'm not able to get online so frequently now but when I do, there are always one or two emails that lift my spirits and make me smile. Oh, yes, "Make me Smile"... of course 2008 was the year I saw Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel in concert... and Muse! Sorry, I digressed. The next few legs to Cape Town are likely to be the hardest sailing I've ever done but it gets easier from there and I will have passed a significant milestone in the project.
 
Everyone, have a very messy New Year's Eve and I hope that the new year brings you prosperity, happiness and of course... great sailing!
 
HAPPY NEW YEAR
 
Bee x