So I’ve arrived in London, registered and my things are packed on he boat into my tiny cave locker! We had our boat naming ceremony on Tuesday night where our sponsors generously put on a hog roast, free bar and live band and we had such a party! The pontoon was bouncing and we literally had to prop up the bar!
The team have been busy with tinkering with our boat to make her more homely and user friendly, a fab team have been working on her for the last 3 weeks and soo much appreciation goes to those people who dedicated their own time to the task!
Since arriving I have helped with lots of odd jobs, including sort out the medical supples. Ines, Anna and I went through the 12 boxes of things making sure it’s all there and arranging it logically and to make it easily accessible (like organising the back of my work truck- soooo satisfying!) Im amazed by what we carry, including oxygen, hardcore drugs, a huge range of antibiotics and full support over the sat phone from PRAXES (thank goodness!).
I’ve been assigned the role of Watch Leader for our first race, which means I will be leading my watch of 11, looking after their safety, ensuring we are going the right way, keeping up morale and (most importantly) sailing fast! This is scary, exciting and truly an honour for someone with not really a lot of sailing experience!
The last couple of weeks has been a whirlwind with some amazing highs when visiting/ visited by some special people and some lows including an impromptu trip to hospital for my gran, but hopefully she is up and about to come see the boats off this weekend.
I’ve had a week of catching up with friends and I’m overwhelmed with the support I’ve had for this adventure, thanks again to everyone I’ve had messages from and especially those I’ve caught up with!
Tonight is the race crew party, so I’m off to find a nice dress, and I’ll put up some more photos soon. Over and out!
Rachel's Race around the World 