From May 1st I will be off on my travels again. I am flying back to the UK for various meetings and a one-woman, self-imposed writer's retreat to work on my Atlantic book.
I will have only occasional access to internet, but will try to keep up my blogs using my mobile phone to post updates. But please forgive any longer-than-usual gaps between blogs from now until my return to the US on May 15th.
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The National Environmental Trust is currently featuring me and my east coast adventuresome counterpart, Margo Pellegrino - see oceanlegacy.org. Margo sets off on May 7 on her outrigger journey from Miami to Maine in a bid to inspire others to take an active role in the stewardship of our oceans. See her website - miami2maine.com - for more details.
You may also notice that Margo's website bears a passing resemblance to mine - we now share the same webmaster, Tim Harincar at Sailblogs, since I passed on the recommendation. It can sometimes feel like a solitary path, getting ready for a big expedition, so it's been fun to compare notes with Margo as we both prepare for our respective launches.
(But enough of that now, Tim - I need you back working on MY site now!!)
Good luck Margo - you go girl!!
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Is there anybody local who has time on Tuesday afternoon to give me a ride from Woodside to San Francisco airport? My flight is at 4.30, so I'd need to leave here at 2pm.
Only people I know, please!
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.... are a thing of the past. After getting up at 5.30 every weekday morning for the last 3 weeks to train at Boot Camp, I could have used a lie-in yesterday, but duty called.
And how can I complain, when duty these days is so much more fun than it was when I worked in an office?!
First appointment was a sponsored breakfast - some parents had paid a useful amount into the expedition coffers for me to have breakfast with their daughters, in the hope that I may be a good influence. So I found myself at 8am sitting in Buck's restaurant with four gorgeous but giggly girls on a blood-rush-high after eating sugar straight out of the packets. I'm not sure how much of a good influence I was on them, but it was certainly educational for me. I would never have imagined there were so many different ways to slaughter a stack of pancakes.
Then it was off to the Tech Museum in San Jose where my boat was on exhibit during the Tech Challenge. 1000 kids launching robots into a crater, and lots of people fascinated to see my boat, eager to ask questions. It was a really fun day, and great to see so much interest, but after 7 hours or so my throat was getting sore and I was losing the power of speech. The solitude of the ocean was starting to seem rather appealing...
But no rest for the wicked - I was off to have dinner with a lovely couple who have offered to let me use their workshop to refurbish my boat. They wanted to introduce me to their engineer, who will be helping me.
Work on the boat hasn't even started yet, and I have just 2 months left before I have to be on standby, waiting for the conditions to be right for departure. Luckily, apart from the installation of various new technical toys, I don't think there's too much work to do. There again, I thought that last time - and 2 weeks work turned into 2.5 months.
June could be intense.
[photo: making new friends at the Tech]
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