I’m writing this from the quayside having just watched my crew sail away. Best of luck guys - sorry I’m not with you.
It’s a little strange being sat here - as most people know, I was planning to go the whole way round the world on this year’s Clipper race. However, between the sailing, cooking, cleaning and everything else, the last 31 days at sea have given me a lot of time to reflect. For me, the races to Brest and Rio were nice - but only nice. I’ve discovered that I enjoy sailing, but not enough to spend a year of my life crossing oceans for a month at a time with only a week’s downtime in between. Had I stayed on, I’m pretty sure that ‘this is nice’ would have faded to apathy and possibly worse. Having crossed the Atlantic and the equator, the time has come for me to step off with a bunch of great memories and lifelong friends.
What now? I’m going to head back to the UK and spend a couple of months with my family before looking at getting back to work; if you’re in London, drop me a line. We’ll be going out to Cape Town to welcome the fleet in, too.
Good luck, Team Mission. See you in Cape Town.