Boys on the bridge

boys on the bridge
Originally uploaded by darenpackham.

Wind, Rain &Parental Guidance

After an hour or so of napping I managed to crawl sleepily out of my bunk to go and do my midnight till 4 am stint on the bridge.. It was dark and we hadn't seen any ships for days but on my watch, we saw one! These small excitements are important.

This is how it went. "Ah Mark! A small blip on my radar at 25 miles."
Aquire target... Push. 'Beep'. Target information....Push. 'Beep'. Ha. hes going to miss us by 8.2 miles on the port side in 32 minutes. I told you it was exciting!?

Today however, on my mid day till 4pm watch I had lots of company because it was rough and to a large extent the rain and motion had stopped play, as far as work to be done around the boat anyway. So people popped by the bridge to see the waves breaking over the bow and to have a general chat. The wind got up to over 40 knots (force 8)and I had to put down my coffee in order to turn on the windscreen wipers!

After all of that excitement and a little bit of admin I retired to my cabin with the idea of selecting a movie from the server. I was out of luck, someone had programmed my cabin with parental guidance limits enabling me only to select Bob the builder and the like.
I particularly like the episode where they get 'Scoop'and 'Rolly' to help with the apple picking over at farmer Giles's.

Mid Atlantic

Mid Atlantic
Originally uploaded by darenpackham.

Just an update from the deep blue sea. 2 days out from Bermuda. 32 degrees North and 50 degrees West. just left of centre in real terms..
The ship board routine has kicked off properly and although there are 23 of us on board the boat feels surprisingly empty. Apart from meal times of course.
Yesterday afternoon I went and sat out of the wind behind the deck 5 jaccuzi it was warm there and quiet. A good place to watch the endless horrizon and wonder what the hell it is, I am actually doing out here!

Like ships that pass in the day time..

Tenacious
Originally uploaded by darenpackham.

Last Time I crossed the atlantic I was sailing on board the beautiful Tenacious, bracing thae yards, heaving away on my marks and climbing in the rigging. It was a very happy memory!

This morning as fate would have it. I was on the bridge making preparations for our departure when I heard a familiar voice on the VHF radio. " Bermuda radio, this is Tenacious", " Good Morning Tenacious this is Bermuda radio, what is your ETA in Bermuda?"

Tenacious sailed into Bermuda harbour only one hour after we left.! We didn't see them because they approached from the other side of the island.

The lovely people that I know on board, that I have not seen since a wedding I went to in August, passed like ships in the night, or rather in the middle of the morning.

I wonder, as we sail eastwards when I will see them again.

And went for an aftenoon beer

And went for an aftenoon beer
Originally uploaded by darenpackham.

Off watch and in the White Horse for a cold beer

Blue

Blue
Originally uploaded by darenpackham.

Did I say that the water was blue?

Yesterday at work I.....

Beach in Bermuda
Originally uploaded by darenpackham.

Took my bike and cycled the 20kms to Hamilton from St Georges which is where we had tied up for the night. Of course with such inviting blue water I went via one of the beaches and a brief stop for ice cream too.

The thing that is very striking about Bermuda is the colour of the water. It is rich and sparkling and has the whole spectrum including every shade of blue. After the Savannah river it is just overwhealmingly blue..Beautiful.!

We were stuck in Bermuda for an extra day because of the weather. Oh dear..

Debbs take on things

My good friend Debbs fell for a sailor! Silly girl. Before you all ask. Nope, definitly Not me! but it was; one of my collegues..

Our visit to Wilmington NC was met in perfect timing with Debbs who caught up with us, or rather Miles on the quay in Wilmington. She posted a slide show on her blog and waved at us from the quay as the ship sailed for Bermuda taking with it her new boyfriend.

It did feel like the day would never come, but sure enough, it did and we left!

Good bye for now, to Debbs and everyone else in Savannah that I had the greatest pleasure to spend some time with.I hope that I see all of you again down the road.

check out www.lusciousdebbs.blogspot.com

The fam damily

fam damily
Originally uploaded by darenpackham.

This is me n my mum, my brother and Erica my bros girlfriend

The wedding

me n bride
Originally uploaded by darenpackham.

One of the reasons for going home was to go to a family wedding. I love this picture because it looks like it was my wedding.. This is my cousin Beverly and this was Sussex England where marrying your cousin is not as popular as it might be in Georgia, USA !!!

Dangers of dehydration

Dave
Originally uploaded by darenpackham.

I got off the plane on a sunny afternoon in England, caught the train home to my small flat and made a phone call to meet a couple of friends n the pub. This turned out to be most of my friends actually and I was substatially over served at the bar.

On the following morning I had arranged to meet David for a run accross the fields. This is something that I totally enjoy but upon waking up. I discovered that someone had broken into my apartment, made a huge mess, put something nasty tasting in my mouth and stolen all of my money.

"Dave mate I can't run with you this morning!"
"But Daren its so beautiful out and I am all ready to go"
" Damn. You are right.,.OK give me half an hour, I'm on my way"

And so it was that we were running in the mud accross beautiful English countryside chatting and enjoying the morning air. I was jet lagged, hung over and now running up to my ankles in mud.

This is a picture of David after the run, where is the water?

How many goodbyes?

I still need to tell you about my trip home, about the family wedding and friends at home and about St Patricks day in Savannah and the goodbyes. A whole week of goodbyes both at home and in Savannah. It made me realise that I am always saying goodbye.

Lets just say, that I drank a lot of coffee, tea and beer. There was lots of hugs a little bit of kissing but at least there was no tears. Things are clearly improving.

Goodbye.

stern wash

stern wash
Originally uploaded by darenpackham.

This picture was taken 5 minutes ago as the sun was starting to set. It really is a beautiful day and we are about 200 miles west of Bermuda. Expecting to arrive there tomorrow at about lunch time. This is more like it

back from the Pizza Joint

back from the Piza Joint
Originally uploaded by darenpackham.

Some of the crew on the way back to the boat after the visit to the captains Pizza joint

Pizza Joint

pizza joint
Originally uploaded by darenpackham.

The captains Pizza joint in North Caroilina. Of course it was important to do the sea trial to North Carolina! The captain and his wife live there and this gave us the opportunity to eat at his new pizza joint.

Parked in North Carolina

Parked in North Carolina
Originally uploaded by darenpackham.

We had to do a coastal sea trial 200 milesup to North Carolina.

Me Today 24th March

Me Today 24th March
Originally uploaded by darenpackham.

See. We really are at sea

A note from the Mid Atlantic

They are all e mailing me. It makes a nice change actually because they don't normally. What are you doing? where are you? have you sunk?

Well it is only a few weeks that there has been no word and as I have said before when its all work and no play there is not much that inspires me to write.

However there was a chance to play and I even flew home to England for a family wedding. A crazy weekend where I actually got to see all of my family and most of my friends in a 3 day long extravaganza where sleep was put aside in order to enjoy the time at home as much as possible.

The trip home was very last minute and even on the day I left for the airport it was uncertain that I would actually be able to leave the boat at all.

Pictures of the wedding will follow.

Brad and George

Brad and George
Originally uploaded by darenpackham.

Something for the girls.

The crowd

The crowd
Originally uploaded by darenpackham.

For some reason the night of the drag show had us all in high spirits

Dana and Tara

Dana and Tara
Originally uploaded by darenpackham.

Some pretty girls just for the fun of it.

Healthy drag show

Healthy drag show
Originally uploaded by darenpackham.

This was worth a mention just because the crowd had a great time that evening.

I am back

Now that we are making final preparations for sea, the team has been defined and we are all working hard towards our up coming trans atlantic adventure.

Due to the work play balance being tipped well and truely towards work lately and the fact that I prefer to talk about play more than I do work the pages of the blog have not been updated

Don't get me wrong, there has been some time to play but nothing worth a mention.