A week before I join Northabout..

Ros Edwards, Crew 2nd Leg, written whilst still in the UK  29 June 2016

It is a week before I join Northabout in Tromso. I’m sitting on a train on the way into London for a meeting, just arriving at King’s Cross. It’s 7.35am. The boat is in Lerwick getting some much needed TLC, the crew on the first leg having contended with a leaking stern gland and broken bilge pumps – casualties of the enormous amount of work that has been done on the boat since the shakedown trip to Spitzbergen last year. I guess they are all up and working, possibly with the exception of our teenager Ben.

The last few weeks have been hectic for our family. Steve, who is on the first leg and will re-join for the northwest passage, has been specifying the navigation and communications equipment and helping to conclude the re-fit; Ben, who is doing the whole circumnavigation from Bristol to Bristol, has had school and has been collecting all his homework for the trip; we have had one daughter doing A levels; and I have been collecting a ton of food, literally, to provision Northabout for the northeast and northwest passages. 16kg of hot chocolate, 20kg of Parmesan, and around 100 packets of biscuits – you have to get your priorities right. With a ton of food sitting in the hall visitors have been asking if we’re expecting the apocalypse (or maybe just Brexit!).

I am so excited! Sitting in London imagining the water and ice and isolation – a reality dislocation. When I’m on the boat I won’t give a second thought to my priorities for today – they just won’t seem that important.