In May I handed in my notice at my job as a Senior PR Manager at a London Agency to take on the world of freelance. For a break I headed to Cornwall to see my dearest best mate, Freyja. On arriving in Cornwall Freyja had made dinner plans with her parents, and proud owners of Bimble, Rod and Nina, of who I hadn’t seen for over 18 months if not longer. We ate pizza and drank cider while the Duckers told me tails of their Bimble adventures so far. Nina went on to talk of her next adventure - crossing the Atlantic Ocean during a yearly ARC rally departing from Las Palmas and ending in Saint Lucia. I was sucked into conversation about Nina’s inspiration for crossing the grand ocean while also discussing if they needed a fifth crew member to tackle the challenge, currently the crew stood as Nina, Rod, Freyja and Steve. Freyja turned to me and asked if I would join them. Over the course of this fine May weekend in Falmouth, The Duckers took me through the truths of the ARC, played me videos of Bimble, showed me ARC logs of past boats and the route in which Bimble would take.
With very basic sailing experience and a appeitte for an adventure, I accepted my place on Bimble without really knowing or understanding what I was getting myself in for, all I knew was I was guaranteed to see Dolphins and have an adventure alongside my best friend. So far one of those is true … I’m yet to see Dolphins!
We are now 11 days in and I can proudly say I've grown from strength to strength. My crew who are teaching me new wisdom everyday from taking on the role as food provisioner with my skippers guidance, to crew chef, to buddy watching and even having a hand at changing sails. The first five days where challenging and exhausting while we all settled in to Bimble’s rhythm.
I’m climbing through the ranks as I have now gained trust to do my own watches, even during the graveyard shift, to handling sails alongside my fellow crew members, and understanding of logging of our route hourly in our log book. This is all from little old me with no experience in ocean sailing, or really any yacht sailing for that matter, from living my day to day life doing the London commute to being in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean watching the sun rise and set while the night sky fills with bright stars.
From the very beginning my family and friends asked me what I would be expecting during this sailing adventure and if I was nervous. My answer always was ‘I’m not nervous as I don’t know what to expect - all I know is I’ll be sailing across a big ocean.’ I think my naivety has been a blessing as so far I’ve enjoyed every moment on Bimble, not felt nervous or scared and I've learnt how to sail a Cat and couldn’t ask for a better team. I’ve already planned my next adventure on Bimble with the Duckers. So here we sit drinking a good old fashion cuppa, Freyja is at the helm, Rod has just risen from a snooze to find us flapping around with the sails because the wind decided to drop again, while Steve writes yet another creative poem. To be feeling content is an understatement, this trip so far for me has lived up to more than I could ever expect, for that I’m truly grateful to my crew for guiding me through every step on this adventure, and Bimble herself.
Todays poem is composed by a dear friend of mine who wrote me a letter to open during my time on Bimble for when I’m feeling down and missing everyone. I do miss everyone but haven’t yet felt down. So I wanted to share this with all the ARC sailors who may be feeling low and missing home and make note that we are all in this together and will guide one another through.
As you look out,
Across the sea,
You are never alone,
You always have me,
As the sun sets,
As the tide falls on the sand,
You are far from home,
But I always have your hand,
When the moon rises,
And there’s an aching in your heart,
Look at the stars,
And we will never be apart.
Love Lucy & The Bimble Crew xxxx