The GSB has now finally left Shotley, near Ipswich, where she has been undergoing some minor repair work and stealth mode fine tuning after the severe gales she and the crew endured over the North Sea. Gordon and Rob are crewing with Cap'n Halsall and hope to have the boat in Falmouth for departure mid(ish) next week across the Bay of Biscay.
For those of you not aware, Ella has already fled to Spain and so Jacobus and I (Selma) must go and collect her before the GSB arrives in Spain. As I left Ella in the capable hand of the ground stewardess, she did not even look back to wave, I wondered if she even realised that she would not be back in the UK for a whole year. Big Pappa Bestefar will also be joining us on this mission to collect Ella and to await and greet the GSB.
Behind the scenes have been hectic to say the least as John and I decided only 8 weeks ago to embark on this years travel with the children, but as we had already committed to sailing to Norway and meeting many people there it actually meant that I had just under four weeks to pack up the house, (those of you that know me, know what a task that must have been as I collect and store everything, not least all my crockery!) talk to the school about taking the children out for a year, organising the home/boat teaching programme, setting up new bank accounts and closing down all old ones, renting the house out, sorting out new insurances, this meant I had to organise at the 11th hour for Brimble to be hauled out of the water for a full boat survey, (just before she left for Norway to acquire full insurance!) say goodbye to various people and ensuring others that what we are doing is not irresponsible, finding a home for the fish (this was more traumatic than I can tell you, as I thought I had found a home I crossed that job off my list, only to be e-mailed after I had been in Norway for 3 weeks from Nancy saying had I found someone else to have the fish! I forgot to give them to her! It ended well, fish are alive, tank was grim, thank you Nancy for this, but it got me worried about what else had I crossed off my extensive list prematurely.) Many other things have been going on behind the scenes so it means that the Halsall family have been apart for much of this time, beavering away to try and make our dream come true, we are ever getting closer...
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