Ardmore, Closing Comments

WE'VE ARRIVED!

Thursday 1 July - Ardmore


Well maybe not quite the end. Sorry for the delay in posting the Log everyone - WE'VE ARRIVED!




We've been struggling to get our e-mail going again, it's: [email protected]. It has not been operational for some months, choked by the tall grass I suppose. Well, it is up and running again now, so if you liked the Daily Log, maybe we'll hear from you.



And thank you for your phone calls on 01971 521 229. We'll put out the log for a day or two more! There are so many things we must fix now we are home. Bob and Igor left at 0800. We spent the whole day unloading the boat. We are inundated and hectic. I'm afrid I feel absolutely shattered.

Friday 2 July - Ardmore


Rain showers all day but we kept on dropping the sails, packing them in their bags, ferrying them ashore and storing them in the long shed - Nick and me, plus Ward and Sanel, and helped a lot by Doug Badcock. Nick and I are sad to see the old shippy being disabled like this, just when we had her going like a sewing machine. She would like to have gone on for ever.



Nev Roberts arrived in the evening, just in time for Rebecca's Birthday Party, with Will and Molly and Hughie too.

Saturday 3 July – Ardmore



After the grandest breakfast we could muster, we found it so sad to wave goodbye to Ward and Sanel as they set off across the loch. The two brothers had flown over from New York specially to sail up from London with us and they had brightened our lives once more. Lieutenant Ward Irvin has just a couple to days to rejoin the 10th Mountain Division in Fort Drum, near Lake Ontario. And after years of training, Sanel has left his job with a New York film company, his eyes set on becoming a self-employed television cameraman. "Hope see you soon" as Isso would say.



We got the mainsail off and ashore. Then Nev helped me check over the hydraulic power pack which drives the windlass and hauls the boat up the slipway; before that we have to float her onto her cradle on a Spring tide. And that is going to be the next saga: I'll have to practice my scuba diving for that.



A word from Marie Christine:

John suggested I write a few words now our journey is over and as I look out from our crofthouse window at English Rose, lying secure on her mooring below the wood, I realise we are secure now too. Safe within the four-foot thick walls of our home, a hundred feet up the hill from the sea.



It was a fine journey with a truly fine and worthwhile aim: to prevent the needless slaughter of the Albatross. And with 105,000 signatures on the Petition we took to the UN in Rome last week we do think our effort helped.



I knew it would be hard when we left from here nearly a year ago. Hard, to tear myself away from our family: Bec, Isso and Molly, just 3 and Hughie 9 months old, abandoning my precious garden. Sometimes out on the ocean it was like fighting in a war, sometimes enduring an illness, sometimes a prison sentence, and every once in a while: pure magic. Now we are left with the memories. It's almost as though it never happened - until I look at my garden! It's an overgrown spectacular tangle; I battled my way through chest-high grass to the washing line, only to find the tree which served as a stout post at one end, has fallen. But more than any of this, it's wonderful to hold close the precious children, who I know through photos Bec has sent, but are different a year on.



This year's greylag geese are getting ready to leave Ardmore, they are swimming in rafts across the loch. We missed them arriving in the Spring, nesting on Chad-fi Island, bringing their young to feed on the green of the croft. They will be back next year.



But for the Albatross, the life-cycle is not so safe. We are home and dry - they are not. We must not fail them.



Marie Christine



And from Nick:

'I think you'd better come along', John wrote to me 21 months ago, drawing me into this wonderful adventure with a purpose. 30,000 miles later we're back at Ardmore, decommisioning the yacht for the winter. It's sad, but if I listen hard I can still hear the roar of the wind and waves in the Southern Ocean, feel the surge of the yacht bursting over the top of yet another giant wave and down a watery precipice; sense the wildness of a gathering storm; exult at the mastery of sailing fast under slim tuned sails; I can hear Brent whooping with delight '3 new species and the day's only just begun!'; I can see John hunched over the chart table looking at me with his twinkling blue eyes saying 'Are you listening carefully?', In the Saloon Marie Christine is busy with her embroidery 'I've got to finish it before we get back!', whilst at the Comms desk 'the casino' lights twinkle bringing down another weather fax. And always, just in the corner of my eye, I see that great gliding wing that is the Albatross.



But no, the Albatross is far away. The yacht is silent now. Those days are past. They join the 30 years of memories that live aboard English Rose.



I couldn't have asked for a more experienced and steadfast team than John and MC, a more rugged boat than English Rose, a more supportive family than Tomoko, Erica and Mariko, a more trusty friend than Nev Roberts, or a better welcome in every port.



Well, 'I have seen the Albatross'. I just hope its still there for my grandchildren. This was the best we could do.



Nick Grainger



I realise we are still much too close and too tired to sum up the voyage properly, but nevertheless, looking back, the wonderful Albatross looms over everything. Our Aim was always 'To prevent the needless slaughter of the Albatross'and along with the 105,000 signatories of the Save the Albatross Petition, I hope our efforts have helped the old bird.



I remain convinced that only Public Pressure will force the United Nations to act rather than talk - it was surely no coincidence that I met the delgates just where Nero fiddled while Rome burned.



Into the mist...



John Ridgway



ps The Save the Albatross Voyage pages will remain on H2G2 and I do look forward to discussion with you there. Nick will be adding pictures of the voyage (from the 5,000 he took along the way), once he gets home later this month together with pictures from other crew members.

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