The crew of were meeted and greeted by Lt Cdr Roger Saynor (MBE) from the RNZN at Auckland airport. All three crews were transported to the Devonport Navy Barracks and given a brief by OIC JSASTC Nick Trundle in typical southern Hemisphere style, by the swimming pool and in the sunshine. The crews then had chance to meet their individual skipper and see what the programme over the following few days entailed.

A day of rest for the incoming crew of  Leg 8 was followed by the old skippers and mates departing to rejoin the refit team in Orams yard to cut the new battens for all three mains and refit the luff boxes so in short, an afternoon of playing with anti corrosive ‘yellow stuff’, hacksaws and different size allen keys, whilst the jet lagged and climate shocked crew caught up on some rest. 

On Saturday morning, the Afterguard for each yacht which included  outgoing Skippers, Mates and the 3 watch leaders departed after breakfast from the barracks in the famous ‘love buses’ hired especially for our troops to go from base to boat each day. This is about a 15k drive, past Bayswater were Sir Peter Blake grew up and first learnt to sail and over the harbour bridge and into the edge of town, to Orams yard where the boats were situated for their refit. The remainder of the crew rejoined the boats in the afternoon for a session of familarisation to the boat, including sorting out the watch teams and berths, foulies, lifejackets and a tour of the upper and lower deck.  The main sail and the trysail were checked and hoisted successfully as sections of their respective tracks had been replaced during the refit.

On Sunday, compass swings were performed in the bay for all three boats and there was an element of excitement when the reigns were released and crew on Adventure was tasked with hoisting the mainsail, and performing some reefing drills along the way. The Yankee 2 was also hoisted and then re-packed.  Adventure crews listened carefully to their watch leaders as they were tasked with taking the lead for the drills. Back alongside, well done Nick for parking stern to between the most two expensive boats in the marina, if not Auckland, Aquila and Drum beat, one if which kindly created a large wind shadow to aid the manoeuvre. Once along side the headsail was re-hoisted for the benefit of our stray crew Clive Cooper,  who says he was abandoned, but truth be known he was shopping and got carried away doing something for someone else…no names… ah bless…. Discoverer doing sail drills along side, were the lucky winners of Clive’s company for the afternoon, but then the tables were turned as when Clive returned to Adventure and Nick Carter’s secret  winning Sydney Hobart sail manoeuvres were out of the bag for all of Adventure to enjoy…good tactics Clive. J A delightful crew meal at the waterfront, in Viaduct Harbour including spectacular fireworks, followed.

On Monday the crew were given the day off to enjoy some Auckland festivities. The National Maritime museum, the Seafood festival and Florence and the machine were all enjoyed by the crew.

On Tuesday, the crew were tasked with removing every item from the boat in order for measurements to be taken for some weight calculations, concerning load lines. Items were removed ,placed on the nearby pontoons, statistics taken, coded items were weighed and stowed and more stats taken,  all remaining kit was weighed and  stowed… you get the picture!! A particularly busy and tiring day, even the pontoons were glad it was over.

Today is Wednesday, a slightly sunnier day after a morning putting everything back in its’ place after yesterday’s chaos, followed by a session of mast climbing for essential crew photos. There is now a big sense of expectation as the final preparations for departure are being finalised.  As I type, 2 electricians and a mechanical engineer are fixing emergency lights, Clive and John are sewing the sponsor flags, Tim and Dave are starting to fix the forepeak ladder and D rings,  Laura is being creative with some netting in the galley for good stowage,  Steve is sorting his admin out, Andy is changing bulbs in torches, as every good doc does,  Frankie is chasing the gas contractor and I’m trying to do some Navigation to get us out to the start line which is 42 miles from here off the Coromandel Headland for the start on Saturday and the Skipper is counting his money ready for buying the provisions for1680 man meals on Friday!!

This will be our last shout before we head out to sea, so from all on Adventure, we send our best.

Nikki  (2^nd Mate)

Individual shout outs.

Mates

Nikki- To Suzi and Nick Jones, my dear friends, I am so so proud of you forgiving birth to Charles William Jones, born on the 8^th January. Please please wait until I get home for the christening… Lots of love to you all…  All my love to my dear family, and cool, loving supportive friends. Thank you for all the lovely emails/texts. Mum Tonga sounds great!!x

Red Watch

Simon…big hello to all back home…

Clive Daddy says hello to Kyle and Willow loads of love and kisses.

Frankie- Big shout out to all, Sacha, Luca, Jessica, all at 65 Fd Sp Sqn and all that are following me on here.  Should have left today but decided to get a bit more of Auckland!! Un saluto a mamma, papa’ e tutti in Italia. Ciao.

Laura- Hello Tom, Mum, Dad and Charlotte. The tan is coming along ;-) but Looking forward to the real adventure starting in a few days. Lots of love from the other side of the world xxxx

White watch

Dave    Hello little fella, be good and look out for your post card, love you Daddy xx

John     A big hello to RCIRO. Love to you all from Auckland.  See you all soon Love Daddy.

Tim  Hi all – we’ll soon be at sea! Lots of love.

Blue Watch

Steve- hi kaz and harry hope all is well back home, having a great time out here. Look forward to getting out to sea now and get going. Love you x x x

Paul hi all at home and the Ermington massive, missing you all. Sailing Saturday.

Lou

Andy Big Hello to all at home

After many, many months of preparation, the Army crew, are now in Auckland.   The majority of the team are are from the Second Battalion, the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.  For most of the volunteers, we first heard about Exercise Transglobe when the Fusilliers were in Helmand Province in Afghanistan. News came over the Battle group that there were volunteers being sought for a for a six week sailing expedition.  Names were taken, and nothing much more was said until we returned to the UK. Soon a message came through that there would be a training/selection week in early November, so that potential crew and sailing could be acquainted with one another and decisions made accordingly.

During the Novemeber training sail, a group of us spent a week sailing around the Solent and across the Channel. Being November conditions were rather taxing (winds over 40 knots and a sea state to match), especially given that it was a first time for many of us.  A tentative crew list was drawn up, and preparations went forward.  Two additional crew members came at a later date, Sgt. Mole (and his medical expertise) and Fus. Brown, who found out later that he has been 'lent' to the RAF to fill a space on their boat.

In late January we made it to Gosport, where we had a couple of days of briefings, kit issue, and a sea survival course. This involved jumping into the Solent in January to practice moving about in lifejackets and climbing into life rafts. This exercise was viewed initially with some trepidation but which turned out to be good fun, and something of a comfort to have completed.  And then the flight to New Zealand...eleven hours to Hong Kong followed on by another eleven hour flight to Auckland.

My first impression of New Zealand from the plane was of a country of heart-rending beauty...jagged peaks of the lushest green torn apart by creeks and lagoons of water so crystalline that one could see, even from 3000m, schools of fish wending their way below the surface.  The humidity at the airport was surprising, especially after the sterile, air-conditioned climate in a pressurised aircraft cabin...of course, the irony has not gone unnoticed of a group of people fresh from one of the hottest, driest environments on Earth volunteering to go and be cold and wet for six weeks without relent.  For while many at work had expressed their jealousy of us going on this trip, and they have every right to be jealous, for it will undoubtedly be an adventure that will be remembered for the rest of our lives. Some seemed to be under the impression that it would like a six weeks' jolly around the Caribbean or a booze cruise across the Channel.  Nothing could be further from the truth: realistically, and I think it is only gradually coming to be fully realised, this is going to be a marathon, a six week test of stamina, determination and even interpersonal skills.  But this is precisely why the Armed Forces engage in these exercises.

On arrival in Auckland we were informed that the boats were on hard standing for 'MOTs', probably at an appropriate time given that this is the longest leg, and perhaps the one with the most potential for things to go wrong.  Of course, there was work to be done, and so when we got to the boat on Saturday there were still people working on Challenger.  Sunday was our first day on the water, and in typical fashion for the British Army it rained, even though the previous two days had been hot and sunny.  We took a master mariner out to swing our new compass, and then sailed about practising tacking drills and so forth.