Breakfast with family

A new experience. Breakfast with my family before work.

In The ship yard

Daren starts again. July 2011

As you may or may not be aware, the internet police don't like me talking about work and so I have been good and not talked about anything! Lifes grand adventure has however been at a full gallop.
At work I have once again crossed the atlantic. This was my 6th Atlantic crossing and the 2nd as captain. Since I last wrote here the adventure has been a grand one. There has been a few noteable incidents enough to raise the heart rate and for me to lose yet more hair or turn what I have more gray. As always the rough comes with the smooth and some wonderful and beutiful moments have been fully enjoyed, seen, experienced and cherished.
The big Wilbury news is the growing up of our beautiful boy child who will soon be 8 months old! This is indeed an adventure. Work has bought the ship to a firm stop in a shipyard in the south of France this summer, so the boy child has brought his lovely mother with him to the sunny French coast and they are here with me. This is brilliant!
Something new for me is to get up early and leave my family in the morning while I go off to work. This is difficult! How does everyone do that? As of next week our family adventure begins in full force. I get to leave work and spend three whole months with them starting with a two week meander through France.
When I set out to write my blog, my plan was to be anacdotal and to tell small stories about things that make me laugh or things that amaze me. I don't want to write about feelings or bore you with endless pictures of my beautiful family. I am setting out again to write once a week and I will try to make it as entertaining as possible.

Clear Water

The clear water here is beautiful. My morning swims continue but soon I will be home to the stony beach that we all love and to my family and friends instead of my work colleagues and the routines and pressures of work.

He starts to run again

Since we have been here in Mexico I have managed to get out the running shoes and have even put them on a few times but I don't think that this will be enough training to be completing a full Marathon in just over a months time, even if I started it right now.
In one short year I have managed to ascend to the dizzy heights of division one of the Sussex Men's Fitness League, only to come crashing down to the girl guides corn dolly making division. Amazing how that can happen.
On a positive note though some of my friends will be running the Brighton Marathon and my good friend Richard Sullivan, AKA Sully is running for a charity that it quite close to my heart.
Richard Sullivan is fundraising for Clive Packham Memorial Fund

Clean Shoes = Big Belly

This is me, also in the Caribbean and despite what some think, unlike my shoes, not on holiday.
There is a direct correlation between the cleanliness of ones training shoes and the size of your belly. For me the less I use my shoes the bigger it gets. My belly that is...
At least the sun is shining and the water is warm, the beer is cold and the food is so so good...

These are my new shoes. They are taking a holiday in the Caribbean!

I have an entry into this years Brighton Marathon and was secretly hoping that my work duties may call me away and I would have to say, 'Oh well, next year then.'
However this is not the case! My lovely new running shoes, purchased nearly a month ago have not yet been worn. I have the huge task of training for a 26 mile jog about Brighton and Hove in only two months time and my shoes have their feet up in the sunshine..

Hello

Looking at the pictures from my last posts I have fond memories and wonder where time has gone. From Indonesia to Philippines. From there I went home for a beautiful six weeks for summer in Sussex, making time to swim in the sea every day and then back to the Philippines, out to a small island called Yap another trip in bumpy seas to Guam and then I flew back in a hurry to England to see the birth of our baby son and 8 more wonderful weeks at home.
Recently I flew out to the Pacific coast of Mexico and we have sailed all the way down through the Panama Canal and up to Belize. That is six months in eight lines. I felt that the task of catching up with my Blog was so daunting that I have not bothered.

To a fashion I have caught up and there is no better starting point that here in Belize. I am on anchor watch, which is a pretty mundane task. It important to monitor the bridge while attached the sea bed by the anchor in case sudden changes in weather make us shift position or something happens. Most of the time there is nothing much to do. When there is something to do you have to do it quickly and realise the importance of all the other hours you sat and just looked out the window were actually important.

I am making use of this time to catch up here and make sure that it is boring enough that no one bothers to continue reading in the coming weeks.

more underwater pics

All good things come to an end

We managed to make the most of our time and stayed right up to the last minute of our permits in the area but as with all good things the end was in sight and a new course for the horizon was set.

Looking at our ETA at the next destination it was evident that we would be arriving late evening. This is not generally ideal as pilots charge overtime, line handlers etc and the customs and formalities can't be completed until the morning anyway. So I decided to anchor over night at a small group of islands on the way. What we found was incredible! A total utopian paradise. No humans no sign of them and such a remote and beautiful island. I had to wonder when the last people were actually there. Most of us took a chance to walk to a vantage point and to travel through the islands in one of our small boats.