Crew Blog

Bear necessities

04 November 2007

All the crew have had a mention in these blogs so far, except one. Since that’s me, I decided it was time to write about my experiences so far.

My name is Corinthian and I’m the smallest and quietest member aboard since I’m just a teddy bear. I am the school mascot of St. Corinthians School in Liverpool, who have lent me to New York for luck, and to allow me to see the world. To everyone back home in Liverpool – I am having a blast, and hope you’re enjoying tracking our progress. I have a great vantage point from my bunk in the companion way pockets. Here is what I have observed.

As a bear, you might think that I’d feel a bit left out on board, but you’d be wrong. For a start, everyone is only showering once a week and the laundry facilities are limited, so the accommodation area is starting to smell very similar to my bear pit back home. In addition, most of the guys have passed up shaving for long periods so they’re looking more and more like me by the day. Hen even went to the extreme of getting sunburned everywhere except around her sunglasses to look like a panda. She’s so thoughtful.  Even the ocean is trying to make me feel at home since we’ve been warned of a large rogue iceberg that’s wandering around a few miles away – apparently some icebergs are called ‘growlers’. Perfect. Nate, however, gets my vote for best grizzly bear imitation whenever he’s just got up, particularly when it’s the middle of the night and it’s not even his watch!

The food is fine, though is not up to my usual standards since we’ve run out of honey. It remains passable mainly thanks to heaps of golden syrup and condensed milk. Today was extra special with some delicious birthday cake as we celebrated with Bob on this his 36th birthday and we do still have abundant amounts of marmalade sandwiches, my favourite. However, I have to say that I may be a bear, but how they thought I was going to eat SPAM the other day I have no idea. I only hope Neptune likes it more than the rest of us since he got most of it and will continue to do so whenever we find the additional stocks on board.  Apparently the Brazilians fooled us with their packaging. Heaven help us when we go shopping in China!

Bears are naturally wandering creatures but apart from brief visits to Peru I have never left England. I feel very fortunate to be the first in my family to have crossed an ocean stopping in France and Brazil.  Unfortunately we didn’t have much time in either spot, but both places had great watering holes, and Salvador in particular had some very friendly female bears to dance with. I’m a bit nervous about Durban since apparently we’re going to be met by Zulu warriors, and I’m not sure if they like bears. I’m sure once the crew explain I’m a friendly bear it will all be okay.

News from the race seems to be good so far. Everyone is very excited about being in second, and we are trying to haul in Qingdao who are stubbornly holding onto first place. There’s a long way still to go of course, but it’s shaping up to be a heck of a race from here into Durban.