Peter Yeoman

How did I get involved, ( as if I was not busy enough already!)?
 
A chance meeting with Alan Priddy, which left me enthralled and exhausted at a Rotary meeting in Gosport resulted in an invite by myself for him to come to talk to my own Rotary Club, Bishops Waltham. Once he discovered I was involved in Sailing, I was caught, hook line and sinker. I was also intrigued by the prospect of helping young adults who might not have a very great future in store for themselves and also making them work as a team attracted me.

The following year during the planning of the departure was an interesting phase as young adults left the project and others joined. It would seem there are some that don't want to help themselves and cannot see in front of their noses.

Very soon in 2006 LL  left to start her circumnavigation and it became a busy time talking to Rotary Clubs in the district promoting the project. To date I have given 22 talks to various organisations resulting in a few donations.

During the year 2006, I joined LL in New York together with Colin ( Skipper) and young adults Sophie and Claire. My most vivid memory of my first sight of these two in NY was Sophie tottering along with a huge suitcase with broken wheels! After a couple of days we were at sea and settling down to a regular routine. It was immediately apparent the food was a problem, it became a standing joke ( and still is) the number of tins of rock hard meatballs we found on board!
I must confess I have sailed open waters quite a bit but off Cape Hattrass the weather was appalling which resulted in lying a`hull with all sails down and everyone below for 12 hours. 

The area down the Eastern Seaboard of the USA is somewhat busy, particularly at night. My memories are of huge tugs pulling even massive barges out to sea from all the ports we passed, they carry the human waste from their towns out to sea to dump. These were six hundred foot tows and at night when you are crossing them at ninety degrees had to be taken with great care.

A short stay in Southport refreshed our food supplies and our legs. One event there sticks in my mind, we ordered a taxi and along came this car with very little trim on the inside of the doors , no carpets and torn seats and a driver who was connected via his nose to an oxygen bottle! Scary stuff.

As we progressed down the coast we passed A space shuttle on its launch pad, we were some four miles off but it was clearly seen through the murk. Miami soon appeared over the horizon and an approach by night when some of the leading marks do not work is quite interesting to say the least. Also we arrived on the coldest day Miami had seen for some time.

The visit to Miami was much enhanced by the welcome given to us by our hosts Ruth and Marc, what generous people particularly as it was Thanksgiving and we were invited to their family gathering.