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Mixed emotions at the start

October 14 2008

Everything on Saturday merged into one single photo slide-show similar to pictures that you see holding a kaleidoscope: morning briefing of a meteorologist forecasting today and tomorrow’s weather within one degree of precision, reporters running back and forth with cameras, tears of relatives and last kisses of beloved, children on fathers’ necks, farewells to friends, drizzling rain, handshakes with the King and Queen of Spain, the very last onboard safety instructions, huge spectator crowds on Alicante embankments, flying helicopters, waves, 25 knots of wind and… departing hull of “Kosatka” – the picture I have never seen before.

I have seen and experienced a lot in this life and I cannot probably say I am emotional or sensitive. But this view of the stern and the crew standing there, the feeling the project has really begun, the project which has taken all of me and understanding that due to tragic circumstances I cannot take part in it at the moment – all this gives birth to mixed emotions inside of me. It’s happiness for the guys and for what we’ve managed to achieve passing a long and exhausting stage of boat build and various preparations and finally getting to the start. And at the same time it’s a big disappointment that I wanted so much to be in the crew for the first leg but in the end I couldn’t.  It’s a feeling of something big and important happening and it’s a hope to meet everyone in Cape Town soon.