Monday 25^th June

The weekend flew by, as they do…

Pete left very early, in the cold and dark just after 5am, to go and crutch sheep with Michael Agnew in a big, cold shearing shed in the Midlands.  I got up, in helpful solidarity, and waved him off a bit blearily.  And no I didn’t go back to bed but…I did fall asleep on the nice warm couch…

He had a big surprise on Saturday night.  We had been invited (many thanks Tim and Jan Abey!) to the annual formal dinner at the Motor Yacht Club in Lindisfarne, homeplace of 2XS.  I knew that Pete had been nominated for the Seamanship Award but…it was a total surprise to him.  I think he started to get a teensy bit of an inkling when many people came up to him and said, “Wow, didn’t you have a great trip!”  The first few times he didn’t think much about it, then he started to wonder how on earth they knew.  Yes maybe I should have given him some warning, to prepare him to make a speech but, hey, this is Pete, who can speak in complete sentences under water! 

The first speaker was Bern Cuthbertson, who was a bit offended when he was introduced as being 89.  “I’m ONLY 88!” he said, with great dignity.  He spoke very well about some of his adventures – he has had so many, over his 88 years, that we would have been there for several days to hear all of them.  Pete also spoke well, once he had recovered from his shock.  Tim had “interviewed” me a few weeks back, asking for all of the details of the 2Xs trip.  I was a bit shaky on some of the details… umm… Peter Kerr design…Lizard Catamaran… 46’… 9,500 nautical miles... but apparently it was all reasonably correct because Pete didn’t shudder at my inaccuracies during Tim’s presentation.  Tim was very well prepared – we all had nifty little maps on the tables!  Pete spoke about the seaworthiness of 2XS, and also the seaworthiness of Marguerite… But mostly he spoke about the people we met along the way, with emphasis on the kindness and hospitality of people in the Pacific Islands. 

We went out into the chilly night air with our tummies full of yummy food, our ears full of kind words, and a beautiful new barometer to replace the dodgy one on 2XS.

(When we told Jeff and Katy about Pete’s glittering prize Jeff said, thoughtfully, It’s not often you get an award for having a lovely long holiday…)