Getting the team together

It was time to start meeting the lads I was taking this challenge on with, first off Oscar and I arranged a meet. We organised to meet at a mid way point between Cheltenham and Bristol in a pub not far from the motorway junction.

It smacked with the feeling of a awkward first internet date, due to the covid situation at the time we sat outside in the pub garden. Over two pints of orange juice and lemonade we got chatting about why we had chosen to get involved in the challenge, our time in the corps, people we knew and how to get things moving regarding fundraising.

After an hour or so we shook hands and parted ways with plans to communicate on our what’s app group.

Ben who I’d met on the initial what’s app video call was tied up as he was spending his time training and raising money for a fellow PTI who had a accident during his instructor course and was paralysed as a result. Ben was undertaking a 24 hour ultra marathon whilst wearing a weighted plated carrier.

I decided to personally put forward an amount from myself since I feel when approaching any challenge like this that I wanted investment on all levels; financial, emotional and time.

The thought of seeing a photo of the boat in a photo in Barbados with my logo on it in twenty to thirty years time as I relive my youthful adventures in my memory seemed appealing.

I got organising a raffle too putting up tattoo time and other goodies such as clothing etc. Thankfully I know some good people and many people were offering their time, services and other prizes.

One of the lads had been very quiet on the group, to the point I didn’t realise he was on the team began getting involved in the what’s app chat and he popped in to the shop so we could meet. We had a pint after work and he ended coming to my family home for tea before meeting Oscar to get the boat to begin fundraising in his area with the boat in tow. Harry and I hit it off, sharing many characteristics and interests. He was still currently serving and based down at 42 Commando in Plymouth, one of my former units. He had been in for a number of years and felt he needed this challenge to help decide his future career path within the corps.

After waving him off I was confident we had a strong team.

Harry did well showing the boat off at local markets and chatting with people and taking donations. He also started to organise a black tie dinner in his home town near the Wirral. He did really well in getting numbers there from his friends and family but was unfortunate when trying to get the local Royal Marines Association in attendance as his date clashed with another event. The Royal Marines Charity were unable to support as they were hosting a dinner for the Corps birthday.

The raffle did really well and it was amazing and humbling to see people supporting myself and the charity.

On the run up to Harrys event Ben messaged the group and said that the other PTI who would of been covering him as he was at sea had been promoted, therefore he was unable to continue in the team. This was a big blow for the team but we remained optimistic and discussed who we could add the team to ensure we had right member to join us.

Harry and Oscar tossed around a few names of some mutual contacts. They spoke with them and providing the corps would release them from work, Joe joined Atlantic Dagger. He was currently out in Norway so would be unable to involve himself in the fundraising aspect of the project but from what the lads said he was a squared away soldier who had elite level fitness, just what we needed.

Harrys black tie event was upon us and it was late October. Time has a habit of crawling at a snails pace and the next minute you’re late, we were just making our targets to raise the money as they came. His event was a great success despite all the challenges he faced getting it together. It was good to sit and talk with Chris Martin at the event as it helped get my head in to the space needed for the coming months. I avoided drinking too much knowing we had an early start to pack the vacuum pack the food for the trip the next day, this meant being one of the only sober people there with a handful of people telling me about their ideas for tattoos on a drunken loop. However that’s part and parcel of being a tattoo artist at any event and everyone was in good spirits and was really friendly so it made it much less of a chore.

During his time getting things squared away and trying to organise time off, Harry had managed to upset those in his hierarchy. They felt unhappy that the corps didn’t have control of the challenge. There seemed to be a feeling that he was unable to be fully responsible in the coordination and execution of the row since he was only a Marine. In the armed forces the commissioned ranks seem to live in there own world and seem to come up with terrible ideas and simultaneously pat themselves on their back for them.

This is less so in the Royal Marines than other branches but is very much still there.

Some of the things put forward to harry from his officers were

“Can you push it right a bit?“ despite being amphibious Royal Marines educated to university level they were unaware of the seasonal swells that occur in our oceans.

“We need to work out how we can put the right wrap on it for publicity sake” translation being that we haven’t got an officer to take command of a team of young (Im far from youthful) marines and Junior NCOs.

Then the bad news hit. Harrys bosses said that Joe could go but Harry could not, however if he applied himself over the next 12 months they would consider letting him do it next year. He was to find another serving rank to take his place. It was a massive middle finger to Harry and the team as it stood to potentially sink the whole event for the team before we had even set off.

Our trio met round my house on a Thursday evening after he had been given the news. We discussed the potential options of how to move things forward. Harry and I were similar in our attitude and wanted him to go AWOL (Absent without leave). But Oscar was dead against this as he feared it would jeopardise the entire challenge. We had fun torturing Oscar with the zany ideas of disembarking in Barbados with a crew of MPs (military police) truncheons in hand, waiting as we taunted them from the boat. As much as I wanted the anti establishment pirate esq action of Harry to follow through with the idea in all seriousness it was selfish on my part. He had a wife with two children dependant on him and the potential of him losing wages, his career and potentially being imprisoned on his return just wasn’t worth it. We talked as a team for some time and eventually came up with a potential solution. There was a team who had been doing plenty of training and we’re all in date with their courses but hadn’t raised enough money. We could have two of their team and Harry would commandeer their funds and boat for 2022. It wasn’t an ideal situation, losing Harry was a great loss to the team and a step in to the unknown, sharing the voyage of across the second largest of the worlds oceans with two men we’d never met with just weeks before we left the UK.