Two’s company, six is a crew.

The promised wind has not arrived, and we’re motor sailing across a deep blue sea. In the distance I can see the Massachusetts coast. To the north, Portland, and our crew, beckon.

On Tuesday, the first of our crew arrives. Maddy is a Lieutenant Commander in the NZ Navy, and she’ll be joining us as our chief engineer. With more than a decade managing engineering systems on war ships, there’s nothing about Novara’s systems that phases her. She also sailed with us in France and on our Atlantic crossing, so she knows Novara well. Incidentally, it turns out she is an old neighbour of ours when we were living in Palmerston North, 20 something years ago.

On Thursday, Andy arrives. He’s got a PhD in engineering and has sailed for team GB. He’ll be part of our engineering team. We met Andy in Barra, the Outer Hebrides, when we were speaking at a festival in July 2023. Since then, he’s sailed with us in Portugal, Morocco, on the Atlantic crossing and from Curacao to Providencia. Andy’s from Scotland, and is no stranger to the cold. He melted in the tropics. Novara in the cold places will be much more to his liking.

Seagar flies in on the 13^th June. He is also with the NZ Navy as one of their top navigators. On Novara, he’ll work with Steve to make sure we know where we are, and where we’re going. Seagar sailed with us in Scotland and to the Shetland Islands in 2023. We know him as ‘Mr Cool under pressure’. Fun fact – when we were taking Novara through the Caledonian canal, he climbed Ben Nevis in bare feet (!). The locals had never seen hobbit feet before!

Bruce arrives on Friday. He’s one of our Advisors and has been working with us since the beginning. Despite the years of zoom calls, Bruce hasn’t yet been on Novara. We’re looking forward to welcoming him. He will be joining us to Newfoundland where he’ll get off and hand over his bunk to Steve.

Steve, will meet us in Newfoundland in early July. Steve is the previous owner of Novara and has taken Novara through the Arctic and Antarctic before. He’s got more than 100,000 miles under his belt and knows Novara inside out. He will be our Ice Pilot.

Steve reckons we have as strong a crew as possible for the coming expedition. I agree with him.

Today is the last passage with just Veronica and me on board for a while. The two of us have sailed Novara north 2000 miles from Providencia, Colombia, to Grand Cayman, Cuba, into Florida and up the East Coast of the USA. It’s been a learning experience for us. How to handle night passages, engine failure, electrical storms, difficult currents and tidal gates, the threat of pirates and strange immigration and customs officials. In a couple of days it will go from two on the boat to six, all squeezed in to Novara’s cabins and bunks. Wish us luck!