Happy New Year and welcome to 2022! Today is January 1st - and as well as likely being the warmest New Year day on record (the Met Office still need to confirm - but surely a sign of Climate Change doing its thing and indication that change is desperately needed) it means that I only have 74 days until the start of the Expedition in Ushuaia. While the festive period provided some lovely family time, a bit of relaxation and a few presents that will come in useful when I'm on the trip, I haven't had a chance to do much to progress the preparations and time is suddenly of the essence! Obviously the big thing is fundraising: my Crowdfunder has got off to a good start thanks to some lovely people: thank you so much
Carrie Afuso
Phillip Broadwith
Andy Henry
Alex Howard
Roger Norton
Rhona Watson
for choosing a reward option, as well as those of you who've generously given a donation.
The next steps are to look for some corporate sponsorship and I've been looking at the best way to do that. This is a definitely a new venture for me. Although my professional roles have always been with customers I have always been very aligned with the technical side of the role and have stayed clear of commercial terms, negotiation, sales etc and it feels slightly uncomfortable to be moving into a more sales focussed phase - even more so when the product I'm selling is me and what I will learn on the Expedition. The Explorer's Passage, the trip organisers, have put together some resources to help with that which I've been working with. As always, if there is anyone out there who might be able to help with contacts for corporate sponsorship then please do get in touch using the Contact link above! In parallel, I also need to start getting practicalities in place. I've been looking into flights and insurance but the latter has been one of the big sticking points - most standard travel insurance seems to only cover up to £5,000 which wouldn't fully cover the costs of the expedition. Covid, lockdowns and travel restrictions all add extra risks to the travel so I want to make sure that I've got enough cover in case something happens. However, the Explorer's Passage have confirmed that in the event of travel restrictions I should be able to move to a future Expedition so that's something at least. Flights should be straightforward - give or take an overnight in Buenos Aries and trying to work out how early to arrive in Ushuaia so as soon as I'm comfortable with the insurance situation it'll be full steam ahead to book those.
One final shout out: I've also been following Kent Scouts Request 2021 Antarctica Project on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/ReQuest2021) - they flew out to Argentina on Boxing Day and have just set sail from Ushuaia on the Bark Europa for an amazing few weeks of tall ships sailing and research projects in Antarctica. I'm really excited to read more about their journey and look forward to continuing to chart my own here.
