The weather played havoc with arrivals – planes were delayed, cancelled and diverted to neighbouring islands, and at the assembly time of 14:00 on 8 March only half of the team was present. Lisa Steiner, our scientist, and I decided to press on as we had no idea when or even if the others would eventually arrive. We were pleasantly surprised when ten minutes into our first briefing a taxi pulled up, and Donna leaped out, having just driven straight from the airport! Bex, Silvia and Anke missed the afternoon sessions, but arrived just in time for dinner. All in the same situation, they had gravitated towards each other at the airport and it didn’t take long for everyone to form an enthusiastic team.
Unfortunately, high winds and torrential rain meant that we were not able to go out on the water for our training session on 9 March, but this did mean that we could get the whole team up to speed and make sure that everyone was kitted out in foul weather gear ready for tomorrow! We couldn’t decide if Bex and Donna resembled fisherwomen or firefighters!
We also used the time to take some videos for the world to meet some of the team and learn about their motivations and aspirations:
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