It would be nice to say it was a pleasant surprise, but it had actually been on the cards for some time.
Even so, when renowned TV adventurer Bear Grylls paid a visit to Team Britannia's round the world record-attempting powerboat, under construction at ABC Marine on Hayling Island, it was still a nice boost for the project, making a story in the Portsmouth News. It was quite a coup, too, for Team Britannia's PR director's young son Edward. He managed to land a Cubs' communication badge when he interviewed the Chief Scout on a wide variety of topics.
Team Britannia skipper Alan Priddy had remained in touch with Bear ever since 2003, when Alan, Jan Falkowski and Clive Tully made a northern crossing of the Atlantic in the round the world RIB Spirit of Cardiff, just ahead of Bear's own attempt via a similar route in an open RIB. Spirit's crossing was quite a bit quicker (we set the unofficial record for a fastest transatlantic by RIB), but to be fair, we had a cabin and Bear didn't, and that does make a big difference. And of course it wasn't us that went on to make TV survival programmes which included the US President!
Needless to say we were delighted to welcome Bear to the boatyard, where apart from seeing the boat, he got to meet some of the injured veterans who will form part of the crew. He was also extremely interested in all of the project's environmental angles, which include the fuel-saving hull design, the pollution-busting Clean Fuel, and our plan to monitor suspended plastic content in the sea throughout the circumnavigation.
