A few days later I arrived in the UK, Gosport. I was met by our skipper Brendan and taken to the Black Adder Clipper-my home for the next few weeks. The Black Adder-named after an old trading ship has been around the world about 4 times and was now a training boat. The rest of the group was waiting there. We were introduced to the interior of the boat by the skipper's assistant or the so called 1st mate and then we all went to the local pub where we practiced some of the important notes while having a drink and getting to know each other. It all happened so fast and only now I had time to think about what was actually happening. The anticipated raining had begun. I was going to live on a boat with several strangers and we were going to learn to sail and work as a team in the next several weeks. That first night was a bit difficult for most of us. We needed some time to get used to the small spaces, hard bunks and floors laid with different sails.