Well that has to be one of the most intense weeks of my life.

I can’t remember a time when my brain ached more from crackling synapses. I arrived in France last Sunday in a pretty good state. My flight(s) went smoothly and my only angst was felt in the cavernous Dubai airport which for reasons unbeknownst has a million curiously busy toilets and a swathe of people seemingly living inside the airport.

I landed in Nice and was greeted with a grand sight. A driver carrying a name board with the clan name McConnell. Let it be known that I still am humble and to see my first driver carrying a name board made me very happy indeed.

Soon enough I was on board my newest Mega Yacht. The ship was running a drill soon after I arrived so I dodged this drill by hanging in my temporary cabin. I was at pains to explain that utilizing me in a drill after 40 hours of travelling would be very dangerous. The drill soon took out all of the lighting in my cabin. This was by design but luckily enough like all good ETO’s I had packed a head torch.

I met my rotation partner who was very friendly, very knowledgeable and very German. I soon learned that we had no Radio system and we would attempt a repair the next morning.

“Everything was going fine until we tried to fix something”

Power cycling is sometimes bad. When we power cycled the rack which supplies the brains to the radio system one of our core switches did not turn back on. The other switch lost its marbles. Neither switch had been turned off for 4 years. I won’t share more technical details but needless to say the rest of the week was spent fixing problems and trying to get a full and comphrehensive understanding over the numerous and very complicated systems.

I thought I had an endless appetite for technology but after a week of ramming my brain with passwords/address’s/names/procedures I am deeply tired. I have started to question why we need so many blackberries? Why do stewardess’s need iPads to read napkin folding books? Why do Chefs need iPads to read recipes? It goes on and on and on.

Compounding this week has been the very real and present threat of Guests who have been using the boat. Stealth has been needed for and being quiet.

I did take time to draw some diagrams which have served me well.

Today my rotation partner left. I am all alone but I do now have a batcave to call my own. We should have a few days to catch our breaths before it all begins again. I am hoping to see a Nancyless Sam who flew away today. Do you remember Sam? The quintessential English man?

Did I tell you I am tired already? zzzzz.