Unfortunately, because we are so geographically dispersed as a team and because Clipper hadn't highlighted the date of the Team Building weekend, not many of us could make it. However, we rose to the challenge and had UK and Canada based events in order to increase the opportunity to meet our fellow crew members.
For the UK event, we went to the Oxford Wakeboard & Ski Club. Having never water skied I didn't hold out much hope of success! Hal went first as he organised the weekend and of course blasted round the lake as he had learnt to water ski when he was younger. The bar was set high, but it would soon be lowered!
We had a choice of skiing or wakeboarding. Apparently skiing is easier to get up, but harder to stay up when compared to wakeboarding. I chose wakeboarding. We went out in pairs on the boat, a little beast of a thing. Eecole went first and unfortunately, proved to be quite good as well, managing to do two circuits of the lake on one occasion.
So now it was my turn. To start with, you hold the pole that sticks out from the side of the boat and on the second attempt, I managed to stay up and go the length of the lake. Then it was time to try the rope off the back. I managed to get up out of the water once for about two seconds, but that was all I could manage.
This was followed by a BBQ, for which we were joined by our sponsor ClipperTelemed+, who came bearing beer and wine, which was nice.
After the BBQ we played some team building games and discussing our goals and objectives as a team. Having got all serious, it was time to wind down again, so a two mile walk was embarked upon to the nearest pub!
Having borrowed my friend's massive tent, when we got back from the pub, we all huddled in it for another hour or so chatting and drinking some more.
In the morning, we packed our tents and Hal guided us to a nice little cafe on the banks of the Thames for breakfast, from which we made our respective ways home. We all got to know each other a little more and had a good time in the process.
