Introducing myself

Dear Dave,

I wanted to write you personally but I can just aswel introduce myself here.

I found the Club through the page on Crewbay and you referred me to the website.

Immediately, I was highly impressed by the purpose and ambition of this project and by your biography.

Originally, I was looking for a way to cross the Atlantic to avoid flying and to upscale my sailing skills, but reading through the pages of this website, I see a whole new dimension and a different approach.

My name is Egmont and I'm 34 years old.

I've been working as a doctor (general practitioner) for several years in Belgium now. I have a big interest in anthropology and some (limited) experience, conducting a (minor) study on traditional medicine in Chiapas (South Mexico), migration on Malta and working conditions of busdrivers in Belgium. I have worked as a busdriver for a year in Antwerp and have written a book about that experience.

It's a long-time dream to work, travel and explore the Americas and now that I've finished a postgrad in tropical medicine, the moment has come. I'm planning to work as a doctor in a small settlement in French-Guyana for some months and start traveling from there. Make my way up the Amazon, up to the slopes of the Andes and from there travel south.

I would be very interested and delighted to join your crew on the Labora to cross the Atlantic. I am not an experienced sailor though. I followed some courses when I was in my teens and a course in my twenties, and once or twice a year I go sailing with friends for a couple of days. It would be my first crossing. I love the sea and the elements and have a profound interest and love for life, humanity and nature alike. I am patient, willing to learn, sociable, cheerful most of the time and I don't mind hard physical work.

I have read you are planning to cross the Atlantic in September. My work here in Belgium finishes the 11th of September, but if you are planning to leave earlier, I can easily ask to stop my work earlier. I start working again in French Guyana mid-November, so I could easily join you from September to the beginning of November. It would greatly interest me to explore the Amazon with you and document the impact of global warming. I have writing experience as a journalist, so I could probably be of some help there. I read about the costs of joining the crew on the crossing and the exploration of the Amazon and that should not be a problem.

Even if for any reason, joining you for a crossing would not be possible, I still feel highly attracted to this project and I would very much like to meet or join you at some point. I am very much willing to contribute to the success of this project so please let me know how and where to contribute.

Respectfully and with kind regards

Egmont Ruelens