Two all-action adventures - bear grylls

Felt a little cheated when I thought the first story seemed familiar.. It was printed word for word in his autobiography mud sweat and tears. The second story was about his Arctic adventure, where he and 4 other crew members journeyed from Halifax, passing by Greenland and Iceland back to Scotland on a RIB-rigid inflated boat. It was absolute madness to try crossing the freezing ocean on a small open boat, with no place to hide from the elements of the weather and waters. It took the team about 16 days to complete their expedition, with two violent storms in between when they thought they were sure to die. After two years of hunting for sponsors and building up the boat, the crew finally set off into the unknown. Grylls was the leader of the crew and had to make tough decisions on whether to sail off through impending storms, call for rescue, setting up a rota, etc. the crew saw 20-foot high waves crashing down on them, making them cold and wet and at risk of hypothermia. Whilst crossing the Labrador Sea, the storm slowed down their advancement and sucked up their fuel, leaving them with the possibility of being stuck in the storm. Grylls prayed and prayed but didn't get the answer he wanted. Eventually he called the team's "PA" to call his friend at 3am to pray for the storm to cease. The prayer was answered. Again, I am in awe of his faith, that he truly believed in a God who watches over his people and saves them in times of trouble. 

After the desperate call for prayers, grylls woke up to a calm sea and they sailed incident-free to Greenland. Upon reaching Greenland, the crew was looking forward to days of rest to recover from the toll the storm had taken on them. Alas, after checking the weather forecast, grylls had to break the bad news to them. Because of another impending storm, they had to leave almost immediately, otherwise they would face being stuck for weeks. After much mulling, the entire crew decided to go with his decision to continue on their journey. 

They were unfortunately again hit head on by the storm and the crew took a worse beating than the previous trip. The boat's electrical powers were also starting to get whacked. They eventually lost all communication with base station and their tracking system. Family and those at the base station were frantic and thought they might be in serious trouble and were debating to launch rescue by the Icelandic coast guards. However, they knew if they were to call for rescue it would cost the team a large amount of money as well as rendered the expedition a failure. They set a time to initiate a rescue if they did not hear from the crew then. By some miracle, the rescue was almost about to happen at 1930hrs and the crew managed to get cell signal at the very last minute and called the base station at 1929hrs.  The rescue was immediately called off. If this wasn't a work of God, I don't know what is. After the ordeal, the crew reached Iceland safely and for the rest of the journey home, all was good. 

Fantastic read once again. I think grylls has a knack for drawing readers into his adventures. It feels almost as if you were there with him as part of the crew crossing the North Atlantic Ocean.

4.5/5

I like these passages as well as a poem that Mickey Grylls (bear's father) wrote :

I have passed on.

Remember my time with you.

Treasure all those moments together ,

Those moments of fun and laughter,

As you remember, know that I am with you.

It is not the number of years we live that counts,

It's how we live that matters.

As you live your lives, remember that I am with you.

Build on the beliefs we created together.

Hold on to that which is right. 

Discard all that is wrong.

When you are happy, know that I am with you.

When you are sad or in pain, know that I am with you. 

True love does not need a physical presence;

What is called death is no more than the removal of the physical being. 

Now that I have passed on I understand it all. 

I am hand in hand with our Lord, yet I am with you.