A beacon of hope

As my friend Andrew Pindar remarked on hearing that the search for Cheeki Rafiki had been resumed: "This is fantastic news and now we need a miracle." He's right, of course, the chances of finding any of the crew alive are dwindling by the day but it's right to try. It's strange thinking that, as I write, a spotter plane is combing hundreds of miles of empty ocean looking for an orange dot.

My blog post yesterday has had almost 5,000 reads thanks to the power of the internet. I've written another looking forward slightly to what we might learn from this. While some may believe it's premature for such a discussion the events surrounding this loss will need to be examined so that safety policies can be strengthened and search protocols agreed. Thank you to all my fellow blippers who took the trouble to sign the petition urging the search to be renewed. You made a difference - every single name. And thank you for so many kind notes and for highlighting the blip.

I was surprised to find that the UK does not have the capability to mount such a search. I would have thought it would have been a military consideration in the event of conflict over sea.

Walking through the buttercup meadow this afternoon had quite a soothing effect, and seeing these bright blobs on the images, they reminded me of beacons: beacons now in a world of hope, not indifference or resignation. That has to be the better world.