I woke up in the morning on the couch in the lounge, so hazily dragged myself downstairs to sober up before leaving for my second jump of the summer. I packed all my stuff and checked that I had everything ready to go before I had to go and do something very difficult.
I got along with Maria the second I met her, and have known that saying goodbye was going to be hard from the start. So having to say goodbye to the wee Scottish girl that I’d adopted as my sister (well, one of two – but Del’s still here at the moment) was one of the worst things I’ve done since I’ve been here.
The first proper blog entry I wrote for this trip included a bit about how I felt I hadn’t said a proper goodbye to my family and friends before leaving. So I tried to make sure that this goodbye was done properly in the hope that it would make me feel in a better mood than I did sat on platform 2 in Macclesfield back in June (almost 3 months ago now). As I climbed into my taxi to take me to the train station, I didn’t feel the same feelings as I’d done in Macc, instead I just felt really sad. Sad to see one of my best friends go, not knowing when we’d meet again.
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Last time we skydived, the Americans were all still here, and so we drove to Calverton to experience free-falling at 120mph. This time though, it was only me and John jumping, and I was meeting John out there. So I had to get a taxi to Syosset and then the train to Port Jefferson to get there. This took well over an hour and by the time I arrive in Port Jeff, my hangover was beginning to subside (helped by a brew and a donut from Dunkin Donuts!). However, when John turned up, it appeared that I was not the one with the hangover. He’d been out to a famous (on Long Island) place the night before called the Boardy Barn – a tent filled with $2 beers that opens 4 hours a week during the summer. It didn’t take long for him to decide that it was only going to be me jumping today.
The previous jump was a bit of a blur to be honest. The first time you do something as intense as free-falling through the sky at terminal velocity, you’re so pumped on adrenaline that you don’t really take in everything that happens. So it made sense for me to do a second jump. It also made sense to get a video of the whole event this time so that the feelings I felt would be cemented in my head for the rest of my life.
This time, I only waited half an hour before being called up to be strapped into my harness. This time I ditched my glasses, deciding that they only made the journey more uncomfortable last time without really adding much. Most of the thrill of the jump is feeling like you’re flying, not being able to see the ground rise up towards you. My jump buddy soon cottoned onto the fact that I wasn’t back to experience the same thing as last time, and was hoping for something a bit more this time. So instead of sitting in the doorway and dropping out the plane, we dived this time.
The journey up to 13,500ft was pretty much the same as last time, only interspersed by the odd comment by my cameraman. But the jump itself was completely different.
When it was our turn to go, we stood up and walked towards the door. Facing backwards, we then dived out of the door, backflipping down towards the earth. As we flipped, I could see the plane move away from me faster than you can imagine. As we turned over to become belly down, my jump partner told me to move my hands out, and the cameraman flew over. We spun around, cracked knuckles and whooped and screamed with excitement. And this time I was calm enough to realise what was happening, which made the whole journey even more enjoyable. When the cord was finally pulled and we had slowed down to a snail’s pace, I was handed the straps to the ‘chute and I was allowed to steer us. If you pull one strap down far enough (from right above your head to down below your waist), you immediately dive downwards in a spiral. He let me change things about and soar through the air as we headed towards the runway which we’d left only 10 minutes ago.
Once on the ground, I was left shaking with excitement. This jump had been a hundred times better than the first one. I think I might have found a new addiction…
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