The crew couldn\u2019t have hoped for a better send off!\u00a0 The Grand Square in the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, was the perfect location.\u00a0 We were surrounded by great English Architecture, with a backdrop of Canary Wharf across the river and Greenwich Observatory in the distance.\u00a0 The venue was significant because Greenwich was chosen, back in 1884, as the Prime Meridian of the world, Longitude Zero (0\u00b0 0\u2019 0\u201d).<\/p>\n
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The morning started off like a photo shoot, with the crew being \u2018papped\u2019 from all angles. \u00a0The photocall seemed never ending, but they didn\u2019t seem to mind, the cheesy grins just kept on coming!<\/p>\n
As more and more friends, family and supporters started arriving, there was a real buzz and excitement in the air.\u00a0 Everything had been building up to this day and we couldn\u2019t believe it was finally here! \u00a0Things livened up even more when Fire Fighters from Greenwich Fire Station arrived with their appliances to show their support!<\/p>\n
Time seemed to fly by, and at 11:30 everyone assembled on the grand steps, it was time for the farewell speeches.\u00a0 Our friends from the three Follow That Fire Engine chosen charities had kindly travelled to Greenwich, from far and wide, especially to wish the crew good luck and Godspeed.\u00a0 An emotional Steve thanked everyone involved in the expedition for their unbelievable help and support over the last year, Follow That Fire Engine wouldn\u2019t have got to this day, without you.<\/p>\n
In tribute to Garth Moore, Steve said a few words to remember the man himself, who knows what he would make of all this!<\/p>\n
With time ticking away, Paul Barham had a huge surprise in store for Steve and the crew\u2026 the biggest bottle of champagne you\u2019ve ever seen in your life!\u00a0 However, getting the cork out of the bottle proved somewhat of a struggle.\u00a0 The bottle was passed from Steve to Chris, and Chris to Steve, each hoping for that Formula 1 moment.\u00a0 The cork couldn\u2019t be budged as the crowd waited with bated breath and plastic cups at the ready.\u00a0 After much too-ing and fro-ing Paul (quadruple Ironman) was drafted in to sort out the situation.\u00a0 Not knowing his own strength he managed to break the top off the cork, much to the amusement of the crowd!\u00a0 Luckily a cork screw saved the day, the boys got their moment and a few people were lucky enough to be covered in the good stuff!<\/p>\n
At 11:50, just in the nick of time, David Squire, Poole Town Crier (the longest serving Town Crier on the planet) arrived to publicly announce the Follow That Fire Engine Expedition, wish the crew good luck and set Martha on her way.\u00a0 As Verity Moore had the honour of cutting the\u00a0FTFE launch ribbon, it was no turning back for Martha, as she joined the convoy of London Fire Brigade Engines who were to escort her out of Greenwich and off into the big wide world.\u00a0 Good luck Martha, come home safe!<\/p>\n
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The crew couldn\u2019t have hoped for a better send off!\u00a0 The Grand Square in the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, was the perfect location.\u00a0 We were surrounded by great English Architecture, with a backdrop of Canary Wharf across the river and Greenwich Observatory in the distance.\u00a0 The venue was significant because Greenwich was chosen, back […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-expedition-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2252"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6028,"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2252\/revisions\/6028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}