At last I can get to the cafe to write a blog.  The BIG escape from the yacht.  It is incredible what you have to do to get it ready for the Atlantic crossing.  All the dry goods are bought and stowed having been labeled and written down in the store book which is an address book so that if I need for example Pasta I look under the ‘P’ section and note how much I have and which locker it is stowed in.  All my fresh vegetables and fruit are ordered from the market and are going to be delivered this afternoon. Once delivered they need to be cleaned and stowed to get rid of any bugs that might come on board, then stowed in Lakeland Green Longlife storage bags, put away in the fridge or open storage baskets.  I think I now have enough to feed 5 people for 18 days at sea although we hope to beat our record of a 16 Day crossing in our old Discovery 55.

The Discovery After Care team headed by John Eustace are down helping us sort last minute problems and getting the sails off to be checked through and any small holes sorted.

Every night has been either a drinks or dinner party, have decided that age gets the better of us as late nights and up early to get things done is much harder now than it used to be.

The big ARC fancy dress party was on Wednesday night the theme this year was ‘Films of the 80s’  So Charles and Sue Mortimer, who are sailing with us, got the costumes organised.  We all went as ‘Back to the Future’  Charles and Sue came out with white overalls from ‘Farmer’s Friend’ and white wigs, then Sue and I found colander steamers from a local store as the head gear.  As you can see in the pictures below there were many characters such as ‘Ghost Busters’ many ‘Top Gun’ characters, ‘Flight’ etc.

Last night was the ‘Discovery dinner’  to which owners and crew are invited.  The new Managing Director, Andrew, came down to Las Palmas to meet us all and to host the dinner which was great. He was amazing as he came on board and asked us lots of questions about what we liked and did not like about the yachts and what we would do if we bought one again and also asked why we went for a ‘Discovery’ and none of the equivalent yachts.  I hope he found the answers useful and will be able to work on them.

The marina internet is desperately slow and finding it difficult with over 200 yachts trying to update and down load stuff.  The cafe I am in is not much better.

The ‘race’ across the Atlantic starts on Sunday.  You can follow us on the ARC website as we have a ‘yellow box’ on board loaned by the ARC so you can see exactly where we are and how we are doing.  I will try to keep up with blogs as we cross but may not be able to download photos as the Satellite is expensive we can receive and send emails though so do keep in touch.

Next lot of washing needs to be hung out.  Jervis Kay our 3rd crew member, Malcolm’s Godfather, is arriving tonight.