We have rented an apartment in Las Palmas so we can all be comfortable and we can have access to work on the boat and prepare for crew arrival and provision during the last few days before we leave on 20^th November.

Once registered with the ARC organisers  we are facing a massive array of organised events – cocktail parties, sundowner sessions, seminars on weather, safety, provisioning, navigation, etc, etc…..

All this and a boat to prepare with equipment problems with the mainsail reefing, gas alarm, satellite phone, anchor light (all failures since Lanzarote).         

We will have our safety survey by the ARC organisers on Monday where they check all our equipment – lifejackets, EPIRB, flares, fire extinguishers, liferaft, emergency steering gear, etc, etc. There are a few items still needing attention before this and probably a few to be corrected afterwards.

My daughters, Emily and Jenny, arrive next Friday so I want to have as much finished as possible by then.

Two of the transatlantic crew, Ken and Neil, arrive on Monday 14^th and the final member, Chris, arrives on Thursday 17^th.