24 boats are still to arrive in Las Palmas, and Bill continues with the safety equipment checks for the event, and Leila is checking in entrants with her usual charm. Germany seems to have a large contingent, as with a growing spread of Eastern European countries. On Sunday was the official opening ceremony, which comprised all the crews taking part in a march carrying the flags of each country, then raising them after the official opening speeches from the Canaries Port authority and the tourist board of St Lucia

So far the crew has attended a number of seminars, covering subjects from emergency management and communications to a refresher on celestial navigation

Stocking the boat with food and drink is a major task. Liz and Dick spent 4 hours wandering around the supermarket to find the items that had been meticulously planned in one of Dick’s famous spreadsheets. Another four hours was then spent try to find suitable places to store it and then logging it on yet another of Dick’s spreadsheets. And we still have more to go!!

We decided to dive under the boat to check everything was ok and clean the hull. Just as well as we found a rope wound around the prop. It would have looked really embarrassing if we left for the start on Sunday and only managed to get 10 m before grinding to halt. A good decision to dive on Monday as a severe downpour on Tuesday overflowed the town’s sewage into the marina, which would not have been too pleasant

After trying to recharge propane gas bottles unsuccessfully throughout Europe since August we finally managed to get them refilled in time for the Atlantic crossing which was a relief. The task was not easy and required quite a lot of ‘arrangements’ to get the bottles filled.

The Mobmats (see our invention on www.mobmat.com) finally cleared through to the chandler here in Las Palmas on Tuesday, having been in the country for a whole week. We have a few days to try and sell them, if we can.

Nigel and Scott from Discovery Yachts came and visited the boat to discuss potential improvements. It was nice to have Scott as our guest whilst he was working on some other boats for a few days.

Liz & Bill