The day of the start of the rally dawned with a palpable mix of excitement and apprehension in the air in the marina.  All along the pontoon people were putting the finishing touches to their preparations and saying farewell to family and friends who were not doing the crossing.  The event is quite a spectacle to see so there were many local people walking around the marina peering at the boats, chatting to the crews and wishing us well.  The last job was to don our matching Casamara crew t-shirts for a crew photo and we were ready for the off.

https://youtu.be/LWAqpQponCg 

Outside the marina the skyline was filled with yachts in various stages of hoisting sails and positioning themselves to cross the start line ahead of their rivals.  There’s a saying that when two yachts are heading in roughly the same direction at the same time it’s a race and this was certainly true at the start line.  Although the multi-hull and cruising divisions were not officially racing, we all knew that the yachts would be tracked and our voyage times would be ranked.  Time would be deducted for hours travelled under engine and there was a penalty of three hours for any yacht crossing the start line early or missing it altogether.  The latter might ultimately prove to be important when the rankings are published  because it wasn’t immediately clear when we got out there where the start line was.  The line was supposed to be between a small naval ship (easy to spot!) moored off the town and an orange buoy.  Except there were three red/orange buoys close to the ship and at least half the fleet set off having rounded the first one, which we were certain wasn’t the right one!  We rounded all three of the buoys just to be on the safe side.  

Shortly after the start the VHF radio crackled into life and a boat requested to return to the marina to seek medical assistance for a ‘minor injury’. Someone had caught their finger in a winch in the heat of the action at the start line and had lost the tip of the finger.  Happily that story ended well and the missing finger tip was saved, but it certainly brought home to us at the time that ocean sailing carries risks.  Shortly afterwards Noa went down below and discovered our own challenging situation.  One of the hull hatches had inadvertently been left open and sea water had flooded the crew cabin bunks.  Everything in the cabin - bedding, clothes, mattresses and unfortunately also Noa’s laptop - was absolutely soaking wet.  The series of events put a damper on the euphoria we’d felt earlier in the day but we pulled ourselves together to clear up and cheered ourselves up with a good old British cup of tea!!

So that was the start of our Atlantic crossing - a day of mixed emotions.  Despite the challenges it was good to be on the move again after weeks in Las Palmas, and the weather was glorious!  More about what happened on the Transatlantic crossing to follow……..