The last week has been dominated by provisioning non-perishable foods, fresh meat and vegetables and cooking up meals for the first four days of the trip to Mindello, Cape Verde. Mark Slawson (snake hips to his friends), last of the crew to arrive, made it here on Thursday, and has been slaving in the galley and getting to grips with the ninja. We cooked up beef stew, chicken curry and chilli. Ratatouille and pasta first night while everyone settles their stomachs into ocean sailing.

Nigel and I attended the Skippers briefing today to hear more details about the route, weather forecast and details of our next port, Mindello, about 860 miles away. Weather forecast is looking good for the trip, although we start in quite high winds and squalls overnight on Sunday, a bit of a baptism of fire. It settles down in to typical trade winds after that, so we’ll have good wind behind us all the way. 

Mark Durkin (Durks) and Ronan have been washing the decks down today; they both went under the boat this afternoon to clean the weed off the bottom too, so we’re looking pretty ship-shape, top and bottom. Durks has been putting his fishing expertise to good use this afternoon preparing the lures to catch our supper. We’re expecting great things. Actually not too great; I heard from another skipper about his ‘fight’ with a 50 kilogram tuna on the back of his boat that did not want to be there! Looked like something from the Colosseum by the time it ended.

Nigel and I have been making some adjustments to settings on the satellite system as Ed from the manufacturer was onboard this morning. We’ve downloaded the various weather models so we can have a variety of sources to examine over the next few days.

Ronan and I have both been up the mast this week; me to do a thorough rig check, and he to put some rubber protection on the spreaders (the bits of metal that stick out the side of the mast and support the wires that hold it up) to protect the sails. 

And… amongst all this activity, we’ve managed to attend most of the social events and created a few of our own. Pictures below of the excited team…

You can follow us all on the YellowBrick tracker. Check out the App, look for ARC+ race and you’ll find Cassini. There will be a track of our progress on the World Cruising Club site. 

We expect to take about five days altogether for this leg and we hope to be publishing reports of our progress once things onboard settle into more of a routine. 

So with our To-Do lists almost completely ticked off, I think that finally, we’re ready… 

Simon



Crew dinner in Barracuda and the ATRC+ farewell party last night


Provisioning (labels off the tins - paper gets damp and can block the pumps). Me and snake hips in the galley


60ft above the deck…


Setting up the fishing tackle