Hi Everyone,

The excitement is building and there has been an air of serious activity around the marina today, fresh food being loaded and last minute jobs being done.
We have checked out at the Frontier Police (Immigration Control) at the main port, and put in our final papaers to the ARC organisers. We had the skippers and navigators briefing at 12 noon, and the happy hour and fireworks tonight are the only official activities left.

 

 

The boat has had a thorough clean, Robert has stowed all the food, (thereby ensuring that he gets woken up regulary to be asked wher the ### chocolate or something else is). Ian has vacuumed below and polished the timberwork. Julz had a trip up the mast to fix foam on the spreaders to protect the mainsail, and discovered what g equals for roll of duct tape. It is now mocking us - visible on the bottom in 10M of water!

We start at 1300 GMT (11PM Brisbane time)and expect to be at sea for 18 days ± 3 days depending on weather.

You can follow our progress on the official ARC website, and also view blogs from us and other boats.
http://www.worldcruising.com/arc/images/viewer.gif
http://www.worldcruising.com/arc/dailylogs.aspx
 

The ARC weather guru says we should not have any  tropical storms and the wind for the next few days should be 15-25kts from behind. There may be a period of little wind in the middle though, so it could slow us down. The weather here has been unusual too, so no one is too confident about predictions.

 

Hope you are all recovering OK from the storms in SE Queensland.

Cheers for now,

Stuart