T minus 4: Starting to feel a bit like a rock star …..with lots more jobs completed

Purple Mist
Skipper: Kate Cope
Wed 4 Jan 2023 23:16
Another day of boat jobs but the back is now definitely broken on all the big jobs we need to do before the start on Sunday. We had another early start and quickly got on with setting up a new reef line to allow us the reef the main from the cockpit. Then there was finishing the aerial cabling and restacking the aft locker.
At 11am we had our safety inspection which I’m pleased to say we passed with flying colours. We had to show the inspectors everything on their checklist. Claire was still excitedly showing all the featured of her lifejacket well after the inspector had said ‘that’s fine’. It helps to confidently know the safety rules for example when you do need spares onboard and when you don’t.
We then booted up the main Sat system to check it was working …after the usual computer glitches Claire successfully sent an email.
Then started the slightly surreal “rockstar” part of the day. Emily has been a real star. Not only did we get a delicious lunch brought to the boat, she had also trawled the DIY shops to find us new hacksaw and some extra batteries.

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On top she bought 136litres of water for the trip which we’ve been stuffing into every nook and cranny aboard.

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We then had a photo shoot to create some pictures for the Magenta Project who were interviewing us later in the day . So we posed round the boat in various places whilst Emily took pictures and videos. Emily then posts these to Instagram and Facebook on my account so our social media is buzzing away whilst we are busy aboard .

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Next came the big sort out of food , how many pot noodles are needed to cross the Atlantic? We are not going to be hungry with a mix of supermarket long life food, speciality French sachet hydrated food and dehydrated food . On top we have lots of treats, popcorn, pancake mix, nuts, dried fruit , my sister-in-laws special fruit cake ….I‘ve even perfected making brownies on the stove top as I’ve no oven.
Final job was to lug the 136litres from the car. Thanks to Jeremy for giving us a hand with that job. The stern of definitely lower in the water than before .

Tonight it was off to a Marina Lanzarote where the other boats are to pick up the two bags we shipped on Sea Bear. Sea Bear a fellow double handed boat came by truck a few weeks ago and so there was a chance to send some extras so it was a bit like Christmas opening those two bags of goodies.

We were then interviewed by Meg from the Magenta Project which has the aim to accelerate women in performance sailing. Being a mentee really helped me think about my sailing goals with my mentor Hannah Stodel one of which was to sail the Atlantic.

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Final event was a drinks reception where we got a nice shout out from the RORC CEO as the first Doublehanded female pair to take part in the race. We also met some of the other teams who are mostly on boats with 11-25 crew members aboard. They are therefore pretty shocked and amazed when we say we are just 2 aboard. This was the icing on the cake for todays “rockstar status”