Fwd: Final preparations almost complete

Knotty Girl
Tanya/Roberto
Fri 17 Nov 2017 19:34
Hi everyone. This is Alastair - one of the crew that will sail "Knotty Girl" across the Atlantic. I arrived yesterday morning, to find Last Palmas bustling with final preparations for the start of the ARC on Sunday. The boat looks fabulous, and the list of outstanding jobs is pretty small. Roberto & Tanya have done a great job getting her ready, with not much left to do other than stock up with fruit, veg, and fresh meat. Thankfully, the local markets here are very used to scruffy-looking boat crews fondling every piece of fruit for sale, before finally selecting the ones that are nowhere near ripe enough! Now washed, counted, and tested, the whole lot is strung up in my cabin. So at least I'll smell nice in the morning...


There are two other Discovery Yachts going across with us, so Berthon and JE Marine kindly took everyone out for dinner last night. The tapas and red wine flowed, as did the rum. I fear that my return to the boat at 2am this morning may not have been quite so quiet and elegant as I thought it was....


Olivier joins us tonight, and then we have final briefings from the WCC tomorrow, before a full safety session on board. The long-range forecast is starting to improve a little, with a gentle shift in the ridge that is currently keeping the pressure rather low. Fingers-crossed that it keeps moving, and we get some decent breeze. 


More updates tomorrow! See you then.

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