Escapada is ready to sail the Atlantic!!
Escapada
Andreas Haas
Sun 22 Nov 2009 09:36
|
Well, the long awaited day has finally arrived. Escapada
is now fully prepared to depart on her transatlantic voyage. The last two
days were extremely intense with work and final preparations. Friday and
Saturday we completed the rig checks, replaced all of the lines, fully
cleaned the boat and stowed away of the food, water and other supplies. Imagine
trying to neatly put away 100 apples, pears, bananas, various vegetables
(without bruising them for 20 days), 20 boxes of cereal and over 300 bottles of
water. To accomplish this we used all of the space under the floorboards, under
the seating and all shelves and cupboards. The fruit and vegetables are all in a
net hammock hanging in the saloon. It looks great!!
On Friday evening after a strenuous day of final
shopping and repairs, we went to the ARC Farewell party and enjoyed some well
deserved relaxation and beers. Needless to say, we all slept like little babies.
Saturday was dedicated to boat cleaning, rig finalization and the ARC Skipper's
briefing attended by Andreas and Manuel where they received all of the final
information on the start procedures, passage, weather and other important safety
and operational materials. We finally sorted out all of our gear and sleeping
arrangement in the cabins. Sleeping on board during the crossing will certainly
we a challenge and after a few days once we are dead tired, we are sure that it
will not matter where we sleep as long as we can. The expectation is that since
we will be sailing on a downwind starboard quarter with the wind coming from the
NE, we will receive alot of lateral rocking from left to right to left. In order
to sleep in these conditions we have creating little niches between sails and
baggage we here we can slide into this tight
space secured from both side so we don't fly all over the cabins. In
the evening once all the work was done, we went to have a nice farewell dinner
and a few drinks. We are all excited and ready to go!
Sunday morning we woke up early at 0700 and set off for a
nice Sunday breakfast at the hotel Catalina, enjoying a wonderful buffet. It is
now 0915 and at 1030 we drop lines and depart on our exciting adventure. We will
leave the harbor and sail in the starting area for about an hour waiting for the
official start and then we GO! Stay with us on this journey. The next update
will be tomorrow with photos of the start and our first day at sea. Pictuire to
follow tomorrow.
Everyone is healthy and doing well. We love and miss you
all.
|