Almost time to go
Salila
Peter Ablett
Wed 16 Nov 2011 23:19
Preparations, and partying, are now frantic. Today we had a briefing on the Atlantic weather by Christ Tibbs who has done 250k miles at sea and wrote the RYA handbook. It's looking good so far with no bad weather forecast.
Tonight was the fancy dress party. Some of the crews excelled themselves. There were lots of Smurfs in full blue face paint, several Barny Rubbles, three Popeyes, and how someone smuggled a donkey costume on board is beyond me.
Tomorrow we have a helicopter rescue demonstration by the Spanish navy, followed by letting off flares, then a lifeboat demo, all of which must be fitted around the remaining boat jobs. Then at 1700 we've been invited to a party on the biggest catamaran in the ARC (it's huge, 74 feet long), at 2100 cocktails for all the Lagoon owners, then up to the airport to collect our last crew member Pete who is dashing over from Brussels. Phew.
I'm looking forward to a rest by crossing the Pond.
You can also follow progress on worldcruising.com/arc . Each boat has a tracker fitted, so you can see where we go wrong.