So it's all becoming real – Susie and I have both resigned and are into countdown mode. To be honest
a relief to get that done so we can now be open and transparent about our plans to sail around the world!
Dash down to the boat on Friday evening and come 7pm we have Gareth who is doing the Atlantic crossing
with us performing his usual electronic wizardry, Bob from Sailcom installing a modem, and Solent Spars fitting a spinnaker pole in the dark. A sign of the momentum right now. And to think we've been preparing for this since the beginning of the year.
Saturday our new laptop is fired up (thanks to Stephen Plume) and Gareth has got a wifi booster up and
running with hotspot etc. Comms in place! We both run round frantically get things done. Susie is doing her usual superb packing of everything and Tom is off to the chandlery haggling over 100m worth of rope and assorted pieces. Rope secured, boat looking
a bit more tidy. That's now the trick. We've bought a lot for our new life at sea but it all needs to go somewhere. Try squeezing an inflatable dinghy and two folding bikes into the anchor locker!
Dash back to London and Saturday night we host friends farewell drinks in Chelsea. Lovely evening with
many friends turning up. Just great to be able to catch up with people. Thank you to all who attended. We really appreciated it - meant a lot to us.
Sunday up at dawn and more packing of our flat. Due to a cold and all the talking Susie had virtually
lost her voice so was banned from talking! She's very good at miming though.
Sunday afternoon it was time for family farewell drinks in Putney and again it was a lovely turnout.
Some people had travelled far so again to all - thank you! Maps were being handed round and Susie's mum was in full flow explaining the route. Enjoyable afternoon and by the time we get back a lot of those children running around will have grown up.
So now it's down to cracking on with final preparations. All systems go, all very exciting.
www.yachtadina.co.uk
Family Farewell