Here are some misc things from today - the final prep day in Las Palmas.
Changed the main halyard, installed the jack lines, took out and checked the spinnaker, attended the skipper’s briefing about weather and race rules, etc., washed the boat, and had another rust patrol. We recieved the final deliveries of fresh fruits and veggies and other general shopping. All that stuff then had to be put and hidden away. The onions have a pretty cool spot under the steps to the flybridge. I will not reveal were the goodies for weeks 2 and 3 are stashed :) We’ve wrapped carrots in tin foil in the hopes that they will last till the end of the trip. It will be interesting to see how the various veggies fare and hopefully we’ll use them up in time. Of course we may try to top in Cape Verde but not having to shop there is nice and we want to do this experiment anyway. (If I can stay out of shops for a while I will be happy).
We topped up our fuel just before the CEPSA station ran out of fuel! We saw another Lagoon 620 get turned away - hope they weren’t in an emergency - they are not part of ARC+ anyway. For us it is nice to see the 4 fuel and water tanks all at 100%.
Got the Non-EU Passports their Shengen Area exit stamp after some difficulties, it seems! All these things eat up a day pretty quickly.
We didn’t get tomorrow’s dinner pre cooked as planned but we still have a few hours in the morning.
Yesterday we had crew briefings and more repair/warranty folks aboard. There was also plenty of shopping and some laundry.
Tomorrow Sunday should be a pretty exciting day. Here’s hoping that the race start won’t be *too* exciting. The catamarans leave first and the start line is 400m wide (we are 10m and there are not too many other cats)!
MAKENA-ONIONS