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Idea of London - and we're off



Good afternoon, and good evening (depending of course on where you are)

We have finally started. After the a long week of preparations and itching to go sailing, at 12:45 local time this afternoon we finally got our wish. A start signal. BOOM (the race commitee were on quite a large Coast Guard
ship, and fired off a Mortar round as our start signal.

To regress a little bit the morning started off quite slow. Most every one was up and about by 8am, and tidying up personal gear, looking for breakfast, last showers, etc. At about 8:30 however we had our first crisis of the trip and we hadn't even left the dock yet. In truth it was good thing we were still tied up because the crisis was a shortage of coffee.

The provisioning run yesterday apparently didn't get enough coffee for the trip. So after a little scramble, and a quick dash to the mini mart a potential disaster was averted. We cleaned the shelves of coffee.

So calmly on through the final preparations we finally left the dock and said good bye to Las Palmas. Out in the bay we followed and were joined by not only the other 200 some odd boats in the fleet, but many local craft out
to see us off.

Jockying back and forth like any normal day race. Up and down the harbor we went. Waving at our competitors and fellow sailors and more than anything, counting down the time to start. UP, UP, UP, is the call as we sail over the top of a cluster of smaller boats, and then we turned down toward the commitee boat. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1.

BOOM

Start signal! We gybed just after crossing the line and hoisted the kite and were immediately charging along at 15 knots. There was fantastic breeze for about 30 minutes after the start when the leading part of the fleet sailed into nothingness. A monster hole in the breeze. All afternoon we've been playing the shifts and puffs. Gybing, gybing gybing. The fickleness of the breeze has steaded out a bit, but has remained light as we are now barely
leading our closest competition (Caro, and Monster Project) boat for boat. Which brings us up to present.

For todays introductions we have: James Knight. He comes to us from the perfect industry for this type of event. Renewable energy. Wind farms ladies and gentlemen. He plays with Massive propellers and makes electricy
with them. His number one goal for this crossing = Freedom. Freedom from his Blackberry. James will get exactly that as we've crossed out of cellular signal range.

Next up: Alastair Macintosh comes to IDEA out of (his mind really), but ultimately out of simpathy for his wife. Apparently she needed a vacation, and so packed bags and. . . . Sent him out here to learn how to sail. After having spent a few days a year on boats with the rest of the crew he's decided it's time to really get into this game and has launched himself into the project in the best possible way. Get on boat that's going to do a lot
of sailing, and get involved in what goes on.

It's looking to be quite a nice first night at sea, for which we are thankful. A nice easy transition into boat life. And so as the stars come out we leave you for the evening.

TTFN - Ta Ta For Now
IDEA


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