The Prep
I sit here at the end of 10 days of prep and training. My chart table is a swarm of receipts, boat parts of varied stats of repair and crossed “to do” lists. I’m never really sure what I’ve done by the end of a prep week. I’m always exhausted, I’m always ready to go to sea, but would struggle to make a list of all that had been happening. That said, it must have gone ok. My check lists are complete, my accounts balance and the remaining troubles fall into the “nice on passage job” category.
Provisioning has been less of a challenge than normal. My colleagues on the trip down did a great job of packing the boat with dry and long life stores so all I really did was fresh and essentials:
· 150KG of fresh fruit and veg
· 35KG meat
· 2 tonnes of water
· 1000 Litres of Diesel
More importantly, the crew have come together. By the end of their training we had started to see communication happening, friendships forming, now we have had the chance to socialise, many of the guards have fallen. For me this is nice to see.
We are also seeing people feel at home onboard. There is a mutual respect for space and time. Mornings are proving to be a little bit challenging for some and I see being on time for watches not being a thing for a while, other than that, I can say I’m happy.
I can say honestly that I’m ready to go to sea. Las Palmas is one of my favourite places to visit, truly, but it gets to a stage in every prep stage where you accept the little things you’ve probably missed and you get out. That’s where I am now.
With this crew, I firmly believe we have a great crossing ahead of us. The stories have already begun. We will see what it brings…
Gary Rutherford (Skipper challenger 1)