30 October
Thursday's agenda started with an excellent lecture on rigging by a really practical professional rigger, with lots of simple tips and checks to ensure the mast and sails stay put! He also offered to come on board and check over the boat, and provided short term and longer term advice. He suggested increasing the diameter of the staysail sheets, for instance, as they will take a lot of load in a big wind, and fitting running backstays to counter that load. None of this needs to be done today, but several suggestions have been added to 'the list'.
This was followed by a lecture on catching big fish at sea - Howard already has his Cuban Yo-yos, so was keen to hear that one.
And just in case it's harder than it looks, Karen and Hope headed off in the afternoon to provision the boat with another two trolley-loads of supermarket food.
Andy has promised us a weather briefing in the morning, because it's clear that's the BIG topic. And this is Andy - he's great! But he's saying nothing.....