After many day's hard work (many weeks for some), we're finally on our way. We just left our marina berth and have motored out of the habour on our way to the start line in time for the 12:40 race start.
There was a real atmosphere of nervous excitement in the marina as we left with around 240 boats that are participating in the ARC doing their final checks and saying their goodbyes to the other neighbouring boat crews. Only a subset of the 240 yachts in the event are actually part of the official race, and as one of these we left the harbour gate first, with a number of people waving us and taking photographs. Even if I do say so myself, we look a resplendant crew in our matching 'Nightlife'
polo shirts.
At the moment, the wind is fairly light and indeterminate. Motoring out, we noticed that our batteries are being a bit overcharged by the engine. Hopefully this will not cause us problems later in the voyage.
Currently we are approaching that start line, jockeying around with the other boat and waiting for the start to be declared.
Update soon!
Rob