Common Sense - Getting started

With just six hours left to the start of the ARC Europe Rally, there we were
with no sails, no clearance out of Bermuda and seventeen jobs still on
Padraig’s to-do list. It seemed impossible, but Team Common Sense lived up
to its name, working our way calmly and methodically through everything that
had to be done – perhaps not quite so calmly when it took us us three goes
to get the jib on the right way round! With just minutes remaining we ticked
off the last few jobs, executed a perfect exit from our slip and there we
were, bringing up the tail end of the fleet as it headed through St Georges
Cut, farewelled beautiful Bermuda and sailed off into the wide blue
Atlantic!

So far it’s been reasonably smooth sailing at an average of five knots,
apart from a calm patch on the first evening and a minor squall later that
night. At this stage (Day 3, 1400) we’ve covered 266 nautical miles on a
good course and we’re pretty happy with that. Arthur the Hydrovane has
proven a worthy crewmember, enabling the rest of us to spend quite a lot of
our time eating and sleeping.