HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Today is Harry's birthday! We will cerebrate this evening at the RWYC party. On his birthday I am granting  him al sorts of privileges normally not given to co-skippers. He still threatens to start a co-skippers union though.

THREE IN A ROW

For the first time ever we have the three boats together in a row. Great! Today more jobs again: bought a new V-belt for the second alternator (thank you Woody for giving me a ride to the car parts shop), broken sheave in the organiser, Code0 was delivered after the repair in the afternoon and we went for a short test sail in Plymouth sound. Beatiful weather and everybody is in a good mood.

HARRY FIDDLING DOWNWIND

Even when at sea Harry keeps up his left hand skills. Light as a fether.

IJMUIDEN DARTMOUTH

We were lucky to have a fair breeze from the NE to bring the boat towards Plymouth. The wind was between 25 and 34 knots for over a day. Dead downwind, but still fast enough. At night I had a really terrible watch. Every light I saw was difficult in interpret. On top off that we managed to skirt the unlit windmill park off Margate. It was not on the latest map. Suddenly I saw a huge concrete structure at 90 degrees while sailing over 10 knots downwind. Scary stuff.

JOB LIST

As usual the job list is never ending. Repaired the boom outhaul, Code0 to sailmaker to repair the blown out top, repair and replace port navlight, install a battery bank cross over, buy extra large fenders for Barra anchoring, check ground tackles, protective tape on sails, stow gear, have drinks with everyone, make new friends, again to the chandler. It is good that there will come an end to this at the starting line of the race.

DARTMOUTH FIRE

After having lunch in the Green Dragon, the pub owned by the famous Ostar veteran Peter Crowter, we walked back to Dartmouth and found out that there was a big fire in the towncentre. A number of the oldest buildings of Dartmout completely burned down, including the Thai restaurant where we had dinner the night before. We must have been one of the last customers. There were no personal injuries, but this surely is a big loss for Dartmouth.

READY TO GO

Last few days we have been very busy to get everything ready for the race. We did not pass all safety test in one go, because the anchor chain was not attached to the anchor, and because we did not have an independent power source for the backup navigation lights. We fixed all that now, and we just passed the test today, so we are ready now.