The Vaguaries of Airport Security

After fixing a route and ensuring the boat is sound and doesn't leak too much, the next priority is provisioning, and particularly water. James completed his previous ocean passages in the 10m sloop Dawn Wind of Kirribilli on dehydration rations - two litres per person per day for everything; drinking, eating, washing, the lot. On this trip, with six aboard including children, he plans to be less frugal. Last winter's work included fitting extra water tanks which brings our onboard capacity up to 400lts (33 days' supply), but he planned to fit a water maker, both for the passage and also to supply us in the islands where potable water uplift quality can vary. One 'bad fill' would contaminate our entire supply.

Water makers are expensive to buy as a unit so James used his engineering skills to source the individual components and make one bespoke. This has proved more of a challenge than expected, and today he flew to Lisbon with the last remaining parts in order to commission it this weekend. He'd also bought some extra safety equipment, including an inflatable danbuoy for a man overboard situation. This comes with CO2 cylinders and the supplier would not ship it direct to Portugal due to Dangerous Goods restrictions. Fortunately, I work for the airline and demonstrated that the carrier permits passengers to carry these cylinders so long as they are declared at check in. This was fine until James reached the infamous airport security. They decided the cylinders were too large and confiscated them. Had he checked them into his hold luggage, this would not have been an issue. Now we have to buy replacements in Portugal.

Moral - just because an item is permitted by the airline, doesn't mean it will get through security.

Race news - the last feeder race from St Tropez to Cascais is imminent and you can follow the boats arriving from the Med on the Transat Classique website. We received an email from the organisers stating they reserve the right to postpone the start if the weather proves too wild (or too light). We had not been looking forward to setting off on our race in heavy weather and had sort of planned to anchor up in the bay after starting if it looked too wild, so we are relieved to see this amendment to the race rules for this leg and hope it will be applied for the transat too.