Boat registration

Departure date for us is now looming. The last of our UK-sourced chandlery has arrived, including the last bits for the water-maker, some netting for hanging storage in the galley and doghouse, and the last of the courtesy flags. These arrived with a brochure for all adornments required for any of the orders and lodges of the Freemasons. Do they know something about us that we don't....?

We have now been asked to prepare for race registration next week:

"In order to make the registration of your boat and crew easier in Cascais, please find below the list of documents to bring to the Race Office when registering.

• - Registration act of the boat
• -  EPIRB beacon papers
• - Boat insurance covering 1.5 millions euros in race
• - Liferaft papers (less than 2 years or revised in the year)
• - Email et irridium n° of thr boat
• - Passeports of each crew member
• - Medical certificate for each crew member
• - ISAF trainee or équivalence ( 30% including the skipper)
• - First aid trainee or équivalence (30% including the skipper)"

So today will mainly be spent setting up the text filtering email for the satphone and  starting to pack. We plan to take hold luggage in heavy duty plastic sacks so we don't have to try to store any empty cases or large luggage on board where space will be a premium.

The weather is altering - the favourable tail winds faded as a new active low pressure system tracked up the Iberian coast this week bringing strong adverse winds and brief lulls. The local temperature is also dropping from a balmy 21 degrees to more seasonal mid teens. I'm now really hoping we won't have too wild a ride for our first week. Once we're established south it should become much more comfortable. In some ways it is best to get the worst week out of the way early, but for the three land-lubbers aboard, it may be quite a tough time as we get used to life on Croix des Gardes.