6400km or 3500 nautical miles

6400km mapped...

James reckons we'll manage 100 to 150nm per day. Still, Cape Verde islands are half way! I've bought the children an advent calendar each - not to count down the days until Christmas, but rather to count up the days at sea. Not sure what we'll do when it goes over 25....

Cape Verde or the view at half way point!

Transat Official Update

 

"In a few days’ time the boats of the Panerai Transat Classique 2012 will be mooring up in Cascais, the home of Portuguese yachting, where they will have barely one month to prepare for the main event: a race across the Atlantic to the Caribbean island of Barbados. In the coming weeks the crews will analyse their performances in the legs from Douarnenez and Saint-Tropez in the hope of gaining some precious advantage over their competitors. But before these stylish thoroughbreds set forth once again into the fray, they will first be taking part in an elegant parade on the Tagus which will take them to the foot of the Monument to the Discoveries in Lisbon. Local schoolchildren will be given the opportunity to discover the world of yachting heritage and follow, from the warmth of their classrooms, the progress of these superb sailing boats as they cross the Atlantic in a few weeks’ time. Children in Barbados will also be getting involved and keeping track of their favourites.

 

In the meantime the crews will be enjoying some great events ashore, in particular the grand dinner which will be the occasion for the winners of the second leg to receive their prize. The crew of White Dolphin will be awarded a sumptuous barometer made by the watchmakers Panerai, the event's main sponsor, as well as the Bailli de Suffren sabre from the town of Saint-Tropez. The final leg of the Panerai Transat Classique 2012 will be starting on 2 December. Follow the race in real time at www.transatclassique.com."

Panerai Regatta events in Cascais

For anyone who intends to visit us before we depart, we now have a list of events in the build up to the race departure on December 2nd:

• Monday 19th November we arrive in Cascais in the afternoon
• Friday 23rd our crew arrive in Cascais
• Saturday 24th Classic Race boat show and welcome cocktail
• Sunday 25th Cascais Classic Race towards Lisbon and return - coastal race to allow good spectator viewing

• Wednesday 28th welcome, safety and Argos briefing; crew evening
• Thursday 29th Barbados and Mount Gay Rum party
• Friday 30th Weather forecast briefing; Regatta dinner of Panerai Transat Classique
• Saturday 1st December race briefing; visit by local school
• Sunday 2nd 1030am met briefing; 2pm race start for transat

Between this, we'll be pretty busy buying the last of the provisions and commissioning the final equipment, but all visitors welcome. Drop me a text if you intend to come along! Hopefully we'll find time to get some sleep too....

Downwind all the way?

James has been fanatically monitoring the grib files every morning before work. Today he announced that the easterlies have set up again in the wake of Sandy. In fact, it is currently easterlies all the way from Lisbon to Barbados and if we set off right now we could run a straight line downwind all the way and be there in 23 days! Fingers crossed the wind gods are equally kind in December.

Two weeks to go

Only a fortnight now until our departure. House nearly sorted with most clothes and odds now packed into the loft. The tennants arrive this week to settle in and we're now using up the last of our household stores and food. The pile of stiff to take continues to grow - we're at 35kg already with just the odds and ends we've been accumulating, but with 80kg allowance between us in the hold plus hand luggage for four we should be OK.

The main hiccup is the data connection for the sat phone. We're hoping to get this working to enable us to update the blog at sea, but also to be able to download the grib files which race control will sned out. These give us a wind forecast for our area by coordinate (see image) and so will allow us to plan our route efficiently and avoid any nasty headwinds or lulls.

James had to buy a data connector for the phone "Atlantis" so kindly loaned us, but now we're having software issues as the phone is a serial data type that is no longer supported and doesn't want to talk to our Vista or Windows7 laptops. I may yet end up having to buy a new sat phone before the week is out. Still, it is our wedding annivesary this week, and the book reckons that in Australia it is the year of "electrical appliances" so I suppose a sat phone will count as an anniversary gift. In the US and UK we're up to bronze, and although I had previously offered to buy a nice Brunton folding prop, I'm not sure my bank balance will cope with another £2k withdrawal just yet....!

Alternative Transport?

The Transat Race committee have just offered all competitors space in a shipping container that will leave Cascais just before us and transport anything extra we wish to have in Barbados. I'm sort of assuming that the serious race boats will be offloading excess weight, such as drinks cabinets, internal fittings etc, whereas I'm now wondering if they have room for two small children....! Actually, I think we'll get across faster and more comfortably.

Health and Disease

It is easy to forget how different health issues affect different areas of the world. We had already planned to avoid Haiti and some other areas on health and political grounds, but the GP recommended a Hepatitis A vaccine. This is recommended for anyone over 1 year who is living or working anywhere in the worlds other than the USA & Canada, Western Europe, Australia & NZ or Japan. Vaccination should be a straighforward affair, and both children endured the needle calmly, but some minutes later, Matthew suffered a reaction and fainted. All is fine now and the reaction wasn't very severe, and at least he is now protected. All are back home for cuddles.