The Mustering of the Crew

I arrived on LA Thursday night at around 10 after a very easy drive from Icomb. A still night with some rain. I had a few hours before the crew would arrive so time to get some jobs done. Get all my kit packed away and start working out what we needed from the shops. The boat was in good shape, only two weeks before she was out of the water having her bottom attended to. She looked very nice with a clean waterline and her teak decks spruced. The remaining job was the mast head. Darthaven marina should have sorted this earlier but had managed to leave it until the lat minute.

The guys turned up at about 10:30, took the main out (to get access to a mast-head halyard) and went up (no safety line!). Much cleaning (the seagulls had done their work) and checking on sheaves etc. All was in good working order.

I picked David up from Paignton just before 4. His train was late getting to Newton Abbot so the connection was missed. No matter, much the same happened last year. We decided to leave the shopping until Saturday, so we had a beer on deck and then into Dartmouth for fish and chips. Excellent.

Today is jobs day. Bob arrives this evening and we wanted to leave early Sunday, so all the rmeaining jobs needed to be done.

Shopping at Sainsbury's (having had a breakfast in the cafe) was easy - we buy pretty much the same things each year. All done and dusted within an hour and headed back to the boat to stow it all.

David wanted to go back to Dartmouth to buy something from the chandlers there, so we went back, found exctly what he was looking for (a monocular - small telescope with a compass) - very nice. Crab and Bucket for a Doom Bar, and ide cream for David (he was definitely in holiday mode) and then pasties for lunch back on the boat.

Some remaining jobs - refill the water tanks, replenish the gas, prepare a meal for tonight. Turned out to be a lovely warm afternoon. The wind was building a bit and there is the prospect of a good sail tomorrow to Brittany. It will be a 5am start and a 15 hr crossing. So we need to do 6kts to cover the 90nm and get there in the daylight.