Ellen Macarthur Trust

24 Hours and counting....

Wednesday 9th December
 
Well, this time tomorrow morning, we will be untying our mooring ropes for the last time in Lanzarote, saying our goodbye's and sailing off into the Atlantic on this great adventure.
 
Julian & Geoffy recounting wild tales of their youth
 
As I type, Susana is on her way to Arricife (capital of Lanzarote) with our new friend Kerr to pick up all of the fruit and vegetables for the trip - crikey, that's an excercise - exactly how many apples, oranges and potatoes do you take for 3 people on a three week voyage (factoring in built-in obselescence (aka, rotting))?  The answer we came up with was "lots" so time will tell. Thank you Kerr for everything you have done for us, you have been most kind and generous and we all really appreciate it.
 
Julian giving Timothy dinghy lessons 
 
Yesterday saw the arrival of yet more family and friends, some planned, some unplanned.  First up was my wife and son, Elaine & Timothy - it had been 15 days since we'd said goodbye at the airport, the longest we had been apart so it was great to see them again although coming straight from an English winter, it looked as though they had been eating ghosts, I've never seen anyone look so white - a few days sun here should give them a useful shot of Vitimin D and a bit of colour.  They were joined by my PR manager, the lovely Lucy from KTB, who was on the same flight.  The reason I'm getting such fab worldwide publicity is due to Lucy and her team at KTB.  Heh, talking of which, did you hear the interview I did on the Chris Evans show on Radio 2 on Monday night? It was great.  Sadly I think it is now off iPlayer. The big surprise of the day, for Digby at least, was the unexpected arrival of his mum and step-dad who have flown out to be here for his departure.  And whilst we were in the mood for receiving visitors, the Lanzarote Rotary club sent along a small delegation to have a look at Impossible Dream and grab a few photographic memories, what a great surprise it was to see them again - and between my pidgin Spanish and their pidgin English, I think we all understood each other. Who'd have thought it, Rotarians and photos..!!
 
The sad moment yesterday was saying farewell to Mark.  Mark holds a senior position in the BBC and is a communications engineer extrordinaire!!  Since his arrival on Saturday, he has been glued (or should that be soldered) to his seat on ID and to his telephone whilst he has installed, set up and double-checked each of the communications systems on the boat.  If you heard my interview on Radio 2 on Monday, I was doing that live, via satellite, using the ISDN link on the ships communications systems.  We also practised sending back live streaming film to the BBC which worked perfectly.  If any of you dare grumble about paying your BBC licence fee again, I'd ask you to think twice - having seen the phenominal resources which go into putting footage onto our TV screens, it's extraordinary.  And I must, once again, thank STRATOS - they actually make the hardware which allows us to do this and they have kindly loaned us the equipment for the duration.  I now have a mini radio station positioned at the head of my bed and a mini production suite at the bottom.  Down below in the starboard hull, cameraman Digby has his own mini mixing desk and editing suite - fingers crossed we don't run out of power...!!!  The only thing we need to be aware of is the enormous amount of microwave radiation so any chap wanting a cheap vasectomy should stand within 1.5 metres of the boat whilst I transmit a report back to the UK.
 
Tim enjoying his dinner last night.
 
Below is a short video as we have less than 24hrs to go!


 Please also note we hve set up a dedicated You Tube channel where we will be uploading short videos for you to watch and to embed into your own sites if you wish - all "rights free".  The channel can be found here; http://www.youtube.com/personalatlantic
 
 
OK, must go, the boys have just got back from breakfast (it's OK for some!!) and we have work to do...!!

Will Blog again tomorrow once we are at sea for real.  BBC TV South viewers, watch out for footage tomorrow.