We called our good friend Don and were checking on his father-in-law and Olga who had to fly home to Miami! We were talking about a possible weather window tomorrow, but it was me on skype, so he said "you have a long way to go Bec, so this opportunity to leave is as good as any to do a shakedown"! Darn, the voice of reason...not emotion!

Our friends on SV Epsilon, Josee and Michel, are leaving tomorrow too, so it sounds like this is for real this time!

We jumped into high speed mode and it took us all day to get ready. We had to put all the fiddles in, strap the fridge on the floor with a starboard tack, which will be the norm going north. We had to strap and secure the Yamaha and hoist it aboard, fill water tanks, solar showers and unhook the hose to stow it! After the rain dodger was removed, Shawn and Tan Tan helped put the dingy on the deck (very nice to see three men do what the two of us do), then said goodbye to Martin, Roger and all the marina folks! Good bye tears all around for Lucy and Richard on Marie Galante II. Fenders cleaned and stowed, dink tied down...and every single thing stowed or lashed for an 8 hour trip! We stow the two laptops, the printer, the cockpit light all bundled tightly between all the pillows and 'bed extension' and everything really fragile...but can't do that until we get out of bed in the morning.

We still have 15-20 knots of wind and big seas @ 7-10' but the waves are 10 seconds apart which makes the world of difference in our favor. We usually look for seas 4' or less and wind 15 knots or less...but like Don says: "Gotta go when you can, you have a big journey ahead if you want to get home by July"!

We put all the reef points in the main, removed the sail cover, and loaded the chart plotter with way points.

Wish us luck! We're rusty (right along with the good ship Altair)!

Dudley and Bec
S/V Altair
skype name: dbaltair
skype #: 305.600.2308
sailblogs.com/member/altair
chasealtair@gmail.com
artbybeccabutler@gmail.com