I am again ready to cast off lines in Cape Town, this time heading for the island of Tortola, the capital island of the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. The boat is a new Leopard 44 and destined for one of the charter fleets in Roadtown.

There will only be three of us aboard with the first mate being Byron Price and the crew member being Wihan Greeff. Both Byron and Wihan have quite a bit of sailing experience with Byron having spent some time sailing on the east coast of Africa and Wihan having already completed a previous Atlantic crossing to Tortola.

The boat is moored in the Victoria and Alfred Marina in Cape Town at the moment and has been fully prepared and provisioned for the delivery - we are only waiting on a spinnaker to be delivered on Monday (18 July) and then we clear out with the necessary authorities and will be off. We only plan a quick stop at the island of St Helena for some fresh water and vegetables with the final run all the way to Tortola with a "pit-stop" in St Maarten to pick up load gear.

I will be updating the blog once or twice a week to keep you all informed of what is happening aboard. Cheers for now from John, Byron and Wihan.