Five years of thinking about this. One year of big picture planning. Three weeks of preparing, especially in this last week. Our two crew, Jo and D'arcy, have been doing tons of work as well. The boat is ready, the food is packed (and plentiful,
we have a chocolate bar per person per day for instance). The crew is excited and a bit nervous and wondering what it will be like.
For me, I think it will be an epic journey. I think there will be times that are great fun, times that are challenging, times where we are really tired, times where we are a bit bored, times where we think that this is all a bit crazy.
I do think it will be something we will all remember strongly forever though. A real life passage kind of thing.
We have sailed 3225 miles since July. We are about to do almost that many in three weeks. It's 2700 miles if we were to sail completely straight to St. Lucia. We will not be sailing straight though as the winds are better further south
so it will probably be about 3000 miles or so.
One of the features of crossing with the ARC, as opposed to without a rally, is that we will be out there with other boats that we know. Not close enough to see them (I have talked to people who say they saw three other boats in three weeks
of crossing in prior years) but just knowing that they are all out there will be a comfort and a nice thought. Certainly we have been following how our friends doing the ARC+ (which already left) are doing, including getting some messages and pictures from
them.