Birch leaves

It was a funny day today, bits of sunshine mixed with rain showers and quite a wind whipping up all the falling leaves. I went to the hairdresser this morning and as I came out - whoosh - there went my newly blowdried hair! 

I am feeling a bit sad today as Gavin leaves very early tomorrow morning to fly to Las Palmas in the Canaries where he joins the boat, and early on Sunday morning they set sail across the Atlantic to St Lucia in the annual ARC race (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers). Some 220 boats all depart at the same time, but within hours of departing they do not see another boat - strange, isn't it, but then the Atlantic Ocean is enormous! Las Palmas has been a hive of activity with all the boats and crew arriving for the past 2 weeks, with all sorts of lectures, safety demonstrations, provisioning advice, last minute repairs...and partying at night.

Gran Canaria is located at the edge of the tradewind belt, so boats leaving the Canary Islands will sail south (until the butter melts, as the saying goes) until they pick up the north east tradewinds which then blow them west across the Atlantic.  The ARC starts at this time because the tradewinds are now well established, and the boats arrive in the Caribbean at (hopefully) the end of the hurricane season. They are hoping to do the crossing in about 15-16 days but he is only booked to come home again on the 11th December just to be sure. The timing is not good due to my mother's condition, and so Gavin has mixed feelings about going. I am sure once he gets into that punitive schedule of 4 hours on and 4 hours off he will not have time to think about anything else. All those days at sea without stopping and relying only on the winds is a frightening thought!