Kimbra sent an email last week where she mentioned she had ten weeks to go, well here in Sydney there is officially less than one!! Thats pretty daunting!! When customs have cleared us out we officially have to go within 24 hours so I imagine that moment will be when it really hits home! Despite Alex telling me that we are more organised than him and Peter were before their last trip, I am sitting writing this in a house, surrounded by stuff!!
I think there is more stuff to go on the boat than there is room for on wee Berri!! That said, we had a superb day yesterday. All the non-perishable food has been stowed- it is ALL down the starboard aft bunk side and the forepeak is now packed: dinghy,anchors, dinghy (yes 2) warp, fuel cannisters, sails, more rope and fenders- and it all fits! Only prob is we are going to have to unpack it all to actually fill the fuel jerry cans...
Berri is certainly sitting a bit wonky in the water with a full forepeak and a full starboard side! For me, it's also quite strange, having spent the last year racing (and therefore taking stuff off a boat) that this time round I keep putting stuff on!!!!
I have brought some reading material with me, and have just piled it up. I think it could constitute a library. Will all the other stuff to go aboard, I may well need to consolidate. I will definitely be taking the HHGTTG though, which I am beginning to realise is something I really ought to have read!!! Hopefully this will help me interpret AW's gobbledegook about Vogons and the like...!!!
I am getting pretty nervous about the whole venture now: I have never, ever, ever managed to leave Sydney on a boat to head north and managed to get past Coff's Harbour without getting storm bound there. This is really, really concerning: whilst Coffs is a nice place and all the people seem lovely too, I was hoping never to have to look at that giant banana or listen to the one music DVD that was looped continuously in the yacht club, ever again.
I will be so relieved if we make it beyond there!!
