Day 1

So, we're off. Thanks to the Gleastonites for a fabulous send off from Arrecife complete with waving Union flags. Quite emotional seeing you all disappear from sight as we rounded the headland by the cruise liner terminal. It was a bit lumpy initially but improved once we had the sails up. F3 ENE with a bit of swell left from last night. We are still not fully back into life afloat yet but the big news is that so far Marcus is hanging in there (football games are keeping the nausea at bay so far) with the current chunder count sitting at a solid zero.

We've now all guessed our competition times, the first of which was "when we will see our first crustacean" (sic - see cetacean). My guess was about three days time but just two minutes after guessing first one and then a whole pod of small leaping dolphins arrived. They have been with us several hours now swimming slowly along in time with us.

The other event was unveiling to Gilly details of her remaining 60th birthday present. Most of you know about this because you contributed, but loads of her friends have made tapes, sent letters and made videos of their memories of Gilly. She is very, very touched. First up was Stu and Julie with their tales of excess ouzo in Crete and fluffy seals in Egypt. Thanks too to Emma for her introduction to the whole idea.

Right, let's see how this posts as we are running along the eastern side of Fuerteventura now; too far out for any normal internet access.

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