Getting empty

We have moved almost all the plants out of our courtyard and over the road to the home of our friends Alex and David. The garden furniture is also mostly packed away. The washing machine is running full time with all the final, final washes. Heaps of clean and dirty clothes fill the living room.

We have checked over the spare sails this morning and discovered that the old jib is badly torn, so we will take only the old main for emergencies (or to make a canopy if we're stranded on a desert island). We have two fairly new sails already rigged, plus a storm jib and a spinnaker. After all, we're never going to be more than a day from a sailmaker.

Yesterday we finally managed to open a new account for Guy so he can use a cashcard to draw money while we are away. Smile got very shirty about our twin postcodes, but fortunately Alliance & Leicester were more understanding. We also managed to agree on a new pair of trainers for Guy, which is a major work of international diplomacy, and they only (!) cost £40.

Most of the books, games and charts are now on board and stowed reasonably safely. On Friday I plan to spend the whole day alone on board stowing clothes, food and personal possessions and swearing a lot.

We're starting to get the first forecasts through for Sunday - very unreliable at this stage. It looks like there will be a high over south-west England surrounded by fronts and rather weedy lows. The consensus is a southerly (worst possible wind for a trip to Ramsgate which is almost due south) but very light - 5-7 knots. We'll see what they think later in the week.