The last stages of preparation

After months of maintenance and a last few days of hectic provisioning and packing, Auriga finally left her berth at Fox's marina on Monday! More details on the first leg to follow very shortly in a dedicated post.

But let's go back of a couple of day, and let's see what we've been up to in the last few days before the big departure.

What shall we take with us?

Tidying and packing. Several months of maintenance generated a bit of a mess on board, plus we accumulated a lot of tools, spares and objects of any possible sort.

How will all this stuff ever fit on board? 

We piled up most of our stuff on the pontoon, trying to decide what to take with us and what not. This included some big dilemmas: sewing machine, yes or no? And how much spare waterproof fabric, epoxy and fiberglass? And importantly, Matt's pillow, yay or nay? After long discussions and some panicking we finally managed to load everything we wanted on board. And incredibly there was still some room left, the amount of storage space on Auriga is actually quite impressive! And if you're asking yourself what happened to the pillow and sewing machine... well, they both found their space on board.

Provisioning. On Saturday we went to Tesco, and stocked up on a lot of non-perishable food, that will keep Auriga's crew well fed on her way south. We filled up three trolleys with various cans, pasta and rice, plus dried fruits and nuts, crackers and some snacks. And of course some coffee for Matt, and some mayo for Igor!

The shopping being loaded on board

Documents & Charts. The weather on Sunday was quite horrible, with gale force winds and thundery showers. Despite being ready to leave, we decided to delay the departure till Monday morning, and we sorted out some administrative stuff instead. We went through all the important documents we need, decided which charts to take, set up the tracking and discussed the weather forecast. And most importantly, we finally enjoyed a bit of relax while waiting for the weather to improve!

Stormy weather on Sunday

Getting ready for a big departure is a very stressful process. Matt decided to relieve the tension by practicing some yoga on the pontoon with Tanya!