A False Start - by Skipper Pete

So the day had finally arrived - 23rd November.

In some ways it felt like we had been preparing for years for this moment, but in others like it had been a recent rush (we only got Rafiki in the water in April 2014).

The pontoons were buzzing with everyone getting their last minute bits of preparation complete and some final goodbyes from well wishers. I should have known something was up when I noticed that overnight the wind had been so strong that the steel framed gazebo under which we had been enjoying sundowners earlier in the week had been ripped from its mounts and was lying in the middle of the road outside the marina.

We checked in on the radio at 0900 for the daily broadcast from ARC rally control and were informed that due to the bad weather, there would be a postponement of no less than 18 hours for our division. The wind inside the marina was blowing 20-25 knots and gusting harder.

We overheard some criticism of the ARC team from some neighboring boats, but as the organisers alluded to, it's not the open water sailing part that would be risky, moreso trying to get hundreds of boats out of a small marina at slow speed without incident.

As we would see the next day, their decision was absolutely correct. We took the opportunity to breakfast, clean, try remember the items we had forgotten from our shopping list (if there hadn't been a postponement we would have set of with 7 toilet rolls for 6 people for ~ 3 weeks) and spend some time with our blonde aussie pal Lisa who had come to see us off.