A friend with a fire blanket is a friend indeed

Land Team member Eric arrived today which was great, and not least because he brought with him the new fireblanket he’d ordered and received on next day delivery yesterday (nice when a plan comes together) and we fitted it and thus are fully checked off on scrutineering. Other teams are making good progress, and whilst some still have a fair amount to do, we’re sure everyone should be ready for the start on Sunday.

We also spent a while attaching the spare blades to our guard rails, fitting our drogue bridle (a quite different thing from a scold’s bridle), and any number of other little clearing up jobs.

R proved he is a true Smalman-Smith (who are legendary for tearing their clothes off on holiday at the slightest sight of swimmable-in water, often with little thought for how they might dry themselves after) by insisting on going in for a swim in the sea – also testing out the snorkel that people generally have for scraping barnacles. His conclusion after sucking in a tube-ful of sea water, is that he’s more likely to use his normal swimming goggles.

Tomorrow we’ll do a full comms test from the boat as Ed from Mailasail is here, and then go for a little row so we can check heights (she’s a lot lower in the water than she was last time we went out!) and so that Eric can take any number of photos for our various sponsors.

News from home is that Tanni (our cat) has been purring for Jack our house-sitter, so the little hissy has clearly forgotten all about us and has settled into life with her new “owner”.

Dan – Bakewell tart now finished – yum!

Photos below show Thames Valley Skiff Club blades on tour (hope this doesn’t horrify you too much, Roger and Tom!) and also R emerging from the sea with Teide, Tenerife’s volcano on the background. A bit like Ursula Andress emerging from the sea in Dr No. But only a bit like that.

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