The Burnetts Can’t Wait to Start Crossing the Atlantic…So They Can Rest

At first, Greg and Mel were thankful that they had flown the kids out to Missouri so they could stay with their grandparents, aunts, and uncles while they worked on the boat and then crossed the Atlantic without distractions.  Everyone wins, right?  The kids don’t have to go stir crazy trapped on a boat for more than two weeks, Greg & Mel don’t have to entertain and feed kids when off watch, and the family at home gets to see the kids.  Well, Mel is somewhat regretting the arrangement.  Because now she has no excuse to get her out of servicing the winches and doing other tedious tasks ALL DAY LONG.  She might rebel soon and color for a half hour.  I mean, there are only so many boat chores she can take!

Here is a partial list of what they have been up to lately, for those interested in gory boat details.

Now that we are getting closer to launch, Mel is seeking out “comfort items,” as it is finally sinking in what they are about to do.  Her comfort items have included this Viking hat, which she plans to don whenever the seas get rough, to remind her of all of those brave women who crossed the Atlantic in those wooden boats so long ago.

Greg just reminded Mel that women are bad luck and there were likely no women on Viking ships.  Partypooper.

It also includes this Maori saying that she picked up once in New Zealand.  The Maori are pretty tough, so she will do what they say:

Another comfort item is this:

This is Tommy’s iPad, with Garmin Bluechart downloaded on it, wrapped in five layers of aluminum foil.  In case of lightning.  Mel got instructions for this from this website.  If you thought cruisers were an interesting group of people who were way too much into a different lifestyle, wait until you learn about “preppers!”

Personal AIS devices and these lifevest strobes are comforting, sort of:

And finally, our Cerberus spot locator will help comfort all of you, dear readers.  If you go to the “Location” page on our site, the first thing you will see is a link to our location.  It updates every hour.  PredictWind, our weather routing software, supposedly has this feature as well, but Mel hasn’t figured it out yet.

We leave on Thursday.  Then, 6-7 days to Bermuda.  After a rest, 14-20 days to the Azores, another rest, then 5-7 days to Gibraltar.  Mel will try to post a blog post each day we are offshore.

Time for bed!