Goodbye civilisation and hello high seas and adventure. The ship is loaded to the gunnels with provisions, fuel, water and food; all systems are functioning perfectly; and we are loaded to the eyeballs with dreams of adventure and derring-do.

We have a couple of days of diving ahead of us in the fjords north of Tromso while we wait out a weather system passing to the north of us … which is actually a bit of a relief. A couple of days away from the hustle of the port will do us both a world of good as we unwind in preparation for a long crossing where sleep will be rather hard to come by. Not to mention the fact that we are both very tired of running all over Tromso looking for someone who might just stock that essential but obscure piece of equipment – always the small part that no-one ever knows even exists until it breaks down and brings the whole system crashing to a halt!

We will continue to be blogging while under sail of course, though from now on we are dependent upon the satellite phone for uploads (I hear a collective sigh of relief at the termination of my long rambling entries). We really hope everyone does comes along for the voyage… we are saying goodbye to civilisation for a while, but it would be great to have you all traveling with us …albeit it virtually!