The Journey South Begins

On Sunday, February 6 at 7:45am we quietly slipped off our berth in the FKG dock to start our journey south. We had the whisker pole fitted now for our downwind sailing and all our provisions were packed on board. The weather was still pretty awful but we decided it was time to get sailing. The first stop was the fuel dock which we had booked the day before for 8am. Unfortunately there was another large yacht on the dock which had to be moved. About 20 minutes later in strong winds we tried to manoeuvre around their yacht and reverse on to the dock. The area was tight with yachts and shallow water at either end. We nearly managed to take out 3 yachts, a swimming pool and a concrete wall turning but by some miracle Ian reversed Faraway on the dock undamaged. After re-fueling we joined the queue of super yachts and regular yachts for the Dutch Bridge. It was only 9am but I was already mentally and physically exhausted! I decided at that point to always have a flask of rum handy up on deck to calm my nerves after these incidents. Ian was smiling to be finally on our journey and relieved that we hadn't done any damage. We prepared Faraway for sailing and I drove her out into the open sea whilst Ian put the sails up. The weather didn't seem as bad as the forecast but it was only early in the day worse was to come.