Our immenent departure

This is my first blog for our passage from Martinique to Gibraltar.  The excitement amongst the crew mounts as we prepare for our January 18, 2015 departure at noon as part of the Blue Planet Odyssey(BPO).
Preparations for departure have been ongoing for months or perhaps for the owners of sailing vessel Maggie years.  I have arrived late on the scene having spent the month of November moving the boat from Grenada to Martinique.  If you would like to read about our adventures you can click on the link to the right - Rob and Carol's blog.  I departed my home in the Okanagan in British Columbia on Jan. 12 at 6 AM.  Upon arrival in Martinique I have been helping get the boat ship shape for the journey.  Yesterday was spent working with a mechanic to replace the throttle cable.  We thought we would tackle it ourselves but upon looking at the complexity the captain decided it was a job we did not want to botch 2 days before our big departure.  The cable replacement lasted from 10 to 5:30 with several hours spent attempting to retrieve parts and bolts that fell in the metal tube that hold the steering wheel.  On Thursday we repaired the main sail by sewing up the end of the batten pocket and repairing a hole in the batten pocket.  We did several other repairs to the main sail.  I won't bore you with the details...  We replaced the Genoa sheets and port (left side) flag halyard.  We also installed some mast steps.
As part of the Blue Planet Odyssey our goal is to bring attention to climate change and the effect it will have on the islands around he world like the San Bals Islands which is our first stop. Many of these islands will be under water with a sea level rise and the inhabitants will loose their home.  There is an educational component to this Odyssey as well and my daughters grade 3 class will be following or trip as will many other classes around the world.  We will be deploying weather buoys for.......  If you have children that would like to be pen pals with children in Martinique who are learning English in school let me know.  We can possible set up pen pals all along our route for kids. 

As this is my first blog posting lets go through a few housekeeping tasks
1. I will attempt to post every few days.  While on passage the posts will be sent to my daughters 3rd grade class and they will hopefully be able to post them for me.  My hope is to add a bunch of pictures and they can choose a photo if they wish for each blog.  As I have internet connection I will add photos to the blog.
2. The boat's position will be posted several times per day along with the other vessels on the Blue Planet Odyssey.  you will be able to click on the link to the right to find out our position.
3. Being new to creating a blog please comment often.  Such comments as "Too much information" " Need more information", "too technical", "Great post" or "I hate that post" will be most welcome.  Any hints or ideas will be great.