Oh all right, so I'm getting a bit carried away again :)
Never the less, the excitement is building with one more night at work to go before I can beat a rapid path down the A14 to the boat.
The new toy arrived this morning and was waiting for me when I awoke. Neat little unit and straightforward to operate. It'll be handy in the cockpit but it comes with yet another dedicated 12v charging lead. I'm getting them confused and mixed up so I think there is going to have to be a charging lead labelling session at some point when we have an idle moment!
Solved the "where the hell are all my socks / pants / t-shirts?" problem (a key drawback of three blokes in one house) by nipping in to Tescos on the way to work last night and buying several packs of each! Once the towels and fleeces currently going around and around in the tumble dryer are done I can finish my kit bag packing.
Then there is the nav bag and nav laptop to pack back up, I've just about finished sorting the paperwork and what have you out at last. The last piece of the puzzle arrives courtesy of Tescos home delivery later this afternoon. I'll get some stuff loaded in the car tonight before going to work then chuck the last of it in before I leave tomorrow.
And that brings us to the big issue ... what's the weather forecast looking like?
Encouraging I'd say! The most important thing being wind - how much and where from? It looks like F3/4 is the order of business for the first few days of the trip starting off in the North West, giving us a beam reach downriver, before swinging round into the West and generally staying there, somewhere between North West and South West, right through until the end of the week.
Next Thursday looks a bit dicey though ...
... with F5 to F6 (and probably at least F6 in the gusts) all down the East Coast however that belt of breezier conditions, generated by a low over the North Sea, is forecast to move away to the East by the following day.
Into the second week and it looks OK in so far as it goes. The forecast suggests normal wind patterns for the time of year (South Westerlys in the 10 to 20 knots range) but then out beyond the immediate outlook it tends to trend towards statistical averages as you'd expect so I wouldn't place too much reliance on that!
Wind aside, the general outlook is for a sunny weekend, if perhaps a little cooler than of late, and then fairly average conditions during the week ahead. Some sunshine, some showers, maybe (and this could be important) a bit of mist here and there.
If the forecast stays as is, and provided the strong winds forecast for next Thursday don't extend beyond a 24 hour window as the forecast for the middle weekend of our cruise firms up, it's looking good for plan A!
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