Monday April 30th.� DoverNearly ready! Cath and Benj spent Sunday night on the boat, but slept disppointingly badly with much rock and roll from the severely gusty wind and frapping from neighbouring boats. Monday has been a day of frantic activity, and Vega is now victualled and just about ready for the off, which is more than we are! Our families (Lucy and Rob, with grand-daughter Grace, and Melanie and Mike) and our good friend Robyn came down to the boat at 6pm, in the last of the evening sunshine, and we repaired to the Royal Cinque Ports Yacht Club bar for farewell drinks.Our passage plans for the next few days are rather ambitious, with 3-4 long day/night passages to get us to Falmouth. At least the wind is in the right direction (mostly NE), but too strong and gusty for our taste. We will have to review the weather forecast tonight/tomorrow before we leave at our planned time of 1500 tomorrow (Tuesday). When I was operating I always taught that a plan is a very good basis for changing your mind, so we'll see, but it would be nice to be off soon.� Maybe the next post will be from Cowes!� Bye-bye home and families for the next few weeks!