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Annabella - Log 17 - Thursday 12th December



Position: 14 10.20N
52 29.36W

Distance to St Lucia: 491.8NM
Distance since log 16: 198NM

Screaming along at 9 knots + towards St Lucia and will break 200NM in 24 hours since we put the twin head sails up yesterday at about 1300. Recording lots of 10s and at one stage 12.3 going down a wave. VMG and boat speed the same so we must be doing something right. Forecast is for wind to hold and if it does we may be looking at Saturday night arrival. However, reluctant to count our chickens. We are now looking forward to the positions download to see if we made any ground on 3rd and 4th in class.

Today is day 18 and we had originally targeted today for arrival. We probably lost one day due to our own inefficiencies and a couple of days to light winds. Nevertheless, it has been very enjoyable with everyone getting plenty of rest, food and leisure time and arriving within 3 weeks would be great.

We just had our first chafe casualty. The pole down haul was apparently rubbing against the jenny car and cut through. Happily it was during daylight and was sorted very quickly without any disruption to sailing.

Chilli con carne happened last night despite the pitching around and appears to have been a success. I baked another bread yesterday which was a big improvement on the first in terms of colour and consistency. We have one mix left which hopefully we will get time to bake before arrival. Not sure what's on the menu today, but we still have some frozen beef and chicken so we won't starve.

For any future ARCers, we were very happy with our suppliers. We bought the meat, veg and fruit in the market and the rest in El Corte Ingles (Sari). Meat supplier was Carniceria J.P. Rosper. Fruit & Veg was from Martin Frutas Y Verduras. Both are located in the Mercado Central which is just around the corner from El Corte Ingles. We could have bought everything from El Corte Ingles. However, the market guys give a more personal service and will cut and pack the product to suit. The veg guy gave us fruit and veg at different stages of ripeness. Meat was diced/minced, vacuum packed and frozen to order. Everything was delivered to the boat when we wanted it. Excellent quality and service.

ARC organisers have organised a competition for the biggest or heaviest fish caught on the journey. Our two fish are unlikely to qualify, but we have a real contender in the boot that Conor caught. It probably belongs to the leather fish family, it provided a nice fillet of sole (different family), it was laced with some interesting smells and was polished off with some relish. We even have a photo to boot. You probably have to be irish to appreciate such a delicacy.

Here's hoping for another 200NM+ day.

Will log 19 be the final blog. Watch this space!

Peter (Pug), Craig, Stephen, Conor & Terry



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