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Golondrina - The blogger identified !



It may only be a day to go and you would think nothing else new could occur however, once again the 'dudes' have been surfing and just to make it a bit more extreme they did it at 2am, that's right, in the pitch dark.

First up was 'Rodeo' Dave and the Owain 'kid' .. So here's how it's done, you sit and wait for a big black angry cloud, wait for the first spots of rain, indicating a squall, and then haul on the sails and grip on ... Now, bearing in mind Golondrina is a cursing vessel and is designed to cruise at 7 knots, when the gauge shows 16 knots things are going to shake around a bit... Including Gareth !

Anyhow, next up Rattie Davis and his 'lovelyness' Mark.. Both adults ( allegedly ) but with a combined mental age only just bordering a teenager - it was never going to be simple ... They stood, they waited, and as the back of the boat lifted they winched in the sails but didn't realise how big the wave was (remember it was dark) and whilst the gauge went to 14 ... 15 .... 16 .... and 17 the front of Golondrina was, by now, was starting to nose dive down into the wave trough in front. Then, as if they needed a degree in common sense, the expected decrease in speed didn't happened so it went to ... 18 ..... Rattie then looked at Mark - Mark looked at Stu ( yes and there were stars out but not like that ) a little smile at each other and another tweak of the winch saw ... '19 knots' .... appear on the gauge ... The front of the boat was now underwater the sea was roaring either side the base foresail was also underwater the boom was dragging in the sea on the port side.. With a degree of concern Stu said to Mark "How do we stop this?" Mark said to Stu "I've no idea, boy" . It peaked at 19.8 knots spat us out the other side of the squall ... There's been no talk of this since ... Phew ! ( Capt Chrome, Capt Lightweight and 'Dirty' Mandy, you would have loved it...Sicknote - perhaps not).

As we approach Rodney Bay at the end of our 3040 mile Atlantic crossing the crew would like to say a huge thank you to the following who without their help this adventure would not have gone as smoothly as it has. 'Dancing Denzil' and the boys at Ratseys; John, Kate and Paul from Las Palmas; Denzil and Paul and all the staff at The Bar at Neyland; Brennie the 'cup' lady; Art -man-Dave for the shirts; Lou for her recipes and everyone who has sent messages of support all of which have been a huge moral booster.

Having said all of that, our massive thanks go to our UK based support team in the shape of in Becky and Nina who have been our permanent contact at all times of day and night throughout the entire trip and have been invaluable as a link to the outside world. The team all reckon you deserve the chilled white wine and shade under the palm tree in St Lucia, just make sure there's some left for us !


But let's put all these people to one side for a moment for a very special lady and that is Golondria whose been our home, our transport and has performed beyond all expectations for the past 4 months. She's gone from sitting in doldrums to surfing down Atlantic rolling waves. She's sheltered us from storms, shaded us in the heat but ultimately she's never moaned or let us down.

If all goes well we arrive at Rodney Bay on Friday 13th !!!! At about 2200 UK time. Look out for arrival pics.

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