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Webster - We're off!



Saturday 3rd May: Position 20 12'N 64 45'W

a bit of an inauspicious start to the day, waking at 0600 to pouring rain and only then realising the hatches were still open. Spent half an hour bailing out the boat, not what you want when you have better things to be thinking about on departure day, but that's boating I suppose.

Went to check out at Rally Control at 0800 then strolled long to the Marina office to pay. I was met with a bit of a queue which was building; there was only one lady on duty and the whole ARC fleet were trying to pay to leave. Walton on the dock was frantically running between berths to get meter readings and the said lady was giving a very fine example of the duck on the water looking serene but paddling like mad underwater...at least for a while. She then started to show the stress as the queue grew and people started to mumble. Only took an hour and forty minutes, but managed to keep cool and not stress too much, even when the crew were ordering breakfast and were popping up to see how I was doing but not having moved an inch. Oh well, by the time I got back to the boat the sun was out. Gary Clements on Arcarius even had to resort to a cold beer at 10am!

All jobs done we were off to the starting area at 1100 finding a good 20-25knts of breeze blowing down the Francis Drake channel due east. As the 10 minute signal went out at 1150 we switched to a pin end start as most boats were standing off, allowing us an opportunity to come onto the line on port tack at speed. Hooray, first blood to Team Webster first over the line and going fast downwind. That deserved a hearty 'Hi Ho' over channel 77 - another telling off to come I'm sure. Setting the pole and the ability to sail deep meant we kept ahead of the entire fleet around Tortola and the next way point at Jos Van Dyke where we hardened onto a beam reach, still creaming along at 8+knts. Indeed it was not until after 1700 when a couple of the larger boats caught us up!

We do need to address these handicaps though with Rally Control. Our handicap having been 1.004 for all previous rallies has suddenly jumped to 1.039 which is quite a hike, even though we were way down the fleet in the Arc. We are also supposed to be faster than a Swan 46 which if it were the case I would be very pleased indeed. She is presently steaming over the horizon and her nav lights are getting dimmer by the moment.

Great sailing though despite a brief 10 minute spell when the wind shut off and everyone around us, including ourselves, put up the metal spinnaker and motored before the wind turned back on again and allowed us to continue at 7-8+knts. We had to slam a reef in when a filthy rain squall came through and we even had to resort to our foul weather gear, the first time for months! The boat is going superbly well though, really pleased with her.

Potato hash for dinner, very nice thank you very much, then into our watch patterns with myself and Igor together, and Dave and Neal being next up.

The wind has stayed reasonably constant this evening and have managed to keep our speed up in slight to moderate seas. We are all hoping it will continue but the forecast is for it to drop as we approach the high pressure zone.

Hi Ho!

Charlie

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