Starblazer - nearly ready for the ARC and World ARC

First of all introductions. We are Joyce and John and Starblazer is a 20 year old Hallberg Rassy 42F.

May: we were frantically busy, packing up the house, stowing far too much on the boat and saying farewell to friends and family. We left Gosport on Friday 24th to sail to Plymouth where our son and daughter-in-law came to say goodbye en route from Hong Kong to Scotland! We passed the ARC Portugal safety check with flying colours and were waved off by our daughter and son-in-law who had stayed on the boat the night before.

June: ARC Portugal. We have taken part in this rally twice before and each time there has been something different. The sailing was fantastic most of the time, we enjoyed the tours ashore and made some good friends. It was also a bit of a learning experience for us because we only bought Starblazer in December 2010 and the past two summers haven't let us do much sailing! We have now flown the MPS/genniker/cruising chute several times, not without problems but we are getting better at it. The one success was the sea trial of the new SSB installation, it worked. The Satellite phone was only half successful, we managed to receive e-mails but couldn't send. Hopefully that has now been sorted.

July: into the Med. We were held up for five or six days in Puerto Sherry Marina, Cadiz bay, sitting out the fierce easterly winds which were causing mayhem on yachts transiting the Straits of Gibraltar. Eventually a window appeared and we entered the Med. The next system to check out was the water maker. We had tried it in the Solent in March, the cold water resulted in a reduced output and the wretched thing turned itself off in less than an hour. Fast forward four months, the output is a lot better, close to what it is supposed to do, but it still won't run for an hour. The helpful guys at Seafresh have suggested a remedy but so far it hasn't worked, more tweaking needed. The Bimini, which we put up halfway through ARC Portugal, has been wonderful, particularly with the addition of the zip on net curtains I made. All we need now is the boat to lie stern to the sun or I have to work out how to add shade curtains forward! An unplanned benefit of the shade curtains is to provide privacy in the cockpit when tied stern to a quayside, as in Almerimar.

August: cruising the Balearics. Before we left Gosport in May we had only spent one night at anchor on Starblazer. We have now anchored in a total of 12 different places and, with only a couple of exceptions, the anchor has set first time. We removed the CQR and installed the Delta as we thought it might be better, we have a Bruce type in the locker and a Fortress as well so we have lots of options. The most pressing job is an audit of all the food I've put on board, more to the point, where exactly is it all?

We are enjoying our summer, with half a mind on what still needs to be done for the ARC but we will be ready. We did the ARC in 2009 in our old boat, a Westerly Corsair called Fair Encounter and learnt a lot, though the fortnight in Las Palmas was hectic. Hopefully this time we will be more chilled. We'll see! We'll blog again when we leave the Med. Regular blogs (?!) should appear on our website www.yachtstarblazer.co.uk.

Joyce