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Frisco - Log Day 4 Belated start of blog.



Our volunteer Blog Boy, Jim Wilson has been relieved of his duties. Just as well he can cook instead. Now a bit of catching up. The first day of the ARC rally saw us depart at 11:00am Monday the 24th Nov. It was not long before we began to appreciate why the start had been delayed a day. The sea state had calmed down somewhat but still commanded immediate respect. As nightfall approached we found ourselves in the much discussed wind acceleration zone to the SE of gran Canaria with gusts NW 35+ knots. After making it through this zone we were treated to the shadow zone to the South of this volcanic mountainous island here a number of racing class boats were becalmed, unable to use their engines to escape. We of course started up the engine and motored to the SW only to be treated to the acceleration zone on the SW corner of the island.

Day 2 provided mostly NE 20 knot winds which allowed us to run with only the Genoa at speeds of 7+ knots. Paul made his first loaves of bread at sea while strapped into the galley. He soon learned that anything placed on the counter would be dumped into the sink or launched in the air within milliseconds !!

Day 3 gave the start of heavy seas due to a gale in the North. We ran with cutter jib and three reefs in the mainsail. At night we dropped the main, using only the cutter jib, it was noisy and wet on deck.

Day 4 Dawn saw the winds increase to NW 15-32 knots with approx 7M seas. Despite a rough start to our trip everyone are now keeping their meals down and getting enough sleep to function. We are steering by hand with two three man watches.

So far the Iridium Go! sat phone system is working well for E-Mail and downloading weather data.

Wishing you were here

Fred



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