Bolero - ARC + Day 1

ARC+ Day One

The long anticipated day had come! The buzz around the marina was palpable.
The final countdown began: the sheets and halyards were lead through the blocks, the spinnaker and cruising chute were secured to the deck, the anchor was brought back on board and the bow ladder was removed. The last few bits and bobs were stowed away down below.
Boats slowly started leaving the pontoon, and the boats either side of us headed off to join them. Fenders and warps were stored in the lazarette locker, the slime lines were released and the bow lines brought on board. We reversed away from the pontoon and edged our way towards the boats waiting to pass the marina entrance and into the harbour.
It was an absolutely amazing experience to glide through the marina entrance in a cacophony of cheers and foghorns with people on the breakwater waving as the boats passed by.
We made our way out of the marina and hoisted the mainsail well away from all the catamarans that were starting before us. They went through their start line at 12:45.
Just before our 10 minute gun sounded at 12:50 we unfurled the Genoa and stopped the engine. When the 5 minute gun sounded we were close to the committee vessel and crossed the line a few seconds after the starting gun. The view of the all boats around us was beautiful, and knowing that each boat had a crew that had worked so hard to make this dream of sailing across the Atlantic Ocean come true made it all he more special.
We drifted slowly in the zephyrs southwards towards the anticipated acceleration zone which starts by the airport, sometimes making 2 knots! The winds continued to be very light until we were level with the south of the island.
Nick and Ian put up the spinnaker pole so we could sail with the Genoa boomed out overnight. We started the night watch routine of 3 hours on and 3 hours off after we had eaten our spag bol and cleared everything away.
The wind built over night and by midnight we were sailing in 14 knots of wind which built to 22 knots at times. We had an awkward quartering sea which caused the boat to corkscrew around at any available moment.
None of us slept very well when we were off watch, I am sure that we will settle into the routine of life on board very soon. Soon after sunrise we were joined by a pod of dolphins who entertained Maz and Gwyn for fifteen minutes.
Gwyn ensured everyone on board had a smile when she produced egg and bacon rolls! Powered by our bonus breakfast we gently lowered the mainsail to remove the top batten which had started to come out of the sail pocket. Fortunately the batten fell onto the deck. Maz and Ian both dived for the batten, being stopped short having reached the end of their safety lines causing a rye smile from the skipper. We will continue without the batten until we reach Mindelo.
A celebratory cup of tea was made, and then we found that the second batten had been caught in the shrouds as the sail was raised so a repeat procedure was undertaken. Fortunately we didn’t need to lower the sail so far to free the batten.
After all the fun and games, we were 10 minutes away from our first 24 hours at sea.
At the 24 hour point we had 709 miles to go.