Gulliver of Southampton - 25th November

A couple of days log to catch up on since leaving La Palmas on Sunday at 13:00.Since our last entry, we have finished provisioning, stowing, tidying up the boat and set off on our epic voyage.  We spent our last evening relaxing at the Yacht Club where we hve felt very much at home frequenting the roof-top pool and sauna and drinking ice cold beers [activities which we found crucially important for our team building strategies]. We shared our final shorebased meal with the crew of Falbala. Three of us ordered the waiters recommendation, entrecote steak; if a fourth had joined us we would have been served the whole cow. - Ed methodically despatched the largest steak we had ever seen! Happy hour and fireworks at the ARC bar completed the evening. All around we could hear groups of sailors. read more...

Gulliver of Southampton - 26th November

Beautiful sunny day dawned with a very small hole in out light spinnaker which was quickly changed and repaired. We continue to head South hopefully to pick up better trades and we are currently at 22 45N 18 23W cruising along under spinnaker at 6kts under a starry sky.Today's activities included hours trying to find the right revs to generate and make water (we may have found them now - not sure why we have a sound shield as we can never fit it...) Lots of dolphins this afternoonEd took morning noon and aftrnoon sights so we are fairly sure our 6 GPS sets are not fibbing.Our chefs continue to excel with Spanish omelette for lunch and Normandy Pork for dinner - the first mango is nearly ripe so watch this space.Email is working well with daily comms with Chris Tibbs and ARC plus tonight. read more...

Gulliver of Southampton - 27th November

Flippering dolpins at dawn! Zoe and Anna were joined on 0400 - 0800 watch by at least 20 dolphins, very uplifting as they struggled womanfully to keep a hold of the wheel. Another beautiful day in he mid Atlantic. Winds have got up to 22 knots making speeds of 10 knots over the water and we have finally turned West this evening, St. Lucia here we come! As we made our (possibly final) gybe we were being ominously spyed upon by the Fin of Doomcircling round the boat. Round two of inter-VHF Battleships was unfortunately lost, score now 2-0 to Falballa.With much persistance Lis is slowly becoming a master of the wheel whilst Ed remains happy sticking tools in bits of machinery trying to make water with much sucess. Anna is hot on the Christmas decorations for the forthcoming festivities. read more...

Gulliver of Southampton - GULLIVER OF SOUTHAMPTON 28th November

Last night's run of 11 knots average boat speed ended abruptly when the spinnaker guy let go at around 2200. Fortunately the sail itself escaped intact and with a bit of splicing action should be ready to go again soon. Having retrieved and stuffed the spinnaker down the forehatch we resumed our course west (ish) under main and genoa with the remainder of the night progressing without further ado.Dawn (just after 0700...still working on GMT) saw the daily update fired off to Tibbsy and a change of watch at 0800 from Ed and Andy to Anna and Zoe. By 1000 the crew were all out of bed and some creative thinking combined with the arrival of a fresh weather forecast led to a gybe and a main drop, leaving mizzen and genoa pushing us along at a repectable 7 knots. The current strategy is to stay. read more...

Gulliver of Southampton - GULLIVER OF SOUTHAMPTON 29th November

Day 7Another utiful dawn in paradise, found us with a good wind heading towards the Cape Verdes. Some of us thought a brief detour a quick session at the laundrette and a visit to a beauty parlour might be a good way to spend the day. The Skipper and Mate [who are less in touch witth their feminine sides (well apart from E's green Tea?)] told us firmly that that was not realy in the spirit of the ARC and made us gybe, put the spinnaker back up and head West towards St Lucia, so it looks like that mannicure will have to wait another couple of weeks.On a slightly more serious note we hae had our first casualty.... Mr. Albahaca....who despite the best ministrations of the Ships Surgeon and the entire content of all five of those MCA green squashy bags has succomed to an overwhelming fungal. read more...