OK for the sailing types here is what is going on.
The ARC is deliberately timed to be at the end of the hurricane season when there are no more 'waves' coming off the African coast that might develop into hurricanes as they track across the Atlantic from east to west. The idea behind the ARC is to follow the traditional trade winds, south from the Canaries (where the ARC starts) until the easterly trade winds develop. Where to turn west is the big question and it varies each year. Some boats head straight for the Caribbean, others go some way south to try and catch better winds. The traditional recommendation is "go south until the butter melts" which is reckoned to be somewhere below 20 degrees south.
This year we were told to head a long way south and we did, as you will see from our track reports. We almost reached the Cape Verde Islands which are also used as a start point by other boats crossing the Atlantic at this time of year. These boats are sometimes call NARC (non ARC) boats.
As we set sail initially we were going downwind, so we were goosewinging the sails by poling out the genoa. In other words the front sail goes out the opposite side to the main sail and is held out to the side using a pole. A trick we have learnt with this combination is to also fly our storm jib at the same time. The storm jib is a small sail which attaches to a hank-on forestay. We sheet it in hard on the same side as the main sail and it partly fills the hole between the genoa halyard and the mast. In other words it is a little sail which we would normally use in a storm but in this combination it just helps us go downwind and helps to damp the rolling. Yes, the rolling which when you go downwind is quite pronounced. It is a regular rocking 20-30 degrees each side with an occasional big juddering roll to settle the boat.
When not going dead downwind we have started to use our cruising chute, (MPS) which is a great big lightweight asymmetric spinnaker. At the beginning of the year we were quite in awe of this big sail but now Oscar and I can handle it reasonably easily. Well let's say we manage to get it up and down eventually. We always take this sail down at night because the wind often gets up at night and it is also more difficult to see the squalls at night.
Squalls are a feature of the trade wind weather. They work themselves up as towering black clouds normally with rain underneath and always with high winds. As they go through the sea stays much the same but higher winds veer round the boat. The recommendation is reduce sail and carry on. We had a few squalls last night but the wind was not too heavy wind, say 25 knots. We also came through some heavy electrical storms a week ago, again at night, which produced some spectacular light effects. Angela was characteristically nervous about it all of this.
Chafe on the lines is a real problem when sailing for long periods like this. We have some leather protectors which wrap around the lines (ropes) where they might rub and we have managed to minimise other wear but we have still managed to get a small tear in our cruising chute (on the corner) and bent one of the stanchions so there will be repairs as well as much cleaning to be done when we reach St Lucia.
We communicate with other boats using SSB radio (short wave radio) which is a new toy for us. It is pretty crude but works. We can also use a modem attached to this radio to send plain text emails, but it takes forever just like land based dial-up modems. We also have a very expensive satellite phone installed to enable us to do our work email. In reality, we also use this for sending boat email including the blogs. It is a bit like slow broadband and handles the picture attachments in our out going email. We cannot receive attachments on the boat email though apart form special weather files.
The generator and water maker have certainly made life aboard much more bearable. Angela's desire for regular showers was a 'must have' in getting her aboard to go abroad. Thank heavens it is all still working or was as I write this. All in all the boat has performed exceptionally well and we are more confident with her than ever before. She is a great boat and we are very lucky.
Much love to you all R