Well at last, the beginning of the Great Adventure - ARC 2009, the culmination of three months work and an eighteen hundred mile delivery trip from UK to Las Palmas, via Lagos, Portugal and Lanzaote in The Canaries. We were sad to say farewell to Valerie, Lucy and Millie who had all travelled out from UK to LP and been a great support team - I can't
thank you enough for all of your assistance in getting us to the start line, fully victualled and in great shape for the Atlantic crossing ahead. As we cast off, a Marching Band stood on the pontoon playing a renditition of 'Happy Birthday To You', to celebrate Kitt's (otherwise known as Captain Rick) Birthday which happened to coincide with 'Race Day'. All the red lights went out and we scorched away from the grid, not exactly from pole position, but mid-fleet, due to a slight mix up with identifying the correct outer distance mark!! However, Hoff worked hard for the next 2 hours, rolling a number of other ARC yachts & making up the time lost, then passed the wheel on to the another member of the crew, feeling he had redeemed himself, slightly. Meanwhile, Choff (Mike F) conjured up a fantastic chicken dinner under a rising wind strength & somewhat challenging sea conditions. This galley cooking lark was a first for Choff, which he
later described as making dinner whilst simultaneously riding a motorbike!!
We headed south through the night with Knightrider ducking and diving with ease through the moderate to rough seas. At our first 24 hour ARC check in we were pleased to have covered something approaching 170 miles, albeit, due
to the wind direction, more towards Africa than St Lucia! As often the case, not much sleep was achieved during the first day at sea, but with less wind forecast, plus crew finding their sea legs this will soon pass. Well thats all for now and standby for tomorrows episode where all the other Knightrider characters will be introduced.
Mike (The Hoff)
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