Friday 2nd December 2011
The Skipper – St Lucia in our sights, just over 600 miles to go
200 miles in a day yesterday and a momentary speed record for Eleanda of 14.6 knots last night. Cap that! Well yes we can just about, as I can report the distance run from 12h00 1st December GMT -2 to 11h00 2nd December GMT-3 was 203.2, an average speed of 8.47 knots. So I have not claimed for the hidden hour! Eleanda only gets into her stride on a run with the wind well over 20 knots and we have had just that for the last two or three days. What’s more, it looks like continuing to Sunday, although the wind speeds will start to decline slowly. The no wind hole is moving around. I have adjusted and shortened our course by turning south earlier. But coming in from the north still looks the correct decision. At present the forecast is for wind speeds of 8 – 10 knots in the eastern approaches to St Lucia, much better than yesterday, but still very light for us.
If we are sailing competitively for position and we are, make no mistake, then we must be ruthless about using the engine, for which there is a 50% time penalty. If our speed drops below 5.5 knots, then we must motor at 8 – 9 knots, however sad that might be.
This afternoon we are definitely ahead of yesterday’s ETA forecast. I now think we will cross the finishing line as early as 18h00 on Tuesday, 6th December.
The squalls seem to be bothering other boats more than us. But we have to remain vigilant. Miranda says we have seen nothing yet like the squalls she encountered when she did the ARC in 2005. They come up on you from astern, bringing torrential rain for a few minutes before passing on. But the wind speeds can rise alarmingly and there can be sudden direction shifts risking a gibe.
There was some doubt about Eleanda’s placing in the fleet. Heleen emailed me earlier today to say that we had gone up to 6th in our Division and to 20th overall in the cruising boats – sadly not. The ARC email to Eleanda gives our position at 04h00 each day. But they had not received a fix from Eleanda since 12h00 yesterday. So I emailed for the 08h00 fix, which duly arrived. I can confirm that we remain in 7th place in our Division, but have gone up from 45th to 36th overall in the ARC Fleet, including the Racing Divisions. We are now only two places behind Geronimo, a Swan 651, at 34th, in 6th place in our Division. It is probable that we will remain in our 7th place, but nevertheless we are more likely to go up rather than down in our division. Uxurious remains 9th, but has dropped to 82nd overall, and Fair Lady, our sister Hallberg, is still 11th but has dropped to 88th overall.
Picture the sea state with Eleanda sailing along at 9 knots. The swell is long and huge, perhaps over 5m between peaks and troughs. We get a long lull when everything is quite stable and smooth. Then a sudden series of rolls hits us. They can be quite violent. Books bang in the bookcase and get wedged with towels. Wine bottle rattle. Water bottles go flying across the Saloon. You can leave nothing out unless it is on a sticky mat. The roll has been worse for the last 36 hours. Previously we have had some surprisingly smooth days.
At 18h00 this afternoon we have covered 2,155 miles, with 636 miles to go. Our average speed since leaving Las Palmas is still only 7.2 knots. But for the last 2 ½ days or 60 hours, it has been a magnificent 8.45 knots. No wonder our ETA has moved forward. The usual summary shows –
Monday 21st, 23 hours from the rally start 142.7 nautical miles
Tuesday 22nd 162.0
Wednesday 23rd 194.3
Thursday 24th 185.2
Friday 25th 187.4
Saturday 26th 155.3
Sunday 27th 140.4
Monday 28th 166.2
Tuesday 29th 180.5
Wednesday 30th 177.6
Thursday 1st December 200.0
Friday 2nd 203.2
We are all relaxed and really enjoying the ship’s watches and routine, particularly as we are sailing with white sails only. They are so much more stable and need less attention. But, as James writes below, there is always something to repair. Tonight it is hard to believe that St Lucia is just 3½ days away and that several of the high speed multihulls in the ARC have already arrived. The excitement of the impending landfall has yet to take hold. It can’t be long coming.
Tides and gales of good wishes to all our followers.
From
Nigel and his magnificent crew.
From the Deck Crew
My Snapshot of the day
This afternoon I needed to straddle the boom, 7 feet off the deck at the gooseneck, to re-stitch and re-attach the main sail tack to the mast furler. Earlier in the day Miranda’s eagle eye had spotted the slack in the sail along the luff. With in-mast furling it generally can only be two things: Halyard or Tack. It was the latter, with the outhaul pulled tight to keep the sail away from the shrouds we inadvertently put too much pressure on the tack which gave way sometime this morning. Armed with the usual boson’s gear I went aloft and clipped on. About 60 minutes later after a few breaks to ease the stiffness in my hands and fingers I had a tack again. With the current wind strength we opted to rig up a Cunningham opposed to dropping the halyard, simple. Next!
James