14:19N 60:28W dtf 30nm
Another transat draws to a close. As forecast™ by BxWx, the wind was super-light overnight, increasing gently this morning. Actually there was a lot more wind around Mojomo all last night, due to Dee being Mum yesterday and making bacon and eggs with baked beans for lunch, and then chilli con carne with lots more beans for dinner. Phwer! A few of us sat up on deck during the night to avoid the nasty niffs in the cabins.
In terms of sailing, this has been perhaps Mojomo’s most spectacular and exhilarating transat of the ten completed in the past five years. The ARC stats show that we had numerous days with 24-hour averages over 8knots, last Friday at 9.2knots and one day near the start (24th November) with an hardly-credible average of 16.1 knots for the first 15-16hours. Check it out – DTF from LP where we left just after midday 23rd Nov is 2845nm and our first recorded DTF on Thursday 24th at 4am showed 2597 – 248miles in under 16hours. Wow.
Our elapsed time of just over 14days would have put us arriving late last Sunday, when Mojomo would have crossed the line within the first nine boats, first in class, or even better. Mr Pink the giant 1.5oz spinnaker must take a lot of the credit – a 185sq sym spi which we flew for days on end in winds up to 32knots.
Sadly, our rig wasn’t 100% at the start, which blew a real chance of winning stuff. When the slightly-faulty rig bits were eventually replaced, it seemed massively over-engineered and the single loose strand was very rusted – it didn’t look like a recent “pop”. But Jerry, our insurer’s rigger sed it needs replacing, so that’s what we did. Sadly 14mm wire was specified and ordered and arrived and then – arg – everyone realised on the Saturday during the skipper’s briefing that it should have been 16mm. Not our fault that bit – Jerry and the LP riggers were mortified at the mistake. Heyho. And of course, DAMN!
Pretty ace crew for this transat. Olly was a last-minute arrival, new to this sort of sailing, and learned willingly and fast, and it’s always good fun to have a relative youngster about the boat. Nick definitely isn’t a youngster, had unfinished business in the Atlantic, his first transat now completed in some style, and in amongst the endless enjoyable small-talk I learnt lots from him and won a great friend. David had bad luck with a chest infection in the first week and gout in the second week, handled a lot of pain without fuss but had a good time, joined in all the silly fun and more than did his share of the sailing.
This transat completes a full Atlantic circuit for me and Dee which started at the very end of December 2010, and I’ve just had a bit of a happy weep thinking about how lucky I am to be with her. So many people (usually guys and perhaps the majority of ARC participants it seems) do these life-changing long voyages without their partners, and at long last I wasn’t one of the away-alone sailors in 2011.
A good test of a great crew is to ask yourself the following question: If the organisers suddenly changed the rules and said Hah! – this isn’t actually the finish - the new finish line is all the way back at the start in Las Palmas (or somewhere else more sailable, say another couple of thousand miles away)….now, would you be happy to turn around and head straight back with ALL the current crew on board? Hm? I thought of this question after last years ARC, and the answer was “Yes, I’d turn round and go again right now with the same crew” for me in 2010, and it’s Yes for this year’s ARC too. For lots of boats on the ARC it definitely won’t be Yes, and it definitely wasn’t an unqualified Yes on all Mo’ transats either. On ARC2011 we probably have enough food on board to go right now.
A very special thanks to BxWx who routed and guided us to the extent that this time I didn't bother getting forecasts on the satphone, nor did i need them. Yeah, other forecasters can do forecasts but Bx isn't afraid to be very specific whenever he can be - none of that vague arc-forecast "14-23 knots" - with Bx we often get an accurate forecast within a range of a couple of knots. Thanks again, and we love the fluffy text, of course. I'm not alone in thinking that he's far too good to keep to ourselves.
9:30 am and excited crew has spotted Dominica in the distance and we're adjusting the sails. Dee says we need to sort out the Barbarella. I think she means barber-hauler, but that’s a poxy name. Henceforth on Mojomo, a line holding out the foresail is a Barbarella.
I’ll blog again soon. At the very latest, we start WARC in january but i surely oughta be able to update before then.
Oh and erm, we’re gonna be early in Rodders. Even earlier than I thought before, praps 2ish local time on the line, 1800GMT. Sam’ll kill me, heehee.