SATURDAY 5th MAY 2010 ( The BVI's to Bermuda , distance 850 miles approx, )
Well , well, hello again,
Its interesting to be sitting here again in front of this computer wondering what to say about our 3rd adventure with the World Cruising Club, Returning to Ireland,
In 2008 we enquired about ARC 2009 from WCC, It took us 6 months to decide on sailing the event, when we recieved all the paperwork from Cowes we found included a brochure of " World ARC 2010" among the documents, It took skipper 15 minutes to read this brochure and 15 minutes later, we were booked on world ARC 2010 / 2011
3 years later and nearly 50,000 miles of sailing, we are back with WCC on ARC Europe,
TODAY:-
CREW , Stephen & Aileen Hyde, ( Cork )
Denis O Sullivan & Vera O Herlihy ( Cork )
Tom Delaney & Linda Baker ( New York )
07.00hrs Up early, skipper having had a bad night sitting on the LOO as a result of dining out, Gawd, you just never know whats up in restaurants these days, however no one else had a problem, just skipper, sooooo, perhaps it was something else, and then today of all days. However, matters had improved by 07.30 when we slipped over to the fuel dock for a diesel top up,
The weather forecast is for light winds all the way, so we filled the tank to 1100L ( 1 ton ) of diesel. We checked out with WCC and settled our a/cs with the marina office before lowering all the bunting checking all our saefty gear , etc, etc, and then at 11.00hrs we nibbled our way out of the marina and over to the starting area,
The winds were very light from the SE , so the start at NOON was a first for skipper with most boats motoring over the start line as fast as they could. We motored west around the end of Tortolla and then headed North, with the 3 Irish boats in the first bunch, Thats ourselves " A Lady" plus Asteroid & Emilija, Out past Jost Van Dyke on our starboard side and open sea with a cooler breeze, but very light and of course right on the nose,
Lunch time came and we had Hot Dogs plus some salad sandwiches , The wind was still very light and it was hot, mind you, not as hot and sticky as the marina, because we had that little breeze, We set a waypoint at St Davids head on the SE of Bermuda, so we travelled ( motored ) up the rhum line untill the wind filled in around 19.00 hours,
We shut down the " Iron Mainsail" and altered course by 25 degrees and sailed the boat with 16 / 18 knots of wind from the NNE , a spanking sail while we had dinner in the Starlight Restaurant , ( Cockpit )
The food consisted of " Cottage Pie " cooked by skipper, all yum, yum,, and all clean plates,
No alcohol, as a general rule we abstain while at sea, keep the wits alive,
We settled into our first night sailing along at about 7.5 knots,
Watches :- 19.00hrs ----- 00.00hrs Skipper & Aileen
00.00hrs ------ 03.00hrs Denis & Vera,
03.00hrs ----- 06.00hrs Tom & Linda,
The night was uneventful, we could see many other boats around us , and at 04.30hrs the wind died again , so on with the flippin engine again,, Ohhhh that noise ! but, but , we have to keep the momentum going,
Thats it for today,
Signed :- Stephen Hyde ( Skipper )