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ARC fleet settle into life at sea



The ARC 2014 fleet are happily settling into life at sea and are now 48 hours in to their Atlantic crossing adventure. The seminars, parties and preparations life cycle of Las Palmas has been replaced by surfing down waves, sail changes and dolphin spotting. Summed up by one crew member on board Aretha, ‘Once you slip your lines and head out there is little else you can do and you settle into a routine on the boat. All you have to do now is enjoy the sailing and change your land routines for sea routines. And so it has been with us as well.

Logs received from the boats at sea so far keenly detail the joy of Atlantic sailing as the majority of the fleet make their way south to pick up the trade winds to Rodney Bay, Saint Lucia. Waiting for the front that postponed the start until Monday to pass through did little to dampen spirits once lines were slipped from Muelle Deportivo and the fleet put to sea. ‘This has been a marvellous moment! All those sails and Gran Canaria island in the background was something we will all remember!’ reflected Marc on board Arrayan 2.

The first 24 hours  at sea saw a moderate NE breeze whisking the fleet away from the port of Las Palmas, ‘Little Pea and her crew have stormed down the East Coast of Gran Canaria and through the acceleration zone where we saw wind speeds consistently in the mid to high 30s (knots),’ reported the crew on board the Southerly 38, ‘Whilst bombing down this inside track, Little Pea was in her element taking on much larger vessels. We're one of the 10 smallest yachts competing this year, which in theory means we should be one of the 10 slowest too.

At the other end of the size spectrum, life on board the largest yacht in this year’s rally, Leopard by Finland, is pretty plain sailing, ‘We have done one solitary sail change soon after the start to our biggest spinnaker and since then we have gybed a couple of times and sitting on around 20 knots plus or minus 5 knots of boatspeed in glorious conditions.’ Over the next few days, with the ARC course record set firmly in their sights, the drama may yet rise on board the 100ft super-maxi.

ARC Mascot Sailor Ted has settled well into his new home on board Morning Haze with the Hayes family on their Hunter 410, and has been one of several boats to have enjoyed a few fishing triumphs to supplement their larder. In fact, the first catch was claimed by Czech boat Apollon who landed a wahoo just 10 minutes after the start.

                     

First Catch for Apollon                 Fish for dinner on Morning Haze

A number of boats have diverted following the start and are hoping to continue with the rally following repairs. Anna sustained rigging damage whilst Blue Ocean and Rhumb diverted to Marina San Miguel, Tenerife with a damaged mainsail and autopilot failure respectively. Mr Grey is diverting to the Cape Verdes for unspecified reasons. Leeway is safely back in Las Palmas and has withdrawn after an accidental gybe cause rig damage.

Meanwhile further into the Atlantic, 51 yachts sailing ARC+ who departed Mindelo one week ago are continuing to make good progress towards Saint Lucia. Over half of the fleet have now celebrated reaching the halfway point.


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