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Lancelot II - Day 11



Date: Fri 7th Dec 2012
Time: 12:45 UTC
Position: 15’47.1N 45’38.4W
SOG: 1.2 – 5.9 knots
COG: 255’ – 325’ M
Weather: Sun & Cloud
Wind: All over the place and light!
 
Well, a frustrating last 24 hours have been had aboard Lancelot II from a sailing progress point of view, very light winds, sometimes no wind at all has made for not allot of progress over the last day.
 
This has however allowed us to turn ourselves into a slow moving Laundry Service as all the boats guardwires, deck space, and nearly any other part of the boat outside was used to dry out or wash all the clothing and bed linin that had got wet, damp (or just plain smelly!) over the last 10 days.
 
Another bonus of light winds in the middle of the Atlantic when you are this far South is the air and sea temperatures. Below decks as I type the air temperature is 32 degrees, the sea is around the mid 20’s but it is still cloudy outside, when the clouds clear and you get the full force of the sun beating down on the boat the air temperature increases quite rapidly! Yesterday afternoon was a sunny day with no wind at all to cool the boat down, there was only one thing to do in this situation, drop the sails and jump in the deep blue Atlantic Ocean!! Most of the crew enjoyed 30 minutes of swimming around the boat as we drifted at 0.5 knots on the current on our course, photographs where taken and as far as I know, no-one had thoughts of something big and horrible coming up from the 3825 meters to surprise an unsuspecting swimmer! (We always made sure we have a long line trailing out the back of the boat and kept at least 2 people on the boat at all times to assist each other should the boat start to sail and also to help any crew out the water who needed it! Safety first!!!).
 
As we enjoyed a fantastic sunset allot of the clouds cleared away and we where again viewing the millions of stars, few planets, and occasional satellite that surrounds this planet. Shooting stars were in abundance last night as the rubbish, rocks and whatever else floats around in space enters earths atmosphere and burns up leaving a long tail of light across the sky, an amazing sight!
 
What do you call a rainbow which forms at night by the light of the moon?  A fairy circle (too much like a tellytubby word). A Moonbow? A night rain spectrum roundy-thing? Whatever its called we experienced a beautiful one last night, a full half-circle of moon-induced night rainbowyness at 4 a.m. It passed serenely across our bows, and we didn’t even get into the shower behind it. 
 
This morning the shifts had separate breakfasts; the first with cereals and Jacko’s shift with Galileo’s scrambled eggs, mushrooms and oven baked bread.
As it started raining heavily from a local shower some of the crew are enjoying a – non salt – water wash-up and also a cool down. Funny to see Jack Sparrow and Galileo OB1 Squirrel hanging under the boom to receive the rain water from the main. It was round local time 10.30 h.
I think I can speak for the whole crew now in saying that we are looking forward to getting into some stable trade wind sailing now, sunshine, 20 knots of warm wind, rolling swell, warm sea and Rum not too far in the distance!!!
 
Callum – thx for your messages – the crew is getting on very well and we now have under a 1,000 miles to go
 
Thx for the best wishes from fellow LBCC committee members –  this regatta and our adventure across the Atlantic raise money for the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust – if you are able to give please visit the just giving web site under britanniaarc – if you have already given then a BIG thank you from the crew aboard Lancelot II
 
love to all at home, miss you all very much and will see you in a few weeks just before Santa turns up!
 
Jacko and Lancelot II xx
 
Sam, Neil I loove Sunderland , Sneaky Squirrel Pete, Trasher, Texan Ryan, Galileo OB1 Squirrelwalker Oscar and Shifty Jack Sparrow the Ninja!
 
Priscilla, Chris, Anna – Happy Birthday to Priscilla (5th), Anna and Chris (Both 10th). Love Neil
 
LULM 14:30 GMT
 
 



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