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Scarlet Oyster - Scarlet Oyster ARC Blog Update Sunday 7th Dec 2014



Hi All,

Been pretty frenetic here! There have been numerous squalls over last 3
days, good news is we have all had showers, and also plenty to do! The A3
has been our work horse, it has been hoisted and dropped at least a dozen
times at all hours of the day, amazingly it is still in one piece, most
unusual especially as it has been flown in up to 35knots on a few occasions!
We must have used a couple of sheep's worth of wool in stopping it with wool
for each hoist!

The results have been great, and we have been racking up the miles. Hiking
is a new discipline to ARC sailing, but makes a difference when pushing
hard, we have 10 strong crew so have decided to capitalise on this, the
weight is no use on the wrong side!

We got caught by a massive cloud system after 1600 yesterday, the cloud had
its own wind system which was not conducive to speeding to st Lucia! It
took several tacks gybes and 2 hrs to extract ourselves, very much like our
rivals on Captain Blind had to deal with a few days ago! We therefore
cannot complain about it being unfair, as they eloquently put it 'it is the
race...'

Island Girl looks to have had a similar problem, perhaps on the same system
as it appeared to stretch SW to NE, others have also slowed in this line.
To our North tonight we have seen a lot of electrical activity, fortunately
we were aware of this and stayed far enough South. The moon has been very
useful to provide a little light to help us manoeuvre the boat at night.

The ultimate goal is still achievable with a little assistance from mother
nature, to beat the corrected time set by the mighty Leopard, we must cross
the line in St Lucia before 0100UT Tuesday (conveniently the bars will be
still open as it is only 2100 local time!) , we have lead them on handicap
from the start, but the weather from here on in is to say the least looking
tricky, every weather download suggests a different optimum route, the
latest seems to be to sail straight at the mark, simple it may seem but we
anticipate dozens of manoeuvres to negotiate the likely fickle conditions!
The team are up for it, we will finish this race as we have sailed it so
far, giving it our all! Our latest target VMG to win is a seemingly very
achievable 6.4knots to triumph over the big cat, I am certain this will come
down to the wire however! Leopards time is spectacular axing well over 2
days off the record, this is hugely impressive, congrats to Chris and his
team!

Was about to stick the kite on again but it has just started blowing 25knots
again from the beam, not bad for a 10knot forecast, lets hope tomorrow
brings similar over forecast conditions!

Bye for now from a slightly soggy but upbeat Scarlet Oyster! The rum
awaits!





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