Tales from day 1 and 2...
From our slick departure of cosy 'R' pontoon, the start of the rally was a
blur of emotions for all of us, with intermissions of music and cries of
"senoritas, senoritas, good luck! suerte!". Thank you Las Palmas and the ARC
team for an exciting departure despite the delays.
The Sultans gave us our final count down, the guns blasted and away we
flew. After a short time we were welcomed into the Atlantic by creatures of
the sea, as a school of dolphins joined our magical ride surfing the waves with
us. It truly was a fairytale beginning.
Our skipper the Queen of the seas had a look into her magical crystal ball
to try and avoid the dreaded wind hole south of Gran Canaria. If her career at
sea falls short of a penny or two, fortune telling could suffice; as predicted
we soared along all night with the wind at our backs.
As the saying goes "if you look after your carpet your carpet will look
after you." We swung straight into daily chores and crew responsibilities on
Tuesday and have so far completed the following:
Cleaning and checking our bilges
'Stroking our rigging" and checking for chafe - Yes Jerry a rig check
definitely takes way longer than three minutes!
Scrubbing the decks and disinfecting the heads
Disciplining the fruit and veg as for some reason they keep trying to
escape their three story five star hammocks...
Fridge frenzy madness with our dainty? bums in the air trying to find that
morsel of food that has slid its way to the bottom.
Feeding our skipper and mate - the crew are quickly learning that a good
way to keep them happy is by dosing them up with a wee Jaffacake or two.
Chocolate is turning out to be great for morale!
Night time sailing has become a highlight so far; with the sparkling stars
scattered like fairy dust across the velvet black sky, as we glide along
goose-winged; shooting stars above us and the phosphorescence light up behind
us; while we sail on toward St. Lucia.
Until next time goodnight from your nine fair
maidens.