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Ximera - Log day 2 - Great Start & Barracuda



Hi everybody, this is Jonas again, your friendly logger from the yacht Ximera.

As everybody on the ARC Europe knows, yesterday was a beautiful day of sailing to kick off the 6-week sail from the British Virgin Islands to Portugal. Blue skies, 18-25 knots of wind, and boundless cheer all around. 

Some ginormous 70+ footer blew everyone else out of the water, but besides that, the fleet was for the most part tightly packed until we made it out of the bay and headed North to Bermuda.

I haven't raced boats in a while, but upon reflection, what a silly thing it is. I'm not talking about dingy races - those are good fun - or professionals circumnavigating the globe a la the Volvo Ocean Race. I am talking about the  yachties in the local Wednesday or Saturday night club races. Off duty doctors, lawyers and landscapers jockying for position at the start or around the mark, testosterone levels flying and trading insults, claiming their right to bully someone out of a desired spot (eg, "UP UP UP!!!!," or, "STARBOARD TACK!!!!"), until it all goes terribly wrong and many tens of thousands of dollars are paid to the local shipyard to fix the bows of the two boats that have collided.

No offense meant, especially to the yachties in their dorky club races. I guess they're not harming anyone. 

On the other hand, besides getting off to a great start yesterday (no bullying other boats involved), we CAUGHT A FISH!!!! This is a historical moment as it is the first fish ever landed on this 2+ year old yacht. Our hero, the Danish cub scout commando Simon, caught it. We were told we would catch something off the "Barracuda Bank" and so we did - fittingly, a Barracuda. We filleted it right away and it made a lovely dinner. 

Oooooooh, Barracuda!!! (from the 1980s hard-rock classic).


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