Date: Thurs 23/1117
Position: Lat: 23 12.93 N
Long: 21 18.92 W
Welcome back, dear readers, as yacht Infinity of Yar approaches the Tropic of Cancer.
Things have not been going so well for the last three days. The crew are all well and the boat continues to behave like a dream but the weather...it's not that we have too much weather, completely the reverse. After a lovely first day we have run out of wind completely. We have spent the last two days
heading west in light airs chasing the wind below a low pressure system to the north west.
Now, readers, attached to the stern of all the yachts on the ARC is a satellite tracking system called a 'yellow brick'. This tricky little gizmo allowsthe good people back at ARC race control to see where every yacht is at any time; and if you are interested you can too by visiting the ARC website on
www.worldcruising.com and click on ARC 2017.
So you can follow us real time via our 'yellow brick' whilst we head down our very own yellow brick road. Sadly for us this particular road turned out to be a cul-de-sac. In fact a cul-de-sac with a sodding great car park at the end. How big is this car park? Well, I will tell you; it is about 300 miles from north to south and about 1,200 miles across from east to west!
It's great for swimming if you don't mind the deep end being about 4,000 metres deep; it's great for fishing! Kipper has now caught four fish and yesterday morning we all had mahi mahi sushi for breakfast complete with fresh ginger and soy sauce and wasabi; but it is sod all use for sailing which is what we came here for!
We have done our best to sail in 2-9 knots (more 2 than 9) of wind backing and veering constantly through 90 - 120 degrees and now it has died completely.
So now we are motoring south west towards the Cape Verde Islands hoping to find some wind by Friday morning that will eventually take us down to connect with the trade winds. I will have to let you know later how well that particular plan works out.
In the meantime we are eating well (all healthy stuff of course) and every evening we have a 30 question crew quiz to much baracking and hilarity.
This has become very competitive but is less Mastermind more pub quiz written by Joey from Towie . The cumulative scores will be revealed when we get to
St. Lucia but let me reveal that our skipper 'Buzz' Davey is emerging as a bit of a quiz fiend.
As we head south under engine and are about to cross the Tropic of Cancer I bid you farewell for now and until next time:
" To Infinity & Beyond "