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EH01 - Day 11, 12 & 13



 Hello fans of the good ship EH01, thanks again for tuning into us.
 
Sorry again about the delay, can`t seem to get the blog out every day as between sailing, doing boat chores, cleaning, cooking, on watch and sleeping there hasn`t been a spare minute.! Did someone mention that the ARC was a cruising rally..?!  Again we have had an amazing, chaotic, fulfilling and tiring few days and we left you guys on Thursday night where we celebrated reaching the 1350nm halfway mark with some slices of chocolate (not too many.!) and coffee under a black sometime starry sky.!
 
Friday 2nd dawned like a grey day in the Solent or West Cork: it was very rainy with some ominous clouds and like a hot yoga studio below in the saloon. The watches are getting very tuned into reading the weather and preparing the boat and ourselves for the upcoming squalls and at one point we were sailing between a lightning storm on both the port and starboard sides, although these were 20 miles away. Both watches were pushed to the max all day, we put up Spinnakers, changed from an S4 to S5, reefed mainsails: one reef, 2 reefs, shook them out, peeled jibs and packed kites, all on not too much sleep. Cass and Jimbo worked out that we did 21 sail changes in 24 hours.! We did manage to gain some places here and are catching some of the boats on the Northerly route.  Fair play to Andras our skipper as he did not get much sleep over these 24 hours: he was out helping both watches as it was fairly hairy on the helm with the kite up as winds were gusting up to 25-30 knots in big wavy seas. Off watch if you can hear Andras`s clipped accent “instructing” the crew on some manoeuvres you know all is well...! Also I have to mention First mate Pricey (Rich) and Second Mate Jimbo (James) who did a great job keeping crew spirits up and helping both watches with various tasks.!
 
 
Flying fish
These are lovely  to watch flying through the water but not as they Hari Kari themselves into the boat and they get caught in the wheel base? and all you hear is them fluttering to death. Rich got tickled in the face with one fish as it flew by and got the shock of his life.
 
Saturday 3rd Peder`s Birthday
We celebrated Peder`s birthday on the watch change and Marketing made him a card which everyone signed and as they do say that the best things come in small packages so we gave him a single Ferrer Rocher chocolate which he was delighted with. Myself and Rich also did his “bilge cleaning” chore of the day.  We really have him spoiled.! As all with all celebrations on board a cake was “made” for Peder and if you have been paying attention to earlier blogs we have run out of eggs so extra margarine, milk and some yeast were added: Paleo/gluten free all the way.!

A word of advise to any budding sailor bakers do not pack your biggest kite whilst baking, the cake can become well done and the hot yoga studio becomes extra hot.. ! Saturday was a fab day and like the wholesome Brady bunch we spent the morning doing chores and laundry, great drying weather.! We are also flying along and clocking up some great sailing miles and reached another milestone: have under 1000nm to go, yee haa..! That`s only a Round Ireland race left to do!
 
 
Sunday 4th Rain, more rain and freshwater showers
We were on the 4-8am watch this morning and expected sunrise between 6.30-7am which didn`t happen and the mega rain began. Luckily Doug spotted the ominous black clouds and cool breeze to our starboard (squall warning) before we shook both the reefs out. 

As a Celtic person i`m more than used to the rain but have never seen anything like it, i filled a 2litre bottle full of rainwater to wash my hair. The boys all came out at the watch change and had great craic having showers from the rain water which was caught in the reef. this was needed light relief.Today the winds are very fluky and we are heading more North to avoid a wind-hole, our ETA rum Rodney bay is now Friday. A few of the crew have decided that we are going to look for a hotel when we reach St.Lucia and our criteria are pretty simple: the rooms just need to be bigger than 5 x 7”, it needs to be flat and not tilted to a 15` angle and if possible the girl would prefer not to share the toilet with 9 men..!
 
Til the next time
The EH01 Marketing Director out
 

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