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Arcarius of Plymouth - Day one "High ho and away we go"



Day one "High ho and away we go"

Oh dear Skipper had (as stated in the Arcarius theme tune)
"an absolute Sheila of a morning".
BVI was engulfed in a deluge of hot showers that flooded the treacle mines and left the treacle miners of Webster, waterlogged in their own pit and having to retreat into hot oilies instead of their preferred dress code of tailored red speedos.

Our poor Skipper was left all at sea, he had crew and boat ready to harness the wind, release the slip and be in pole position for the start of the ARC. Instead he had to wait in the doldrums and queue for one and a half hours to clear BVI customs, undoing his strategy for the start of ARC Europe. Even Bob Marley' Don't worry be happy" could not rally him until he was goose winging and running west through the beautiful VirginIslands and then onto Bermuda.

The start went outstandingly well, skipper on the helm, Mark on the foresail and Scare-pirate in full pirate ensemble was recording the moments through the discerning eye of the camera lense. Yes a proud moment for us all on board as we sailed over the start line in second to last position. Being one of the smallest boats in the fleet, however, this was a strategic move and ensured weren't overshadowed by the bigger yachts enormous sail area.



We quickly settled into our roles on board 3 hours watch duty and 6 off and in that first 24 hours we travelled 147 miles. Lunch and evening meal passed fairly uneventfully, with only one dispute over whether tomatoes should be served with tuna!!!!! To our delight in the early evening sunlight a Pod of spinning dolphins formed a welcoming fly by and performed pirouettes to entertain the crew of Arcarius. On the beam we watched the antics of flying fish and then to finish the performance another pod, this time bottled nose dolphins joined us for a while to play in the surf created by our bow wave. This was all too exciting for Mark who took some lovely shots of them whilst hanging over the bow, he was almost able to stroke them.



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