Umiko - Umiko blog day 10 by Paul

We continue to make good progress towards our destination. Last night we went down to white sails and the winds are still honking today. Squalls abound but luckily no direct hits on us yet...

Paul has done today's blog.

Olly Out

Umiko ARC 2019 Blog - Day 10

Just over 1,000 miles to go, that’s about two whole Fasnet races, and we are trucking. The much vaunted 20 kt trades have finally arrived and there have been regular shrieks and hollers from aft proclaiming the latest “record” as we surf down the back of a wave. This record currently stands at 18.7 kts, Olly pipped my 18.4 kts earlier this evening, and will definitely hold until daylight as we are currently running under white sails as a night-time precaution with winds hitting 25 kts. This has slowed us a little but we are still managing a passable 11 kt average – you cannot beat waterline!

Its hard to imagine that with 1,000 miles to a finish we would be involved in a match race, but that is where we find ourselves. Our near sister ship, Stay Calm, and ourselves are engaged in a one on one battle to get to St Lucia first. Thankfully, Stay Calm is living up to her name, and we enjoy about a 40 mile advantage over her, last night she crossed our wake on a more northerly track, but we maintain a watchful eye on her progress.

On the genealogy front, there have been some developments and it seems that Olly’s great grandfather, John, was married to my great aunt Cora, so I think that this makes us second cousins once removed by marriage! John and Cora were a prosperous couple and it is my family legend that in the early 60s when Cora came to visit us she presented my father with 100 pounds “to buy sweets for the children”! Thankfully for the sake of our family’s dental health, this sum was purloined by my two teenage brothers and used to purchase an Enterprise dinghy called Phlegra. Thus began our family’s involvement in the sport of sailing!
The case of the “Shattered Oven Door” continues to both perplex and aggravate us. The perplexity from the fact that some one, or some thing, in the middle of the night, or day, managed to crash, or fly, into Chris’s oven door and make the oven unserviceable. This has led to the serious aggravation of having to eat freeze dried meals rather than the freshly prepared fare to which we have become accustomed. The investigation is ongoing, but it is likely that he culprit(s), when identified, will be keel-hauled by the rest of the crew!

Nightwatch and Crimewatch rivalry continues to thrive, with each watch vying to out-run or out VMG the other. Each crewmember has been received an honorary knighthood for their role in a multi verse sea shanty by its composer Sir Alan the Bard. While this shanty has yet to be debuted in public, we have been treated to sneak previews, and some of us are even aware of our shanty handles. I for example have moved on from Sir Polly the Invertor, it wasn’t fair anyway, to Sir Polly the Pensive. This may be due to my well known intellectual prowess, or more likely to the requirements of rhyme! It is expected that Sir Baz the Confounded will play a starring role in this work as his exploits are already legendary.

Routine issues continue to abound, kite halyard lock problems, chafe, minor repairs etc. all of which help to keep us busy. Turns out that one of our Swedish crewmembers is a dab hand at the sewing and spent his last watch below sewing the launching zipper back on to the A4, very professional job on what is a beast of a sail weighing in at a super heavyweight 200kg or so. Well done to Carl.

10 miles to go to the 1,000 nm milestone, so should hit that just before the end of this watch, so if it wasn’t 06.00 we might have a little celebration. As it is, we will probably just pat ourselves on the back and have a coffee.
Until we meet again.
Sir Polly the Pensive.