The crew comprise the owners Richard and Dawn, and Paul, Jim and Joe who we've raced with for many years. The ARC is part of a trrip to New Zealand as Dawn has decided it is time to go home, and as I love the place I'm not arguing! For this race we will be working on a watch system of 2 people on deck for 3 hours, 2 people off watch to sleep or recover however they wish and a different person each day has the day off. Numbers to bear in mind - normally we plan on doing 130 nautical miles (nm) per day at an average of 5.5 knots (kts - nautcal miles per hour) - a Nautical mile = 1.15 miles = 1.85 kilometres.
Day 1
We waved off Mum & Dad at pontoon at 10.45 and left for the start area in order to suss out the weather and for some of the crew to let the paracetomol get to work on last nights wine! While waiting, our friends from Las Palmas came out to see us off on Hectors boat Roque Gando and gave us a great send off.
The start was in very light wind and in a stroke of genius we faked problems hoisting the spinnaker s that we could avoid the log jam of boats all making the same point of the start line - it had nothing to do with the guys not having sailed the boat for 13 months or the hangovers honest! Very soon we got to near the airport where the wind accelerates round the headland and stayed at a force 6 so at 18.00 we dropped the spinnaker to go under white sails for the night and head south. Traditional lore for finding the trade winds is to head south until the butter melts and that is what we were going to do to try to get steady winds. We made very good progress with F6 turning into a F7 where we reduced the size of the mainsail and genoa so that he boat was manageable in the big waves. Highest speed acheived by Dawn at 12.4kts.
Daily miles = 180nm
Day 2
Wind stayed at F7 for much of the day before easing back to a F5/6. We decided to turn right (to head west) firstly becuase we had heard that the sailing in the Western Sahara desert wasn't as good as the Atlantic :) and that we discovered that we had stocked up with margarine and not butter so would never know when it melt - such are the decisions of great tacticians! Besides, on the reports we were getting everyone else seems to have headed off to the west much earlier - now wondering if we have missed sdomething vital - still got 18 odd days to think about that one! Still good speeds with Richard getting 12.7kts only for Paul (as usual) to get a 13.8kts a short while later. Caught a whiff of something very stale and fishy - think it was a whale spouting upwind of us. Short while later see whale spout in the distance. Later still same fishy smell identified as Jim's socks - whale theory now in doubt! Skipper stressed by smal leak at rudder giving the bilge pump some exercise with a constant trickle - it hasn't leaked for the last 2 months - why now? Probably the extra weight we have on board which makes the boat sit lower in the water.
Daily Miles = 174nm
Day 3
Lots of not so nice stuff on the radio, a possible Mayday and mention of a yacht being abandoned after losing their rudder. Our position on the race board is still looking sick - almost as sick as the skipper who now has a cold. Wind still in the F6 range but the size of the waves has reduced a little.
Daily Miles = 172nm