We have finally signed out with the ARC officials to start on our voyage across the Atlantic. I would like to welcome all the boys and girls from Guestling Bradshaw primary school who said they would like to follow our progress. You can all email us at [email protected] to ask questions and we will do our best to reply within 24 hrs. However because we are at sea and are dependant on our internet connections through a satellite telephone link our response may take longer, so please don’t worry.
You can also follow The ARC on Facebook and on the official the Arc website at www.worldcruising.com/arc
We have gone over the boat thoroughly including having a surveyor from our insurance company climb all over the rig, to check for any faults; thankfully we have the all clear.
PS please do not send photos in your emails as our internet connection cannot cope. We can send photos because we have software to compress them.
The crew have all had their final shower and we are all excited at the prospect of finally getting back to sea.
Sailor Sam
So we’ve all had our last full nights sleep for ~3 weeks and unfortunately the ear-plugs kindly given to me by Giles before I left were not enough to drown out all the snoring! We woke up to rain but the sun is coming out for the start but still shorts and t-shirts weather. Studying the start instructions and quite fancy a port-hand flyer, preferably in 1st position. We plan to head south towards the Cape Verde islands initially before turning west into the trade winds about 150 miles north of the islands. Current weather forecast is 10 knots from the north-east which should help us find our sea-legs although we all took our sea-sickness pills last night (cinnarazine MR 75mg for all you pharmacists reading this which you won’t find in the BNF!)
Looking forward to surfing the Atlantic rollers with the spinnaker flying
Glo
At last we are almost ready for our Atlantic adventure. Our provisions finally arrived at 2100 hrs last night so we had to stow them all etc in the dark. Time was so short we didn’t wash the fruit and veg etc, let’s hope a little cockroach egg didn’t find its way on board and hatch. That would be the quickest way to get me up the mast. Yesterday I was worried about toilet rolls. Have we got enough for five people for three weeks, how many does one person use in a week? I have that strange feeling that I have forgotten something, but don’t know what. Anyway soon it will be too late and we will be out at sea heading south for The Cape Verdes before we turn west for The West Indies. Bring it On!
IT Donald
Not much more to say. We are all looking forward to meeting our loved ones at Christmas time. We hope to send emails every day but sometimes we can’t do it – don’t worry if we don’t send. In the mid ocean going downwind the boat rolls and you have to hold the computer down with one hand and use one finger to peck out the email. We all took my Spanish 24hr sea sick pills to see how they suit people ! However when we looked at the present Atlantic wind pattern the winds are light so we could have a slow passage.
(Un)able-seaman Ashley
Firstly and finally I wish to thoroughly and completely agree with all of the above. OUT.