Day 3 - ARC 2010
As of 16.00hrs our position is 23:10.6 N 19:11.5 W as we keep sailing SSW towards the Cape Verde Islands.
Last night was cloudless with an enormous full moon lighting the sea and our deck and today has been just as brilliant, romping along under our colourful spinnaker in 15 knots of breeze.
There is now not a yacht in sight although there are 230 of them out there somewhere. Instead we have had a school of dolphins for company diving around our bow and quarter wave.
James has been up the mast in the bosun's chair some 23 metres to the top, to check for chafe and wear and all is well. He took two of the pictures in our gallery from the end of the spinnaker boom.
When we are off watch and not involved in the galley, where Ben is producing some mouth-watering meals, sunbathing and reading seems to be the order of the day. However, the third photo shows the 3 sous-chefs of the day (Fiona, Peter & Sue) helping out baking bread, washing up, or making croutons for lunch.
There has been much radio chat between the yachts about little happenings such as a fish caught (which regrettably does not include us as yet), and thoughts about fairly confusing weather forecasts. The trouble is we are in a big ocean, with weather systems forming and moving in various directions and yachts wish to avoid strong head winds. The problem is where will a low pressure area be in 4 or 5 days' time and where do we have to go to avoid it? Or, just as bad, neither do we want to place ourselves in an area with no wind. With our speed giving us just over 150 miles per day we are looking
at a commitment 500 miles away!
In fleet race terms we seem to be doing OK so far, as it has been reported to us by a Radio Net friend that we are 17th out of the whole cruiser fleet - but then, there is a long way to go..
Peter & Alan