CoKeMa - Wednesday 10th November - Day 3

Day 3 - we all had showers in the morning, far sooner than we had anticipated. A welcomed surprise!We flew the Oxley para sail for the first time this trip. Now that the winds have calmed the conditions are perfect for it. Smooth sailing now!Tony gave Orla a crash course in sailing, diagrams and all the jargon explained - almost as we hit the halfway point of the first leg of the ARC+ trip - better late than never.. right?!Ita made chicken picatta with spaghetti for dinner, and we blared the tunes for the evening.Ita and Orla can't for the life of them remember what they did for the day - but are absolutely positive they had a fabulous time!Much like Love Island, we are half expecting to arrive in Cape Verde and have a couple of million views on each of our blogs. So a big hello to all. read more...

CoKeMa - Wednesday 10th November - Hitting the halfway point!

Day 4 of our trip to Mindelo!We were joined by another pod of dolphins in the morning, they stayed with us for a good half hour.In the afternoon we contacted Navillus 3, as we could see they were close by, and arranged to converge for a picture taking frenzy. Scatcat made an appearance too, and sent their drone over to CoKeMa to capture some footage.Orla & Ita did some afternoon colouring, and the sun made an appearance for the first time this trip. There has been a notable change in temperature during the night - we started out wearing 3 layers during our night shifts and now we are down to one.We ate fajitas for dinner (Fred grilled himself a burger on the boat’s bbq) and played some more of the tunes that Tony had the foresight to download to his laptop.Today marks a big day for. read more...

CoKeMa - Monday 8th November - Day 2

Everyone had their first night watch last night. Crazy how within just a few hours all the boats that started this journey together dispersed, and we were left with three boats on our radar.Navillus 3 made a night time appearance while Ita was on watch. Tony took the graveyard shift, and Fred (ever the early riser) took over before the crack of dawn. For the first few nights Orla will be accompanying somebody on watch until all the ropes (literally!) and watch outs have been learned.The sea was pretty rough overnight and for most of the day Monday, calming a bit towards the evening.As it calmed, Ita and Orla did some arts and crafts. Each visitor to the boat gets a Polaroid taken of them and they get added to the window sill in cabin. Each Polaroid gets decorated - so pompoms, glitter. read more...

CoKeMa - Sunday 7th November, The Excitement

At last, the long anticipated first day of ARC+ 2021 has arrived.Preparation to leave Las Palmas R Dock began early. That said, most of the hard preparation work for CoKeMa was completed over the past few weeks - thanks to Fred's thorough and attentive nature.A few last minute errands, like collecting fresh bread & croissants that had been pre-ordered, emptying all the rubbish & recycling, changing courtesy flags, and going through CoKeMa's safety procedures were completed.Each member of the crew made sure to have their last, long, hot shower at dock - it's going to have to last us a while!Ita did a mountain of food preparation last week, meaning our dinner for this evening (Colombian chicken) is already defrosting on the counter, ready to be consumed. We took the time to stow. read more...