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Skyelark of London - Day 1 - We start



After a week of gentle preparations, we all enjoyed the carnival atmosphere
in Las Palmas before the start of this year's ARC. Despite a cooling shower
or two in the morning and grey skies, there was no rain for the start,
however we were not lacking in wind. A particularly boisterous start this
year, we opted for our favourite headsail only approach, nice and
manoeuvrable and not too much sail up in anticipation of the 30 knots
expected in the acceleration zone off Gran Canaria.
There was a distinct lack of cruising chutes and spinnakers this year, so
not as photogenic as usual but certainly a flying start, surfing the waves
at over 10 knots at times. The boats all spread out quite quickly due to the
conditions and overnight there were only a few lights visible. A fast night
of sailing gave us a good noon run of 150 miles towards St Lucia already,
even though a lot of those miles were heading south first to clear the
Canary Islands. Not much sleep last night due to big swells pushing the boat
around, but more or less all the crew have found their sea legs and are
getting used to moving around a swaying boat. Some great helming in trying
conditions, although at one point a monstrous wave broke over the cockpit
soaking the 3 of us on deck at the time and giving the cockpit a good wash
down. We lost half of our fishing gaff in the process and our aft skipper's
bunk will take a while to dry out due to an open 'comms' hatch!
Today the sun has come out and we are continuing with our headsail and
making good progress, heading slightly south of the rhumb line in case we
need to avoid some lighter winds further along the way. The crew are now
grabbing some well deserved sleep and enjoying a slightly kinder sea state.
Chinese laundry on deck and muffins in the oven, all is well.

Em



day1

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