WORLD ARC
The Secret Diaries of Quasar V of Lleyn (age 6 ¾)
Chief Characters (in order of appearance)
Malcolm Craig (age 64 ¾ - adolescent)
Robert Locke (age 62 ¾ - regular guy and author of this blog)
Lindsey Davis (alias Linds Ayres- stitchy bard)
Janet Broadley (age 15 ¾ - family lawyer - a.k.a. JB)
Lori Evans (age 52 ¾ - a.k.a lorry -family and criminal law lecturer)
Bob Maisey (age 63 ¾ a.k.a babbling Bob - character-in-chief)
Pre-World ARC
I am writing this on Wednesday 23rd January the day we started World ARC. It's been the usual round of preparing and partying, and needless to say it has taken its toll!
Arrived on Thursday 17th and immediately met in Spinnakers, JB, David (husband of JB for new readers, and Lindsey plus our usual mates: Steve from Kasuje, James and Chris from Cleone and Elizabeth their young Canadian crew.
Kasuje incidentally is made up from the first 2 letters of his 3 daughters names. I asked him later in the trip what his wife thought about this (I mean not including her!), but he didn't know! Steve is a very laid-back friendly guy, who apparently taught himself to sail sailing round Britain - single-handed!
A late night for us as we finished about 4 am UK time! Went to the ARC office the next day and bumped into Andrew Bishop (MD of World Cruising) and asked whether it was true as Lindsey alleged (having met her on the Gatwick
flight the day before in the new Quasar polo shirts) that he was going to sue us for copyright on his ARC logo. He laughed and said that suing was probably a bit strong! So I offered to buy him a beer to settle! We are actually very pleased with the new shirts definitely the smartest in the fleet and at least 3 of our crew (the blonde babes) look really good in them!
Shopping and jobs on Friday followed by a drinks party for the whole fleet on board David Holliday's Oyster 72 'Kealoha 8. (David incidentally seems to be an exceptionally nice guy, if a little barmy for letting his crew invite more than a hundred drunks on his amazing yacht!).
People in the past have admired the interior of Quasar V from time to time, but believe me Kealoha 8 is in a different universe! Malcy came out with a guess at how many millions it had cost to build and 4 days later someone came back to him and told him the rumour that Malcy had actually started, but it was stated as a fact! (Chinese or St Lucien whispers?) We then eat on board a chilli chicken dish I had made on the ARC, before JB moved in prior to David's departure on Saturday-she is allergic to chilli! We are joined by Lori a friend (from Exeter) of Gabby and Jonathon (of Aqualoonies fame) who was looking to change boats to the Galapagos. It was an easy decision to take her on!
More of the same during the day on Saturday followed by an official World ARC event at Buzz, which was really good. We are joined by the usual gang plus one of Steve's daughter's Susie and boyfriend Guy.
Met another Sue who is reporting for Yachting World and she came to interview Malcy and I on Sunday morning and took some photos of the crew and of Lindsey with our extensive medical kit with the drugs, defibrillator, oxygen, beds pans, BP machine, catheter sets etc. (At the end of the day there are going to be a minimum of 3 codgers on this trip all the way round and one things for sure we will be older codgers by the end of it!)
Oh and by the way I am in theory on the boat for around 3 months and although I really enjoy reporting and trying to create a bit of humour at the same time, writing everyday is a voyage into the unknown and it may be that I dry up with any interesting content and humour in a couple of weeks!
(JB) Alas, don't fear, JB will soon hijack the blog, and humour, intrigue and skulduggery will soon abound - as an aside it has been agreed that this time JB will put her initials against her writing! (JB)
Talking of JB shopping with her is a bit of an experience when in giggly mood especially when in typical lawyer mode she has to negotiate almost every item that goes in the shopping trolley!
We have no fisherpersons on this trip so no fishy stories. Malcy was winding me up yesterday by claiming when he had met Sue from YW again and to further her quest for exclusive racy news had told her that I was a recovering
alcoholic, who had recently come out! I will get him back, but my stories will be true (I've plenty to go at!) Watch out Malcy!
Sunday brought the arrival of Bob. He seems a very nice guy and very knowledgeable about sailing, but tends to talk non-stop especially after a couple of beers! JB has rather unkindly christened him 'Babbling Bob', but at the same time has put herself on watch with him so there will maybe be a competition at night between them and as I am in the aft cabin, on top of the autopilot noise and the prop shaft generator noise, I will have considerable additional noise pollution, not great for an insomniac!
JB has been doing the watch system, but thought you spelt the name of our other new crew member 'Lori' 'Lorry'. Lori is not keen on a sort of twenty ton truck nickname, but says she once knew a lecturer called Driver, who suggested they might get married (Lori Driver - get-it!)
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