Greetings from yacht Ensemble!
We had a quite quiet evening last night with the family and crew of Seaquest and an early night.
This morning I was up early to finish our customs clearance and get last minute supplies (wine and softdrink). The process went smoothly enough - but our dreams of a last minute internet update were shattered with a power outage on the island. This also meant no ATMs - so the provisions cleared
out most of our US$ - no need for them anymore anyway...
I got back to the boat and go to the last minute tasks of cleaning the hull and making sure everything was 'ship shape' - while Magali packed away the provisions and reorganised the fridge.
We were joined by Joel Chadwick - who will be crewing with us for this leg. Joel has been working with the World ARC - and will be sailing with various World ARC boats to Australia. We certainly appreciate having an extra set of hands on deck for this long leg!
The start of the race went well - if anything a little chaotic with boats jostling for position for this 3000nm leg. These starts always seem to bring out the 'racer' in boat skippers - and we were fortunate to have a decent breeze as we started - so sails and spinnakers where up. The wind prognosis is not great - with light and variable winds to about 6 degrees South (450nm away) where the trade winds should (hopefully) kick in.
There are two trains of thought - either head South or head South West. We'll see - and probably just follow what wind there is to get as South as quickly as possible.
We have estimated about 19 days and 7 hours to get there (and a total number of fish caught by the fleet of 452) - but at the end of the day we are in the hands of the weather gods!
Wish us luck.
Cheers
Dave & Magali
4March2012 001