Umiko -

Dear Umiko Fans!

Welcome to Blog 1 Day 1

As I write this I seem to be a long way from when we arrived in Las Palmas, from Palma, ten days ago. I had joined the vessel as a relief captain only a few weeks before the delivery. When we arrived, we had problems with the generator, air-conditioning, fridge/ freezers, bow thruster, main engine and a lot of leaks! I was a bit apprehensive of the task ahead of us. An Atlantic Crossing will test both the boat and crew and needs to be in ship shape before departure.
The crew worked hard over the next ten days to get the vessel ship shape and Bristol fashioned for the crossing, as a result were rewarded with a drastically reduced work list. However as everyone will know boats are like the forth road bridge and you are never finished!

Excitement has been building as the start date approached especially with such a favourable forecast. This morning we woke up early, there was a comprehensive safety briefing and we slipped the lines to much fan-fare. This included a song with the lyrics “Bring me back alive” being played at full volume over the PA system! There was a real party atmosphere and fun was had by all.

The wind seemed to be filling in a little earlier than expected and there was a lovely 10-15kts of true wind for the start. As everyone on board had not sailed together before we elected to get across the line safely in a good position on the offshore pin end. We would then hoist a kite. I was a bit late on the line but we had plenty of sea room and the hoist went well. The perfect conditions allowing us as a crew to properly prepare manoeuvres before executing them. The execution went well with small debriefs after the fact.

Tactically we took a bit of a gamble and ended up being the western most boat, taking the veering shift as the wind moved from the North to NE and eventually to E. Once in a good position we elected to drop the A2 and go to jib to make some southing in the search of stronger winds as the windspeed started to fall. As I write this I am happy with our position on the course and amongst the fleet. The next 12 hours will be critical, we will need to be wise to shifts and hopefully our hard work will bear fruit!

In other news the gambling has started with the crew placing bets on when we will arrive and how long the crossing will take. I have taken a few crew through the engineering side of things and we are now properly in our watch system. We have elected for a 3 watch system. 1 on 1 standby and one off. I am writing to you from my Standby time!

Karina has been cooking up a storm. We had a cool pasta salad for lunch and it smells like lasagne for dinner. She has also led the wooling sessions down below from the kite drops.

The crew seem to be gelling well and are looking after each other and the yacht. As I get ready to go off watch I am a very happy man….

I would like to say a thanks to the staff at Las Palmas Marina for all their help and a big thankyou to all of the World Cruising Club staff who not only made all of this possible but made it seem easy!

“A WISE MAN LEARNS FROM HIS MISTAKES… A GENIUS LEARNS FROM OTHERS”

Olly OUT!