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Rush - Day 18- The home run!



145 miles to go and we are cruising in company with Khelios around 3 miles in front of us, first ARC boat we’ve seen since the start. All things being equal we will be finished before this time tomorrow, nice to have a daylight finish.

Update on the seaweed situation- Not long after yesterday’s blog and it had got to joke quantities it cleared, just like that. We reckon it was 100 miles wide, getting progressively worse until it was basically a field and we were wading through it. All of a sudden it was gone, we did one last back down to clear the keel, engine leg and rudders and off we went, back to cruising speed.

It’s been a busy day. We decided to swim the ‘BIG’ fishing lure as we figured we could refrigerate a big fish and then share with the other boats in St Lucia. So far sadly we managed to catch a very large Barracuda. You can’t keep those as they could give you ciguatera poisoning which is a disease that originates from reef plants and is transferred to the reef fish which the Barracuda eat, can be very harmful and sometimes fatal to humans. Very rare to get one this far out and a shame to hook a fish and tire it out to have to let it go, you always wonder about survival afterwards. We’ve also hooked into something pretty large which smoked off with 400m of line. It was a full sails down job and a long fight. Got it to within 100m of the boat and then it pulled down several times hard and somehow got itself off. No idea what it was but my forearm is still aching from the fight. Ah, the one that got away....... The lure is back out now and has the rest of today before it’s retired and we go back to a little lure for the home run tomorrow.

Traditionally now is the time in a crossing where suddenly Nia appears with food she’s been hiding away in case things take longer than expected. One day out and these things become fair game so today we had ‘Huevos Rancheros’, Rush style, with some ingredients that had been tucked away. Yummy :-)

All very much looking forward to arriving and seeing some of our new friends and also of course a St Lucia welcome. Not so looking forward to the cotton buds up our noses but needs must and within a couple of days we should be free to explore within current guidelines.

Last sunset at sea tonight and a dark starry night watch ahead. The moon, which has been through a cycle to full and has now waned, is very small now and rises very late. This means epic stars when the rain clouds are not around. Mixed feelings for me personally- on the one hand it’s exciting to be arriving but on the other life is simple on the ocean and it’s a spectacular, humbling and beautiful place to be. As tricky as this particular crossing has been I know that 48hrs after arrival I’ll be missing being out here.

Everyone on Rush has a different reason to be out here. For Alan, Hannah, Louis and Summer it’s a first ocean crossing and that’s a special thing. For Nia and I it’s the culmination of a few years bringing up our babies and wanting to show them this special place before they become adults and chase their own dreams. For everyone doing the ARC there will be a different reason, a personal goal or a selfless one, such as those doing it for charity. Whatever that reason once we arrive we’ll all have the same thing in common and ‘if you know, you know’. A special mention has to go out to Natasha Lambert and her family onboard ‘Blown Away’. If you haven’t already please check out www.miss-isle.com (google that in case remembered it wrong) for her story, it’s truly inspiring and we feel privileged to have spent time with such a special family in Las Palmas.

I suspect this will be the last blog. In the excitement of arrival and the days after it’ll be a challenge to find the time. Thank you for reading and for being a part of our little journey. Keep your eye on the tracker around lunchtime tomorrow to check we actually did arrive!

Until the next adventure:

Rush Out x









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