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Diamonds Are Forever - The adventure begins! (A little later than planned!)



7 girls, one race and almost 3000 nautical miles of sea to cross from Gran Canaria to St Lucia.  Common objective of the crew: to have fun while sailing across the Atlantic, improve sailing ability and no doubt a bit of self discovery will ensue.

 

The Arcettes

 

Harriet leading the charge this year as skipper of Diamonds, Penny as first mate and the motley crew of Jackie and Sam and the 3 career breakers Clare, Caroline and Cathy.  The week before the race consisted of the 7 us prepping the boat and team building (also known as partying).  Annie rocked up to oversee provisioning, and we were allocated different responsibilities for on and offshore.

 

Sam – dry provisions and daily boat walk to check for chafing of lines, metal wear etc

Caroline - wet provisions monitor (inc rotation of produce and checking for rot!), first aider and head of languages

Cathy – rubbish/recycling and engine monitoring, and also boat photographer

Jackie – water monitor

Clare aka Blatch – social secretary and chief blogger

 

We had a cracking start to the start of the race with the band playing, crowds and other boats seeing us off, and lots of fog horns going off. There were fewer boats out at the start as the Cruising and Invitation divisions had been postponed until Tuesday when the weather was due to settle.  Being in the racing division we were told we still had to start the race or be disqualified.  So with the weather in mind which obviously affects safety, possibly breaking the boat and the crew on the first day, our trusty skip made the sensible decision to start and make as much progress as possible, suspend racing, then head back into the Marina for shelter until we had a gap in the weather that appeared to be coming our way, and would be more favourable. On our brief encounter out, we did learn to ‘sandwich tack’, and ‘tea tack’, which involves scrabbling from one side to the other side of the boat clutching said item, so we’ve already learnt how to do something new which is pretty cool.

 

Racing rules state that if you suspend, you are not allowed to receive outside assistance; simply moor up, don’t modify the boat and crew are not to leave the boat above the high water line.  However as this was a bit of an unusual situation, we were allowed to make use of the showers and toilets in the marina.  We were not the only ones that resorted to this plan, about 10 other boats opted for the same plan.  When we arrived back into the marina and looked out over the breakwater, we could see masts swinging through 40 degrees and were very proud of our skip as we sat and drank our emergency bottle of vino at 1630.

 

Loads of cruising division came to visit us to see how the sea state was in reality versus passage weather and grib files.  We also had lots of offers from boats to offer support which was incredible, however obviously we couldn’t accept any support except chit chat. 

 

Boredom patrol consisted of social secretary Clare (Blatch), brought out the Tarot cards which proved to be quite amusing and passed a few hours while we waited for next weather updates.  Hopefully interpretation of the cards was accurate and we will sail into happy trade winds as part of a mini convoy either Monday or Tuesday, and restart the race where we left off.

 

All of the girls on board would like to say a huge thanks to all of the boats and crews over the past 2 weeks that have supported us above and beyond. Many enjoyable moments from pontoon chats & sundowners to the send off and their moral support: Juno, OoJah, Just Nuts!, Arctic Queen, Via Con Me and Sam’s family who had come over to see her off and the many other amazing individuals we have met. Of course we can’t forget our normal racing crowd: Scarlet Oyster, EH01, Coyote 2, Lancelot II, Ntanda, Venom and good luck to Northern Child, Skyelark and Great Escapes!

 

Total nautical miles = 15

 

Till next time

The Arcettes

Diamonds Are Forever

 




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