Distraction - Cruise or Race...?

The sharper ones amongst you will have spotted that we have once again turned our bows towards the West horizons. Yes, we are finally at sea after seemingly months of lazing around in Lanzarote and galavanting all over Gran Canaria. That last bit isn’t entirely true for although we saw some wonderful parts of GC (eg Agaete in the North) we have largely spent the last month preparing for the ARC rally across the Atlantic.I should have known better when I saw that the Organisers had used the word ‘rally’ in their PR material along side ‘for cruisers’….. You might be excused for thinking that any event designated suitable for cruisers might be a laid back affair where each of the boats meander casually out of the marina at their leisure and like a pretty row of ducks make their way quietly. read more...

Distraction - blog - 300 miles to go

300 miles to goFri Dec 01 2023300 miles to goAs Officer Muff (see below) produced the evening drinks to be shared amongst the crew in the cockpit the Captain announced that the Good Ship Distraction has 300nm to run before we turn NE towards the charming Grenadian port of St George’s. That short run of 5 or 6 miles should then bring to an end our first major ocean crossing.300 miles is a very convenient number aboard this boat as it is easily divisible by 150, the approximate number of miles we might hope to do between noon on one day and noon on the next. Therefore, subject to a safe and uneventful passage from here we should be throwing our lines to the helpful shore crew at Port Louis marina on Saturday night.However, the crew have requested that before going into any marina we nudge. read more...

Distraction - blog - what can sailors learn from dogs

What can sailors learn from dogs?Thu Nov 30 2023I often wonder who is the smarter race, humans or dogs? I’m sure most people would immediately proclaim it to be humans after all we invented electricity, flew someone to the moon and brought them back again (although that looks like it was a bit of a one hit wonder now. I can recall being at my first school and crowding around the television to watch that happen, and that was well over 50 years ago. So you can understand why the conspiracy theories might have grown. Was it really just filmed in some Hollywood studio? It’s often repeated that we have more technology now in an electric toaster than was used to steer the rocket to the moon and back again. I know that to be true, I can recall that my mum’s car didn’t even have self cancelling. read more...

Distraction Blog - Day 9...or 10?

12 36.506n 49 47.278wDay 9, or is it 10?Tue Nov 28 2023The long awaited Trades are now with us. The Trades, and in this part of the world are (normally) 15 - 20 knots from the NE, day in, day out. I would say, and have it known that I’m clearly no expert, but this crossing of the Atlantic has been on the light side of normal. Furthermore, we are currently, and have mostly been, enjoying a relatively flat sea. That doesn’t mean that the boat sits bolt upright as it might were we shuffling across to St Mawes from Falmouth, but we are not seeing what I thought might be mid ocean waves. I imagined a mid ocean wave to be about the size of a decent sand dune, but spaced a long way apart. Yet so far the waves have been fairly, well, normal.The current sail configuration is the twins. One poled. read more...

Distraction - Blog - what do you do all day?

12 42.791n 44 03.781wWhat on earth do you do all day?Sun Nov 26 2023Imagine 5 people on a reasonable sized farm trailer (normally used for shifting broccoli or bales of hay) being towed up to London (behind Prescott’s little red International) along the A30, up the 303, then a bit of M3, into to Central London around the roundabout at Piccadilly Circus then back out of the City, back down the M3, turn off to A303, (past the KFC at Soltice Services - but no stopping )- then A30 back down to Falmouth…….5 times. Yep, 5 times. Nope, up and back isn’t 2 times, it’s once. Up and back 5 times.But furthermore, the tractor towing them isn’t capable of than more than 6 miles an hour. Walking is somewhere between 3 and 4 miles an hour so 6 miles an hour is the sort of speed you might get up to in. read more...