can we help
+44(0)1983 296060
+1 757-788-8872
tell me moreJoin a rally

Menu

Endeavour of Cork - Day 12 - Monday 28th November




Well, we were all up and at it fine and early today! I can't figure out if it's the clock changes (we moved to UTC-3 a few days ago) or the fact that we're all in bed about an hour after dinner (ie by about 8pm!) but apparently the spinny was up by 6.30am (put up by whom I have no idea but it wasn't me!), and everyone - even Laura, queen of the lie-ins - was up and dressed before 8am.

The wind is absolutely perfect today, long may it last. Every night it seems to die back and go directly behind us, which has meant taking sails down and motoring if we want to stay on course - we're all craving a night when the motor isn't droning along as we sleep, and we're not all rolling around in the bunks like ball-bearings on a wobble-board.

Last night there was a boat ahead when I came on watch - gradually it moved to port and more alongside us - today they're behind and we've been told it was/is Clyde Challenger. We called them up on the VHF and had a brief chat - all good on board there as well, he said the crew were better sunbathers than fishermen. Given our lack of success we told him they were probably better employed at the sunbathing!! Conor's sister has told us that someone caught a marlin - the pressure ramps up on poor Dermot even more!!! I've declared that today will definitely be the day that something bites on his lines - seeing as I'm on dinner duty and haven't the faintest notion of cooking freshly caught fish. Dermot has gallantly said that if a fish is caught he's willing to do all cooking, cleaning and wash-up duty all day in celebration!

Does anyone out there have any news of X-hale (or possibly Exhale) who's in the main ARC fleet? We met them in Las Palmas and they're pals of Conor & Denise's - it'd be lovely to hear how they're getting on.

Talk and speculation about arrival has well and truly started on board now with just over 600 miles to go - possibly a bit premature, but very hard to resist! Our watch roster as written out and psoted has five days left to run, so Conor has labelled each of the days, with Friday having an extra note - "Arrival". No pressure then!! Really, it all depends on the winds we get, I'm not sure we could motor from here even if we wanted to - but for the moment the wind is perfect and we're doing about 6-7kts under spinny.

The radio net today was a disaster, we could hear hardly anyone at all, so we're not sure of positions - we'll wait for the ARC email of daily noon positions and start plotting then.

Conor has posted a new list of "to do" jobs - the starboard nav light took a break from duty again last night, our SSB aerial may need attention (possibly the reason we could hear nothing this morning), the storm-jib forestay has been incorrectly connected all along so that's been fixed properly and we're going to put up the big radar-reflector on it - and there's the start of a "when we get ashore" list as well. I've said it before - you're never short of something to do on a boat!!

I think today is shaping up to be the hottest day so far - when I emerged blinking into blistering sunlight at 7.30am it was already punishingly hot. I'm on my "day off" sailing duties, so unless there's some pressing reason to go up top, I can see myself hiding in the shade down here all day until this evening. So much for working on the suntan......

From a very overheated and busy Endeavour - over and out.


contact us at [email protected] (text only)

--



Previous | Next