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Webster - Log 4: the start and day 1



Have been looking forward to this for ages and now its the Big Day, here at last, the start of Arc 2013. A decent breeze too and sun! The atmosphere in the marine was electric with crew running about with last minute preps. Ken and Albert went off yet again for the supermarket to buy the final final final stuff from the never ending shopping list; Las Palmas must make an absolute killing when the Arc is in town. The band stuck up and visited each pontoon in turn - stood at the end of our boat and blared away. Not sure if my nerves could take it at that volume that close, but it was fun.

So, 1145 we slipped lines and headed off for the start. Checked out the start line and meandered about for a while awaiting the 1300 start and put the mainsail up at the last minute. Mistake! Having had to take the sail off for the mast repairs we had managed to get a twist in the foot which took a while to sort out which was a right pain, so we were not as bang on the line as the Spanish navy ship fired its cannon as we'd hoped, well me anyway! The wind was a perfect 10-15 knt NW and still sunny as we crossed the line on a broad reach at 8 knts. However, no more than ten minutes later a squall hit the fleet from behind and it blew 25 knts and poured with rain for at least an hour - horrid!

What happened to the famed wind acceleration zone? Missed it completely. The wind dropped overnight to nothing and the sound of the rig crashing about was hard to bear at times. However, the sight of the stars without a cloud in the sky to obscure their view was quite something as were the multitude of green, red and white nav lights twinkling away from other surrounding boats.

The morning has brought sun so far and there are still a fair number of boats about. A big German boat passed us close by and Ken suggested we should be making smoke!

Everyone seems in good humour so far and thankfully no sea sickness (yet). Don't like the look of those black squall clouds coming up from behind though so I shall sign off and see what's happening.....

Charlie

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