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

Menu

Ace - Ace at Sea



Good Morning,
My turn! Forgive me if I am redundant but we all agreed that we would not read each others updates until the crossing was over. Another glorious day in the North Atlantic with strong winds and a mix of squalls and sunny clear skies. Ace continues to slide along comfortably and very day it seems we exceed the previous day's fastest speed. This morning Rob was driving during a squall associated blast of air and exceeded 23 knots. That is about 26mph. Have someone drive along in your car at that speed and stick you head out the window, you will get tyne idea. Everyone continues to be healthy and covering each otter in terms of safety. I could not asked for a better group with whom to do this crossing. Everyone pitches in, gets along and we have an abundance of sailing skills knowledge and experience at many levels. There are many things that we did right on this trip and I cannot think of much we have down wrong. We debated bringing a steward along to cook, clean up and provision the boat leaving the sailing to the crew. Fortunately we did not do that and instead my brother William came with us and he has been outstanding and an inspiration to us all leading the cooking team of Adrian, Richard, Spider and himself. Adrian remarked to me last night that he did not think the food would have been better if we had brought a cook. We all agree. We have had many delicious meals of salads, home made soups, stews, fish, pasta and rice. Some days the cooking team, today it is Richard and William, is making a vegetable soup of the vegetables that need to be used. No doubt it ail be delicious. 
We continue to make good progress reaching along (gentlemen do not go to weather) in excess of 10 knots. We have moved into second place in our class. Since more than 50 boat left two days ahead of us, including 2 in our class we may actually be leading there fleet. Time will tell. But that is not our objective. Our objective is to have fun which we have been doing. Last night on my watches spent time looking at the stars and identifying constellations and got drawn into reveries of the mythology of Orion, Pegasus, Sagittarius, Canis Minor and Major, et al. It is addicting to start to understand the stars identified by ancient mariners who sailed these seas navigation by these stars, including Columbus who left from the Canaries as we did more than 500 years ago.
For me this adventure is about the camaraderie and the voyage, but one learns as much about oneself as the sailing, the boat, the seas and the wind. Minor problems such as we had two nights ago, when we had some minor gear problems, take me into myself, my relationships, my motivations and my place in this world. When morning broke, we fixed the gear problems, we are back to full speed with full sails and I felt a profound sense of great privilege to be doing this with these men. Special thanks to my wonderful family to whom I am grateful for allowing and encouraging to do this. I love you all.
Pax vobiscum,

Fred, Adrian, William, Richard, Spider (aka Peter), Rob, Chris and our shipmates Wanda and Mona (don't ask, what happens on the boat stays on the boat!).

PS, Andrea, where are the sponges stowed?
 
Time:  1420 GMT
Position:   24*32'N  028*55'W
Wind:  24 knots from 116*
Weather:  Typical trade wind clouds
Speed:  10 knots
Heading:  255*

Crew of ACE

Previous | Next