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Northern Child - ARC DAY 10: 6/12 (16.5N 44.1W) written by Adolfo



Now officially less than a 1000 nautical miles to go..... yiiiiiiiiiiiiiiippiee!

It feels good to achieve another symbolic milestone and begin the countdown. As I type this we are in a painfully slow situation, sailing at at 3-4 Knots with 3-4 Knots of wind. Obviously we can't use the day to log a lot of miles. If anything we are happy to just keep moving. Christian has marched us all into a dry out, cleaning, wiping, sorting out day. This included everything from sail storage, dry up and preparation of spinakers, cushions, bedding, towels, cloths, drying out oil skins and trousers.... all of that and always 10 people on deck. From a mile away Northern Child would have looked as a gipsy boat or a car boot sale.

After the cleaning and giving that we have gone throught a lot of supplies Northern Child appears to be a bigger boat... You can now even walk to the end of the boat without having to fight sails, bags and jackets. Certainly a good use of time. This morning I beat my sleeping record managing 4.5 uninterrupted hours of sleep. This is the longest to date and brings my running average of sleep since leaving Gran Canaria to 3.8 hours a day... Getting better and feeling better. Last night I needed Matt to tie me up to my bunk (or should I say rolling shelf ?) to stop from falling out given the boat heeling in the wind.

Actually, last night's watch was anything but boring. Probably the most entertaining shifts: - from 6pm to 10pm we saw the wind change from 110 degrees to 340 degrees and had to reconfigure the boat to sail into wind and be with considerable heeling. This involved a trip to the bow for Matt and myself in the middle of the rain and a black Atlantic night.... Both Matt and I (while well clipped to safety line and wearing lifejackets) were extremely happy to be back at the cockpit.... Christian who is well used to this and a lot more must have wondered what the fuss was all about - from 2am to 6am: Shall I call this the squall/strom avoiding exercise ? We did get wet for sure but we were sooooo on edge watching out for lightnings and storms and try to negotiate our way in between them that the watch was very entertaining.

We also had to do a couple of sail trimmings manouvres which in Northern Child in a black rainy night are not easy for those of us used to have all lines, sheets and winches in the cockpit of our "day boats". Well, probably not all that surprising to have fallen asleep so deeply (thanks to my sister for the "just in case" sleeping help).

This morning all started slow, quiet and the boat was so stable that putting the kettle on to brew som coffee seemed the most normal thing in the world. Only those on ARC during the last 10 days would realise what a treat this was this morning.

Now, I feel recharged after the good start, the good day on the sun and receiving a high quality voice sat phone call from Sarah... Do I miss her lots or what ??? More tomorrow.... Hopefully we can find something in between 3 knots and 30 knots.

Adolfo @ Northern Child


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