El Mundo - BRAIN TEASER ANSWERS

Here are the answers to the El Mundo brain-teasers.Question No. 1.The two judoists were womenQuestion No. 2.The other animal is a mule, a cross between a horse and a donkey, offspringof the original animalsQuestion No. 3.A reformed criminal, he was the precinct cleanerQuestion No. 4.Just over 10 cms.Question No. 5.Only three men went to the cinema: a son, a father and a grandfatherQuestion No. 6.Twelve each timeQuestion No. 7.He didn't get wet Because he was baldQuestion NO. 8.Nobody is born a Nobel Prize WinnerQuestion No. 9.Four female parrots and three male parrotsQuestion No. 10.Mr Arbothnot's horse is called Good Friday. He was playing polo on SaturdayQuestion No. 11.Both events are equally likely. The chances of either crew member pickingall the milk chocolates are 50:50 and if one. read more...

El Mundo - Tuesday 11th December

We have just passed the 50 miles to go marker; the boat is quiet; ice-manNick is hand steering to extract every ounce of speed from the boat;everyone is willing the wind to hold and stay in the right direction. Itseems scarcely credible that two weeks ago we were leaving Las Palmas; bythe time we finish we shall have sailed approximately 2,760 miles in alittle over 14 days. My original projection was 16-18 days so I am wellpleased with our performance.Now the voyage is drawing to a close it seems appropriate to give thanks toall those who made this possible. It is not my first ARC, and nothing canbe as special as that first time. But it is still an achievement. So firstmy thanks go to Dr Hugh Kindness whose vigilence first discovered the evil15 years ago and to Roger, Katherine and Uday. read more...

El Mundo - Monday 10th December

Disaster averted!!!!! This morning we had a problem with the spinnakerpole. The spinnaker pole allows us to pole out the foresail to catch thewind when we are running dead before the wind - that is, it is directlybehind us. This is rather crucial as without it we could not aim straightfor St Lucia. The inboard end kept detaching itself from the mast fittingand falling on people's heads when we gybed or adjusted the sail settings.Not good! It's a very heavy pole! People's heads are not that strong! Atone time we had to sail without the pole and the best heading we could makewas either towards the Turks and Caicos Islands or Trinidad - neither ofwhich have I got any wish to go to: I want to go to St Lucia! So ice-manNick and I had a close inspection of the pole up forward. Other members. read more...

El Mundo - Sunday 9th December

Humiliating news!. Dee, the ocean sailing rookie who two weeks ago had never stood a night watch, last night during her three hours averaged 8.433 nautical miles per hour. Robert, who two weeks ago was also an oceansailing rookie, during his watch averaged 8.466. And me, who has done this before and who is the proud owner of El Mundo, only managed to average 8.2 nautical miles per hour. I am now sitting here at my keyboard sulking!. Of course, ice-man Nick, the sailor with over 30 years experience, beat us all with an average 8.633 nautical miles per hour during his three hour watch. As some small compensation to myself, Nick took over from me at 0300 when we were 2.1 miles off the direct line route to Rodney Bay. After his watch we were 5.0 miles off the direct line route - my thinking. read more...

El Mundo - Friday 7th December

One of the great joys of being at sea in the middle of the ocean is the airis soooooooooo clean!!!!!! One just wants to take great gulpfuls of thestuff. It just makes one feel SO WELL!!!Another day, another bit of ocean. We have motored clear of the area of nowind and at about midnight last night found a F3/4 going in the rightdirection. First light we had the cruising chute up for the first time thistrip. For the non-sailors the cruising chute is a HUUUUGE sail thatreplaces the foresail at the front of the boat. Ours is massive and drivesus through the water like a battering ram. The sail is attached at themast, at the bow, and back to a winch near the cockpit towards the stern.The feeling is a bit like being on a very powerful roller-coaster - there isa delicious sense of excitement. read more...