Fabiola - BLOG - Day 2

The wind is dropping as we head further south.It is now a game of tactics to track the best course to find the wind the Fabiola needs in abundance. We are heading South West towards the Cape Verde Islands.A low pressure system is starting to develop in the Atlantic to the North West of our location and will start to pull the winds in towards it as it tracks North East.This literally sucks out the air / breeze from other systems that we need to power us West.What we need is for someone to interrogate the competitions tracks, boat-speed and decide if we are taking the right path... Amores 2 and Northern Child have probably taken some time out of us.As we are sailing early this evening it is evident that Mildred our Hydrovane self-steering) is not happy.She is making a grinding noise.I give. read more...

Fabiola - our first 24 hours

Frenetic start yesterday with hundreds of goodbyes to loads of new and old friends. A flash of boobies to the boys on "Open Blue" and hard charging to the start line. Fabulous conditions for quick and close "cruising\racing" as we wend our way through the throng of other ARC boats. Fabiola is charging hard. New speed record was broken by Vince of 16 knots over the ground. The entire crew are loving the proximately of other boats and delighted to finally be off. As we head down the coast of Gran Canaria and into the acceleration zone the wind picked up and we reef the main and genoa. The testing condition's continue so the watches run 2 on watch of four hours on and two hours off, but driving the boat in these conditions is definitely the way forward. This morning as the sun rises weary. read more...