Isabel - Day 14

--Sunday 12 Noon 6/12/20151437 48 N56 50 22 W Daily run 189 - distance to St Lucia 242 milesSame again!Sunshine and dead downwind running goose winged in a littleless wind. The talk of precisely what time we might finish has now beendiscussed to death and is banned. With less wind an early evening and supperhas definitely slipped away and as the breeze drops our eta runs away.On the plus side we had Burgers avec le Roquefort fromage et onions forlunch followed by Magnum Ice creams. Anyone viewing the tracker on the ARC website will see us well ahead of themain pack - The racing fleet are all IRC and no motoring, the cruisingclasses are allowed to motor and declare engine hours for an adjustment - wewill not know our true position for a while (days) as we have no idea howmuch anyone else. read more...

Isabel - Day 12

Friday 12 Noon 4/12/210515 55 85 N50 31 53 W-RECORD daily run circa 195 miles- distance toSt Lucia 613 milesSailing - Today is the same as yesterday and sunny. Goose winged genoa, 2-3mswells, rolling boat doing 8 to 10 knots under pilot."Inbetweeners Two" movie watched in main saloon cinema after dinner lastnight.Crew - Not a good night's sleep for anyone due to following sea lurchingboat around, non stop :- Phil - The rear luxurious master cabin was more Alton Towers than OysterYacht last night - went back to bed and slept better on the floor - wants ahammock on new 745?James - High bed position exaggerates boat motion, struggles to keep dry bedallegedly due to window being left open (err his own fault?)Nick - did not sleep well, but smiles about it- Paul - very, very, verygrumpy face. read more...

Isabel - Day 11

--Thursday 12 Noon 3/12/210516 24 66 N47 11 86 W- daily run circa 189 miles- distance to StLucia 809 milesAfter a relaxing 24 hours + sailing under the "Bird"-yellow Gennekeryesterday with the Bimini up at 10pm it started to change.For sailorsreading this we wererunning with the gennekeras deep as possible withonly a scrap of main out (in mast furling) just to keep the boom steady. Thepilot steers the boat fine even given the lively quartering sea constantpicking the stern up trying to run us off course. As the wind pushes over 25knots things start go awry as the 30 tonnes of yacht will not accelerate andplane (see Sunfast 3200, J105 ......or Boomerang!). The result usually endsup in a round up to windward. For me personally the much flapping of sailand noise at this point all occurs. read more...

Isabel - Day 10

--Wednesday 12 Noon 2/12/210517 42 24 N44 10 33 W- daily run circa 180 miles- 991distance to StLuciaWe have passed the 1000 miles to St Lucia point and so far a calm day undergenneker making good speeds just off the rhumb line.We have no speed, depth, wind instruments but wind is in the high teens andGPS speeds averaging about 9 knots. The latest news is that Team Brunel have arrived in St Lucia already.. andnow hold The ARC Transatlantic record sailing an elapsed time of 8d 7h 39m30s! That's averaging twice our hourly speed! We are of course enjoying thetrip with a lot more comfort! We have a couple of the rally boats to port and one to starboard holdingsimilar course and speed.. a few trying to sneak past us! The race is on tothe finish line but we intend to stay somewhere up the. read more...

Isabel - Day 9 - Fishhh

Tuesday 12 Noon 1/12/21051906 N41 33W*- daily run circa 160 miles*- 1160distance toSt Lucia* = ish see belowSo yesterday afternoon it all went a bit "Pete Tong". Shortly after emailingoff the blog to my daughter Julia who copies all and adds to Facebook thealarms start beeping at the chart table and at the twin wheel consoles ondeck. Skipper James replies with much button pressing and cries of "bother"and soon establishes Mr Raymarine is the key offender in particular GPSsignal but before long it is cycling error messages from everything and weare hand steering with no auto pilot. While James is in full flow to fix itincluding emailing the jolly helpful chaps at Oyster Yachtsthe fishingline starts ratcheting too. Great timing !Nick is quick the grab the rod and ascertain we have a bite. read more...