Uno - Day 22: Enjoying our last starry sky!

Sunday 10th December.Well if all goes according to plan (ha ha sailing, what plan?!) this is our last day on board Uno, crossing the Atlantic! By midday we were down to our last hundred miles and expecting to arrive in St Lucia tomorrow morning around 8 o’clock. We made it through last night without any autopilot issues just a few squalls to deal with. Such a relief! However, the trouble wasn’t over and as soon as the sun came up the autopilot and rudder sensors failed. This time they would not come back with a power reset, not even after 10 resets! We tried everything that worked in the past, for about an hour. We were stuck hand steering, and trying to figure out what was going on.. C’mon Uno, tell us your secrets! It seemed bizarre that it only happened exactly when the sun came up so. read more...

Uno - Day 21: Are we there yet?

Saturday 9th DecemberHuge swell today, but it’s back to coming from a couple of directions so a bit of an uncomfortable ride. Surfing some really steep waves too! And suddenly we are in a pack of 7 boats only a few miles apart (charging forth towards rum punch & steel drums!) — Adina, Lady Eleanora, Jet Lagged, Nomad, Salamander & one non ARC boat Porrima.We are having major troubles with our auto pilot again today, it suddenly turns off & we lose the rudder sensors, it’s pretty tiring. It means Uno goes into an immediate spin so I have to jump into the helm and hand steer, while Rich & Kenny reset the instruments & unplug/re plug the autopilot down in the starboard aft cabin wardrobe. It’s quite the process & doesn’t always work first or second time. We’ve also. read more...

Uno - Day 20: Lazy jacks snapped & Starlink took flight!

 Friday 8th DecemberToday we realised we have less than 400 miles to go to St Lucia, which was very exciting! During the day the kids watched another Pirates of the Caribbean movie while the rest of us napped and read books. I made a wholemeal sourdough in the morning as we are getting very low on any other kind of bread. The loaf was gone by lunchtime so another one got prepped for tomorrow. We have been having much discussion about time zones in the past few weeks as we cross 3 or 4 of them during this journey. We couldn’t agree on what time to set our phones to, so we started a new time called Uno Atlantic Time. We have been on UAT for at least a week now - basically time is only really important so that we can set our alarms for our nightshifts. However, UAT had slipped a. read more...

Uno - Day 19: Sleigh rides & risotto

Thursday 7th DecemberIt’s been a great day with good swell & wind behind us, & swell only going in one direction so it’s been like a sleigh ride surfing down the waves. Much more comfortable than the past few days too & just before midnight we will crack the “500nm to go” mark — we are coming Saint Lucia!Weather has been very settled, we’ve only seen a couple of squalls & a few very brief rain showers on our journey across so far.The kids came up with a fun game hiding a soft toy somewhere on the boat & then taking a photo where you could just see it. We (the adults) then had to go through the photos to spot the hidden moose or seal ;D It was very cool. We always say boredom breeds creativity!Lynnie made a yummy risotto for dinner using up half of our last zucchini,. read more...

Uno - Day 18: Ceviche & shooting stars

This morning morale seemed a little low, I think it’s due to the increased swell & wind, which, while it’s good for speed, it’s not very comfortable. We dodged a few squalls around lunchtime, and had ceviche with the mahi Gisele caught 2 days ago. Jacques (11) was in dinner so he made some rice & heated up Chile con Carne for dinner which was really good. Also today we put together our response to the Insta ARC singing challenge that seems to be going around & we keep getting tagged in.. Luckily we have a singer /songwriter on board (Gisele, 13) & we recorded the audio & now just the video needs a bit more work. We should be able to post it up tomorrow :-) A bit of silliness & dancing & singing (and lots of laughing) did wonders for the mood on board, smiles. read more...