Thousand Knights II - Fw: ARC minus 2

  ----- Original Message -----From: 1000knightsTo: [email protected] Sent: Friday, November 19, 2010 1:13 PM Subject: ARC minus 2After an astonishing amount of preparation, somemore still to do, we are almost ready for the 'OFF' on sunday at 1300hrs. Lawrence came out to Las Palmas with me 10 days ago. I could never have gotready in time without all his help which has been fantastic. James and NIck arrived on wednesday. Followers of these two will be amused to hear that they were both fast asleep by10pm last night...exhausted!  Skipper is assured that it is his harshexpectations of work to be done and nothing to do with the Fancy Dress party onwednesday night.  We all went as Popeye, no volunteers for OliveOil.  Nick. read more...

Thousand Knights II - ARC minus 1

It hardly seems possible that within 24 hours wewill be under way having started what is probably the greatest adventure we willever undertake.  Excitement is mounting and we just want to go.  Witha Yachtmaster (James), a Yachmaster Instructor (Nick) and a very experiencedLawrence on board, Skipper has a fine crew.  As I write they aredoing last minute jobs with electric drills and much tying of ropes tosecure our extra fuel.  We are carrying in excess of 300 litresaltogether which will give us about 150 hours on engine at 1800 revs. Since the wind is predicted to be at the middle to lower end of the scaleon this trip we may be pleased to have that fuel to keep going in thedoldrums.   We had the Skippers briefing this morning.. read more...

Thousand Knights II - ARC + 1

We are enjoying lunch on a sunny day out here south of Gran Canaria.  Our first 24 hours accomplished after an exciting start yesterday.  I expect there will be lots of pics on the arc website.   We realised we may be getting too close to Africa when a menacing looking motor boat bore down us with lots of guys with black eye patches, wooden legs and bg cutlasses.  William and Ivo, your daddies were very brave, shouting  Ra Ra....lets do it...team team.. etc...  The speeding boat turned and sped away clearly very frightened. Winds have been fairly constant NE about 15 knots.   Later this afternoon we had some more visitors.  there were about ten of them with two babies and smiley faces.  They stayed and played for about 15 minutes.  I wonder if William and Ivo's class can get who they. read more...

Thousand Knights II - ARC+4

No wind last night so we motored most of the time but now we are Sailing along between 6 and 7 knots in SW winds of 15 knots.  Beautiful day and calm seas.  We have now done about 600 miles. We are heading for a waypoint just to the NW of the Verde islands from where we hope to go due west to St Lucia.  Everyone now has their sea legs and we are settling in to a routine.   William guessed correctly that our visitors the other day were dolphins.  They have come back again with more of their friends!  In one of the blogs we talked about seeing The Big Dipper.  Who can guess what that is in class? You can see it at night only. Skipper. read more...

Thousand Knights II - Fw: Lawrence Watchkeeping Blogg

 ----- Original Message ----- From: 1000knights To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 2010 7:39 AMSubject: Lawrence Watchkeeping BloggAll the boys sleeping soundly, its 6.25am. Took this watch over from James at 4.00am. Good man fixed me coffee as we handed over. Third day out from Las Palmas, just passed a tanker within a quarter of a mile ! First vessel seen all night. I do believe the 'See Me' radar reflector/enhancer that Richard had fitted is doing its job well (just as well).Sea state is slight, we are running before the wind, Genoa only, bearing 230 degrees true, moving slowly away from the African coast, aiming to pass Verde islands to the north, before our right turn, on course for St Lucia. This route promises better (trade) winds, as. read more...