Snark - 13th Nov 2009 Second night under the stars on route to the Canaries 34:09.18N 08:16.95N

Hi folks,  It is our second night under the stars off the coast of Africa on our way to Las Palmas, sadly I have no fish pictures to send out despite new lures, a filleting knife and indeed a sushi knife, wasabi and ginger (courtesy of Dug).  It seems a lot warmer or it may be that the wind is at our backs rather than in our face, and that I have just been re-arranging the Spinnaker, and applying tape to a tiny tear near the clew.  We had our big yellow spinnaker flying for around 6 hours today but vary variable winds which seemed to be disappearing made us take it down around 10pm last night.  The wind does however seem to be returning and we shall try and give the engine a rest again if it keeps up. While we had some good sailing it has not been especially fast as the winds have been. read more...

Snark - In Las Palmas 28:07.7N 15:26.5W Wednesday 18th November

Hi folks, We arrived at Las Palmas Monday night, we have been busy getting sails fixed and drying out the bedding etc which got wet when we had a big storm coming though and had left the hatches open.  Lots of seminars to attend and shopping to do.  Anyhow we are now in the full flow of preparations for the off on Sunday.  We have a secret weapon in for our trip.  Julie Gundry seems to be able to call up wind for us with a little prayer.  When she is specific about the direction and location it works a dream.  I hope that she will be able to keep up the service during our whole Atlantic crossing. As promised here are some photos of our trip hope you enjoy them.  Normal service will be resumed on Sunday when we leave Las Palmas for the big sail. Check in again then Ben m_091111_100_DRM. read more...

Snark - 26:20:63N 17:09.53W Aproaching 24 hours at sea 23rd November 09

Hi Folks, I am sure we have loads of great photos of the start line to show you but right now we are all hands to the boat pushing South West under 2 reefs in the main and about half the Genoa but we are still getting 9 Knots or there abouts.  Our average speed since a very slow start is well over 8 knots and we are on the way to achieve a 200 Nautical Mile day which will be a first. We started the ARC in fair weather with Northerly wind, the massed start was tricky, we crossed the line as one of the first boats but suffered greatly from dirty air and ended up mid fleet.  It is not really a race but you know when there are 2 boats on the water pointing in the same direction it is inevitable.  We put up our repaired Spinnaker and shot off I was really impressed how we cut through the. read more...

Snark - 24:28.7N 21:33.9W 25th November ... Are we Going the right way?

Hello Bloggers, Hope you are all well back in Blighty (or wherever you happen to be if you are off on travels).  Since we spend quite some time pouring over weather charts I noticed that there was quite a storm surrounding your neck of the woods so I hope things are OK up your way.   Down here we are getting quite nice winds in pretty good direction.  The gusty winds with large choppy waves seem to have abated and we are enjoying some decent trade wind activity. For us who want to arrive safely and in some comfort winds around the 15-18 knot mark keep us flying along under white sails at a respectable pace or can give us 8-10 knots under yellow sails, but with the wave action coloured sails are quite hard work as we are trying to sail as close to downwind as the sail set will allow.  Any. read more...

Snark - 25:24N 18:24W 24th November

Hi folks, We have started our trek west having gone south enough to guarantee winds for the next few days and pretty sure that our track will take us far enough south for the duration.  Dugald has just taken over the watch at midnight and I am enjoying a packet of crisps and a beer before bed time.   We are still taking a cautious approach to the weather with a double reefed main with the Genoa out, but since we changed tack I think it all feels very comfortable again and I think in the morning if things are the same we can think about a little more sail and a bit more speed, though our average so far is above 8 knots we still have a long way to go and it is dropping off a little since we took the reefs in last night.  Better the cautious approach as we found several folks have blown. read more...