Starcross - Start of the ARC

27:54.98N 015:19.13W   And so after a week of preparatiion we are finallyoff!   The blue peter went up at 1030 and at the same timethe first marching ban appeared on the breakwater. By the time we slipped at1115ish the whole breakwater was full of people all waving andshouting.   The Starcross crew donned their highland head wear,and with suitable Scottish music we exited the harbour to join the crowds ofboats waiting for the start.   Our first problem was finding the committee boat -a Spanish Naval Frigate, which was appropriately camoflaged against the sea. Ournext problem was identifying the outer distance mark which we eventully found.We were expecting a busy start (over 200 boats) and therefore carefullyplanned a reach in on starboard, with a gybe and then. read more...

Starcross - ARC Day 3

Tuesday 23/11/10Midday position 23:55.2N 17:29.4WNoon - noon run: 150 NMPlan + 24Hrs - head south to Cape Verde Islands for wind and to avoid deep incoming Low Day three finds us settling into a routine. We started the day running downwind in good F5 heading SW. However after downloading a grib file towards lunch time we made the decision to head up, and head south in order to avoid firstly an area of no wind between us and the Cape Verde Islands, which is due to be followed this weekend with a low pressure system bringing strong south westerly winds. Our current plan is to continue along the coast of Mauritania, hopefully getting to the south side of the high pressure system before the wind dies, on which we will gybe and head pretty close to the Cape Verde Islands.. read more...

Starcross - ARC Day 2

Monday 22/11/10 Midday position 25:50.6N 15:48.0W Noon (1300 start) - noon run: 150NM Plan +24Hrs - COG 220M   We splt into our watches last night after a supperof shepherds pie made earlier. Al, Al and Will 2000-0000, then Ross and Paul0000-0400. We then continued with our 4 hour watches. Alex had her firstexperience of night sailing - and helming. There was a very bright full moonwhich was spectacular, but also meant that we couldn't see many stars. I'm surewe'll have lots of opportunities.   The yachts seemed to disperse a lot - we could seean average of 8 around us. Ross is our radio net contoller for today, whichmeans checking to see who's listening in our group - today there were 17 yachts.There are 5 radionet controllers in our group who rotate days. Ross then gave. read more...

Starcross - ARC Day 4

Wednesday 24/11/10Midday position 21:44.4N 17:38.6WNoon - noon run: 134 NMPlan + 24Hrs: to head for north of Cape Verde Islands, 450 NM Today was Will's 36th Birthday, celebrated with balloons, cake and candles (1 = 9 years!), and a superb supper of chicken fajitas and guacamole (fresh avocados from Gran Canaria) lubricated with Pimms and lemonade.  Taken al fresco, a magnificent sunset ended a day of light winds on a flat sea. Our strategy of following the 200 metre contour south along the African coast appears to have paid off as we have not experienced the calms which has frustrated many of our colleagues, although our speed did briefly drop to 3 knots mid morning.  Indeed several have resorted to the iron spinnaker which will incur a. read more...

Starcross - ARC Day 5

Thursday 25/11/10Midday position 20:33.7N 19:21.6WNoon - noon run: 131 NMPlan + 24Hrs: to head for north of Cape Verde Islands, 340 NM Now that we have let the African coast behind, the AIS transmitter has been switched back on.  However, to reduce power consumption at slow speed, we have turned off many systems.  This also provides the copious power required to allow Ross to continue as unexpected anchor man for the ARC Group A HF radio net.  We have continued on a fetch with a COG of 250M, the apparent wind of 6 - 10 knots being sufficient to keep Starcross moving.  A couple of periods of light wind slowed our pace a bit, as we have a self-enforced target of no motoring for the ARC, but other things kept us entertained during the. read more...