Shelduck - Wed 11 High Seas & ARC Cruising Division

Wed 11 Dec 14:59.712N 45:28.977W Distance travelled in 24h 154 miles

 

Today we are crossing a very shallow part of the Atlantic.  There are huge mountain ranges beneath us, taller than Mount Everest, in an area called, somewhat imaginatively, Researcher Ridge. We are well north west of the Vema Fracture Zone, being carried by the North Equatorial Current as well as pushed along by the Trade (and non-Trade) winds. The waves are huge and high because we are travelling over an area which is only 563 metres deep rather than the usual 3000-5500 metres deep. It’s hard to imagine we have more than 5km of water beneath us at times and even harder to visualise the mountain ranges currently beneath us at the moment.

 

Eaten the first of our tinned suppers – it’s been fresh food until now.  We still have some clementines, onions and garlic, and ate the last of the potatoes and cabbage tonight. 

 

The ARC Cruising Division: there are 161 boats in the cruising division as opposed to the racing division.  Cruisers are divided into nine classes. We are in Class I (i not 1) which contains 19 yachts with the lowest handicap.  The boats in our class range in length from a Moody 47 to the smallest boat in the entire fleet, a Forgus 31 from Sweden at 10.21 metres. We are the second smallest of the fleet at 10.3 metres. The majority of the boats in our class are over forty feet in length.

 

Sightings: Enormous Waves