Aqualuna - 26:22.285N 18:16.667W

ARC DAY TWO

Things have settled down and we are flying along under goose-winged Genoa and Staysail. We have now been at sea for a full 27 hours. Night watches have been organised as a rolling night watch so those that are less experienced with the working of Aqualuna have somebody with them until we all know what we are doing. We spent the night steaming along under full Genoa averaging between 8 and 10 knots the wind behind us and a large slightly confused sea so we are rolling a bit.

As we were all finding our sea legs again I decided to do a Spaghetti Bolognese with fresh Fettuccine pasta, having already made the sauce in advance for dinner.

John Eustace and Ian were on the pontoon to see us off, we took our time rather than rushing out there as we still had a few things to do so we left about half an hour before our start time. As we sailed out there was a large crowd on the breakwater and a band playing, a band came down our pontoon as well, the atmosphere is electric with excitement. A BIG sea out there and over 200 yachts vying for position to get over the start line at the right time. No point having a collision with another 3,000 miles to go. For those of you following us on the ARC web site you will see we are amongst quite a large group of other yachts although all apart by a mile or two.

On board we have Charles and Sue Mortimer who are very old family friends and Jervis Kay whom we have known since the the mid 70s and is Malcolm, our son’s,Godfather. We sold our old yacht to him 9 years ago a Jeanneau called ‘Confidence’.

We have a Watt & Sea generator attached to the aft of the yacht which generates quite a lot of power to the yacht but my main gripe about it is that it sounds like a wailing cat or howling wolf in our cabin so the joy of sleeping and listening to the sea is rather diminished, consequently Jonathan and I have come to a compromise that when I am sleeping after night watch it is up and the rest of the time it is down. I slept like a log having been on night watch from 4 am until 8 am. Up showered, no worries about saving water on this yacht. Got together a salad and fresh steamed prawns for lunch. Last night we were wearing fleeces and jackets as it was cool, at lunch time we were in shorts and T shirts. Clouded over again though and cool. Tonight I will be grilling chicken I have marinaded in a Thai style sauce served along with papaya salsa and either green beans or pak choi and rice.

All for now.