Challenger 4 - Challenger 4 Day Three

Upwind sailing? On the ARC? They didn’t mention this in the brochure…
And today we shall mostly be…eating fruit. Pineapple – to be precise, and quaquis (pronounced kakis) an unfortunate and unromantic sounding name for a tasty little number looking a lot like a tomato but tasting a pit peachy…a bit Melony… Anyway – they were starting to drip on people’s heads so forced fruit salad eating it was. The pineapples, which had to be moved because of David’s fear of spiders, were also ready for consumption before they inadvertently become Pina coladas. No scurvy on the good ship Challenger 4.
So, finally we have some breeze. After a frustrating day of flapping around somewhere off Africa, trying every sail that we have on board in order to keep moving, the breeze kicked in early this morning – a whole 40 minutes before the weather forecast had led us to expect it to. Life at an angle, with added bouncy castle effect, has taken some by surprise and resulted in a widespread redistribution of partially digested food. Alan, however, the sole survivor of mother watch, has proved himself bomb proof and Emma – now an old sea dog – even managed to have a shower.
We’re currently heading west, doing 10kts with the wind on the beam, 1 reef in the main (it is 2300), a Yankee 2 and staysail and the sea has flattened off for now. Long may that continue, although some proper downwind sailing would be nice….
For those of you wondering how your loved ones are getting on, living in a wobbly 72ft sardine can with 15 complete strangers – Challenger 4 is a very happy place to be right now. People have bonded over tales of why they wanted to spend 15 days living in a wobbly 72ft sardine can with 15 complete strangers, marvelled at the acrobatics of the following dolphin pack and laughed out loud at the 2nd mate’s obsession with biscuits, American fridge freezers and doctor’s coats.
Goodnight from The Management and lots of love to all
Sue xxxxx