25:36:80 N 16:23:51 W
Distance to finish: 2603 nautical miles (NM)
Welcome to the Titania ARC2018 blog! We will try to update this every few days, and try to keep it interesting.
Titania of Cowes departed Las Palmas (Gran Canaria) yesterday at 1300 along with nearly 200 other yachts, under blue skies and light winds. Overnight, gradually the fleet has spread out and today there are only a couple of other yachts visible to the naked eye.
First, let me introduce you to the crew, several of whom are members of Seaview Yacht Club (SVYC) on the Isle of Wight:
Richard Dobbs. Skipper and owner of "Titania of Cowes", a beautiful Nautor's Swan 68
Robin MacCaw, occasional Mermaid instructor at SVYC, who happens to be Richard's uncle
Simon Broxham, regular Seaview dinghy sailor
Nick Hewitt. Known to everyone at SVYC as our Head Boatman
Ned/Edward Kershaw, regular Mermaid sailor at Seaview, who first met Richard at university
Freddie Bryn-Jones. The youngest crew-member onboard at just 19, and an occasional Boatman at SVYC
Pierre Matussiere. Pierre joined the crew through his very generous donation to the Fight BACC charity
Todd Herbert. Titania's resident engineer. A Kiwi, free-diver and spearfisherman
The plan is for each of us to update the blog in their own style.
If you are following us on the official ARC tracker www.worldcruising.com/arc/arc/eventfleetviews.aspx you will see that we are tracking SSW, rather then directly towards Saint Lucia. This is avoid a large area of light wind to our west, caused by a ridge of high pressure. There is an old saying that to cross the Atlantic, you "head south until the butter melts" and then turn west. Luckily for us, we have good fridges onboard, so the butter will remain in good condition. But going south gets us into the trade winds, which blow nicely from east to west, pushing us along towards the Caribbean.
We are not in the Racing class of ARC2018, but all of us are quite competitive and like to get the boat moving... So we are trying to choose a course that gives us the best compromise between finding good winds to move us quickly through the water, and actually getting to St Lucia. We have sophisticated routing software onboard to help, and we are getting regular detailed weather updates through our satellite internet connection.
Dolphins swam in our wake last night, and this morning we think we saw a whale in the distance. The weather is sunny, with clear skies and gentle seas. Daytime is shorts + t-shirts weather. Conditions are pretty idyllic for now, and we are going to play with our spinnaker this afternoon, after 24 hours under just main + jib.
Back row, L-R: Nick, Ned, Pierre, Todd
Front row: Freddie, Richard, Robin, Simon
Lunch will be on the table in a few minutes, so I'll sign off for now.
Ned