Thursday 29th - Paula Rosa
Whoops already a day behind on the blog - shocking!
Where does time go, it’s bizarre!
I suppose we are all settling slowly into some sort of pattern and trying to sleep around watch times. I don’t think I have even introduced everyone yet so a quick tour of the team.
There are by coincidence 3 families
Pol is our captain, with his father Sergio and Mother Eileen who is the stewardess (always with a smile)
David (co-owner) Dee and Wills (officially bowman)
Chris (co-owner) brothers Nick and Pete
Oh and we should also mention Al the Auto pilot (unlike his namesake he is very reliable) he is doing a great job now that he’s found his rhythm.
Mid morning most of us surface from a sleep of sorts, it seems the best ones are after the early hours watch. Eileen provides a continuous breakfast all morning so there is a good reason to get up once the first wafts of bacon and coffee fill the air. As the day progresses, we all do our own thing, Chris and the boys checking out the boat speeds & weather forecasts. Wills is now in charge of assimilating the other boats positioning that come in once a day, today we are 3rd in our division and hot on their tails, 11th overall .
Lunch and supper bring us all together again, there is a definite theme here, food! I thought this might be an opportunity to be a bit healthier but it must be all this fresh air, everything that is served is consumed. The days revolve around these social meal times.
Unfortunately the fish has got away again and taken the lure with it followed by a broken line , maybe we will wait until we are going a bit slower before we try again !!
Of course there is then the sailing, today has been the first time without a gybe and apart from an occasional wave we are flying along and surfing down the fronts of the crests, today we have averaged 11knots and there was great excitement when Auto Al gave us 19knots!
Early yesterday, Wills noticed the tack had chaffed and broken (the bit that holds the asymmetric down at the front - half the time I really have no idea what they are talking about!!). With great speed and agility he was up in the bows and replaced the broken pully whilst it clung on with spindly safety line. So there was lots of activity yesterday followed by snuffing of the asymmetric to have a look at how the halyard was bearing up. Minor adjustments and she went back up and we were off once again, hooshing through the water. Maybe that’s why the blog didn’t get written!
Today mid afternoon just as we had commented the waves and wind were settling into a pattern and I had finally opened my first book, we noticed a smell of burning! For a fleeting moment we thought it might it be the bread Eileen was baking but it was soon apparent it had a more ominous smell. It was quickly located from a sealed locker in front of the starboard helm where Auto Al is located. Once opened, fire hydrant at the ready, acrid smoke poured forth, Auto Al was put on hold whilst David grabbed the helm. 10 or so anxious minutes later, the cause was established by Sergio and he re emerged triumphant from the depths of the locker having identified the cause as a short circuit in the pasarelle. Auto Al obviously offended then started to play up and would not concentrate on the surging waves. However after a bit more fiddling all was sorted.
All is well again but it’s all go as you can see! The day’s slip by, we are now almost a 1000 nautical miles along our journey – everyone is getting excited as the beers are put to cool, a toast approaches!
Sunset, supper and the start of another watch are beckoning so its over and out for another day
Love to everyone following our journey
Dee
Tuesday 27th - Paula Rosa
The last of the daylight hours on day 3, where does time go !
A relatively quiet night, having settled the boat down and headed south.
Had the pleasure of the sunrise on my watch this morning, more cloud but the sun is certainly hot, unsurprising, as we aren’t far from the Sahara. After our gybe this morning, the asymmetric was hoisted… and lowered… and hoisted Finally with all twists removed we set of west again. Waves bigger today and the odd one picks the boat up and swings her around which makes helming a good work out for the arms, fortunately enough people and a reasonably compliant autohelm to help us out!
Fishing line trailed but the famous dorade are not having any of it, Pol doesn’t like the lure so will try something else tomorrow. Maybe we are going too fast , averaging 9-10 knots with max speeds of 15 knots down the waves.
Managed a shower without too much difficulty, one hand for the shampoo and the other one to cling on!
Definitely fewer boats around today although two or three on the AIS, nice to have them around!
Otherwise, clouds, a couple of sea birds and that’s it.
Did you know the Atlantic Ocean is the 2nd largest after the Pacific, it certainly feels huge, nothing to see for miles around us.
Speak tomorrow and love to those following us…
Dee
Monday 26th November 2018
So finally here we are, over a whole day in the Atlantic ocean and we still have 9 crew and the lovely Paula Rosa is performing well!
The ARC rally in its 33rd year, a completely new adventure for most although we have well travelled sailors amongst us and 1 ARC 2012 veteran ( that’s me) so I’m going to try and complete a blog - its my first ever so by the time we get there i might have got the hang of it!
We had a good start, enough breeze to get us over the line within 30 seconds. Asymmetric hoisted and off we go……an amazing sight, many coloured spinnakers setting off on their journey, we wish them all fair winds and a fabulous sail.
Having left Las Palmas we headed south down the island bowling along at 8- 9 knots with a gentle swell.
Our first gybe was executed with no incidents and we continued to head south to find the wind.
After a beautiful first sunset and a fantastic display from a pod of dolphins around the bows we had planned to have supper but of course the wind decided to drop so all hands on deck to snuff the asymmetric and head further south. A fairly uneventful night followed despite the autopilot turning off a few times causing a bit of consternation, watches clocked in and off. Some clouds blocked out the stars but the moon kept it all fairly bright.
Today we have gybed several times and the asymmetric is flying. We have gone south to find the trade winds and whooshing along. Nick achieved the fastest speed today of 15.5 knots down a wave so a difficult target to beat.
A secret sweepstake has been organised to guess the closest time to the finish line, prizes for the closest and furthest to be determined!
Speak tomorrow and love to everyone who is following us across the ocean on the YB races app
Dee