Day 1 onboard Penny Oyster

Life on the mighty Penny Oyster has been busy but full of fun and laughter. We began the ARC with an amazing send off from our families and the very supportive ARC team. Although it was emotional waving goodbye to everyone, we were in high spirits and ready to set sail on our atlantic adventure!

The start was a slow one with winds under 10knts, we chose the pin end of the start line, similar to lots of the other boats which caused it to be a very busy end of the line. The wind was light, but we were determined to sail the first part of the rally, so we slowly made progress, tacking up the east side of Gran Canaria. As we went into our first night, we had our first dinner together as a team, homemade soup which had prepared the day before. This made cooking very easy and, with all our stomachs full we began our first watch system. We are running a 3on 5off system, which works really well as it allows for some alone time but also breaks up the dark hours with a compainion on your first and last hour.

The first day finished with a sky full of stars and us excited for the wind to fill in as we rounded the headland to make our way south.