Pat Bon - We’re Off!

14:2.4N 61:7.9W

We’re 2 hours into the race and passed all the race marks off Castres and now set the course (260 deg) to Santa Marta in Columbia 800’ish nautical miles away. Perfect conditions - 12kn of wind from the ENE, hardly any swell and lovely and sunny. We have our full mainsail and large gennaker flying and we’re doing a steady 7.5 to 8 knots. Couldn’t really be more perfect. Currently lying 5th in the fleet, which we’re very happy with. As we keep on reminding ourselves, this is a marathon not a sprint. We’ve got 4.5 more days of this, although the winds are due to increase as we approach the Colombian coast. Pat Bon’s crew have estimated our estimated arrival times crossing the finish line off Santa Marta (local Columbia time -5GMT) as:
Val: 17:30 Wednesday
Peter: 17:59 Wednesday
Nathan: 18:00 Wednesday
Rich: 16:35 Wednesday

Nathan did declare his hand very quickly, so Peter nipped in to undercut by a minute :-)

So now the start is done and the fleet are heading west. Most yachts have there brightly coloured spinnakers, gennakers and parasails flying, so looking around is a fab sight. We’ve met and got to know many of the crews taking part on the World ARC, so seeing them with their coloured sails all around and on the YB Races tracking App and AIS all heading west at the start of their own dreams is amazing. It’s been a great few days in St Lucia, very well looked after and organised by the ARC yellow shirt team and a fab way to get to know our fellow sailors.

The 2 Piton mountains are slowly falling astern and St Lucia is now in the haze, so it’s time to start thinking about what my watches will be (1800 to 2100 and then 0400 to 0600) and various boat jobs that need doing before we head into our first night at sea. The forecast is pretty stable so we’re thinking of keeping the gennaker flying all night - we’re coming towards a full moon, so we should have reasonable light during the night. But the skipper will make a call on that in a few hours.

I’m sure all the crew are thinking of home and loved ones - I know I am - as we embark on this voyage. We’ve got a fab yacht and a great crew, so we’re looking forward to a lot of laughs, fun and adventures during these next 7 months together.

To the World ARC fleet - fair winds and safe sailing. The the ARC yellow shirts - thanks for all your efforts and help this last week in St Lucia. To those at home - keep warm!

Love and light from the crew of Pat Bon (Peter, Val, Nathan and Rich)