Crazy Horse - Sundeer 60 Challenge

The gauntlet has been thrown down, the challenge is on! What started as a
light hearted challenge over dinner on arrival in Port Vila turned into
reality as Crazy Horse and Ocean Jasper jockyed for position at the start of
the eleventh leg of World ARC from Vanuatu to Mackay. Keeping a close eye on
the comittee boat as they prepared the start line enabled us to take a
critical look and decide which end of the line would be the best to start
at. Despite the bias on the short line we opted for the downwind pin end to
give us a better angle to the first mark leaving the harbour; Ocean Jasper
had chosen to dust off their light weight Code Zero, which they seemed to
have some problems with in a pre start manoeuvre, which distracted us enough
to give them water, a mistake which cost us time on our final approach to
the line. Ocean Jasper, Kalliope and Ciao all chose the Committee Boat end
of the line and it looked as if there were some premature starters from
where we were, but nothing was called by the Race Committee as we headed
over the line and away for the 1180 miles to Mackay.

Interestingly the four lead boats chose to follow us as we headed low on
course out of the Bay, a tactic employed to sail close to Devils Point, and
hopefully miss the worst of the potentially rough seas close off the island.
Starting conservatively with main and jib, it wasn't until clear of Devils
Point that we hoisted the spinnaker. We have a few hours of daylight ahead
and are keen to try and regain the lead and put some distance inbetween us
and the fleet! So here we are now sailing along in perfect trade winds, with
12 or so knots of apparent wind from our starboard quarter at a steady 9 or
so knots. The race between the two Sundeer 60's is on! Whilst we are playing
clean we have already learnt that our friends on Ocean Jasper have gone into
stealth mode and switched off their AIS (a device which sends a signal with
their position to other yachts and shipping).

Onboard we have had a sweepstake for our elapsed time - and going public on
our guesses which are Bill 130 hours, Matt 137 and Andrew 144. For regular
followers you'll notice a new name and one missing! Rosemary is now safely
back home in the States whilst your new blogger Andrew has remained onboard,
and will be reporting for the next few days whilst at sea. You'll notice a
change of style as we focus on our challenge - simply to beat Ocean Jasper.
If OJ is reading this I'll offer a bottle of champagne to the last boat to
resort to motoring, and a second bottle to the boat which doesn't motor
atall until the finish line!

I guess we should catch up on what we've been up to whilst in Port Vila
whilst Rosemary headed home and left us with no blogger! Well the three men
in a boat have been having a great time. Andrew actually moved ashore and
focused on working for a while and sourcing building supplies for a couple
of projects in Tanna. An annonymous WARC skipper kindly donated $1500
towards a kidergarten building project, and this has now been spent on the
required corrugated sheet roofing and fastenings which will be shipped to
Tanna in the next couple of weeks. Bill and Matt have been out partying,
staying up late, gambling in the casino and having a right royal time (only
joking Rosemary!). On Tuesday we had the official welcome and prize giving
at the Waterfront Restuarant and Bar, which was a great evening. A group of
Kastom dancers from Malekoula Island started the evenings entertainment,
which was later rounded off with a group playing rock and pop music to the
delight of the dancers amongst the participants.

Port Vila provided a much needed gentle breaking in to city life - there
were plenty of shops to enjoy, hardware stores to browse and supermarkets to
provision, with a selection of multi cultural restaurants to add to the mix.
At least now we are all slightly prepared for what lies ahead in Mackay and
Austarlia after what has been a glorious five months cruising the remoter
parts of the South Pacific.Vanuatu is often described as the last bastion of
the traditional South Pacific and it is easy to see why. It's won the hearts
of many of our fellow particpants.

Now it's time to concentrate on the sailing!

Greetings from the excited and enthusiastic crew on Crazy Horse. Bill, Matt
and Andrew