ARC Day 14
We still had a good run yesterday in mixed circumstances making 197NM, we now have less than 400NM to reach St Lucia this morning.
Generally the wind was around F5 NE but with squalls up to 30knots, this necessitated that we go from 1 reef to 2 and then 3 overnight in the mainsail.
Also another difficult quartering swell which gave a rollicking run at times causing items to fly around the saloon! In dance terms Ceilidh was giving a rendition of the Orcadian Reel of the 51st (Highland version).
Around 22:00 we gybed to the South as we were being pushed well to the North of our 260T rhumb line course and we made around 240T on our new heading.
Shortly after the change of direction we had what had previously been described as an Andy Williams moment as the main was accidentally gybed with the preventer on making for a hair raising moment. The preventer was released and the main then re-gybed back to the correct side, unfortunately the mid rail stanchion was bent during this episode.
Another job to be added to our lengthening list!
Things have settled down this morning and we continue to make steady progress so we will arrive as expected on Thursday 13th at St Lucia, everyone of course is very excited about this prospect!
It is remarkable how quickly the time has gone, really it seems just a moment ago that we crossed the start line to go blazing off downwind.
It has been a privelege to be involved with the ARC again as it such a great lifetime experience and the memories will last for ever.
The next verse of our song:
On the 9th day of Ceilidh’s ARC my skipper gave to me, nine weeks of passage
Dave Sturrock