Despite the slow first half of this year's ARC, most of the fleet are now revelling in classic tradewind sailing conditions. This is what they've been writing in their logs:
Onboard Fenix II (NED) they experienced the change in the wind as the trades took control: "Then, something changed. First it became quieter. The air cooled and the wind became more regular, strengthening. The boat was traveling happily in these improved conditions. Suddenly the sea became slight. Fenix shook itself, raised the bow and our limping boat became a chariot racing forward. The sweet sound of the hull cutting through the waves returned, the sails were filled and the thumping sound of a vigorous white wake happily followed us. At last the 'Trades' have arrived!"
Skyelark (GBR) have had to dig out their wet weather gear for the first time: "Where the sea was previously like a flat pond (except for the swell that is like big sand dunes), we are now seeing actual waves due to the wind. Further more we have also had our first squalls. The squalls are short local changes in weather that can contain rain and large changes in wind direction and speed, meaning more wind than usual."
Caduceus (GBR) are pleased to be finally en route to Saint Lucia: "We eventually hit proper trade winds at about 1600 UTC this afternoon and changed from asymmetric to genoa. This is much more hard work than it should be as with only one working halyard we have to completely remove the chute and then hoist the genoa up the track. It took about 90 minutes but was well worth it. We hope that the current plain sail plan will work for most of the rest of the trip. We are currently making about 8nm in the hour on 291Mag, our direct course to St Lucia."
Many yachts are setting personal best speeds. Bluewater Mooney (GER) "under spi 9-10 knots, peaks of 11 (!) Genoa 8.5 to 9.5 knots, still acceptable. All night long we steer by hand in order to go a little faster than with the autopilot. For the last day and a half we are run just south of #64 Shaya Moya, an Oyster 65, keeping the same distance, we only get closer running upwind - at sunrise we have closed the gap slightly to 10 miles"
Alliance (FRA) have beaten their personal best daily run from ARC 2006: "Right now, we move to 9.5 knots with mainsail 1 reef, genoa rolled up to 5 laps, in the pouring rain. We see the blue sky beyond the end of the large cloud under which we are. It's time records on board Alliance. First we crossed the barrier of 200 miles in 24 hours, 203 miles exactly. We never managed to do during the ARC 2006"
Amelit (SWE) have been reeling off the miles too: "At last, the trade winds have coming back and give us nice ride. We hoisted the parasailor in the morning and let it fly to then sun was going down. It seemed that it could be some squalls during the night and to be safe, we did take it down and hoisted the genoa instead." The photo was sent from Amelit.
But spare a thought for Time Warp (USA), who are not quite into the stronger wind yet: "We are looking for the trade winds. So if you find them, please send them over this way, will ya? Actually, we have been hooked into them for a day or two. But they are light and the sea is steep and confused. But tomorrow, or maybe even tonight, it is supposed to build and eventually get to 18-23k. Now THAT would be fun!!!" |