ARC Day 7 2012
04 December 2012
One week down, 1443 miles (211 in the last 24 hours) behind us and leading the Cruising Division class A. We have some smart, larger and potentially quicker boats behind us (X-Yacht 55, Beneteau 58, Swan 45 etc) but the real challenge for us will be to hold off Ace (an American J145) that is only 32 miles (same as yesterday) behind us and 200 miles or so south of us so likely to be in a different weather system than we have.
Yesterday saw the wind drop below 20 knots for the first time and over 6 hours mostly with the genaker we covered 55 miles. Unfortunately by late afternoon the wind was back up to 20 knots plus and we could not carry the genaker at 90 T so down it came and we have been two sail reaching in the 24 hours since.
Overnight was the easiest helming we have had since departing Las Palmas and shorts and a jacket to boot. However after midnight the squalls started and continued through until the early hours of the morning when we put a second reef in the main. Back to full main a few hours later with 19/20 knots on a bearing of 255T, wind right on the beam and sailing at 9.2 knots. Plus a sunny warm day and bare chested males were sighted at the wheel for the first time.
So onward we roll, counting miles to go rather than miles covered enclosed in our microcosm of a world, no other boats in sight for days and concentrating on sailing fast. Until last night when the weather was a little kinder we had not even had any music on (that?s focus) ? but as we had passed the half way mark Harry Belafonte made a stunning read loud) appearance. The view is that we should progress from Belafonte to Jimmy Buffet before finally spending the last few days with Bob Marley to prepare for the West Indies music scene.
We had some champagne on board to celebrate the half way mark but cannot find where we stowed it. So a couple of beers had to suffice.
The visitor we had on board yesterday took off when we dropped the genaker
Cheers
Pam & Keith