Yacht Cerulean Atlantic Adventure

Leg 2 ARC+ Rally rally from Mindelo, Sao Viscente, Cabo Verde to St Lucia in the Caribbean started yesterday at 1300 (1400 UTC). This leg is the big one for us at 2090+ nautical miles and should take us 2 to 3 weeks depending on the wind.

The rally/race start was in very light winds f1 - f2 and we managed a controlled drift over the line reasonably close to the front of the pack. We all knew that there would be light winds for the first 24hrs or so and we would need to use the 'iron topsail' (engine) to make progress for a while. Some boats decided to motor straight off into the sunset to get to the wind others drifted along with the wind and bided their time. We like most of the pack we managed to sail for an hour or so at slow pace under genoa and main and when conditions allowed we tried the cruising chute for a while, once this just starting flopping around like an old sheet and we were wallowing around we stowed the sails and motored west. To start with we werre a bit undecided as to head south west to try and find some wind sooner but cover a longer distance, or just head straight for the rhumb line and shortest distance to our destination, in the end heading west and the shortest distance won the day, and possibly proved to be the better decision.

We motored through the night and this morning with wind speeds of only 2-3 knots which is not enough to ruffle our heavy canvas except for a small rain squall at about midnight which lifted our speed to 6-7kts motor sailing for a short period. The forecast is for the winds to be light (f1-f2) until noon today and increase by midnight this evening (23-11-18 00:00)to f4 or more, thus we expected thwe wind to increase in the afternoon and hoped to be sailing properly by, say, 1800. As it happened the wind started to increase about 1300 with some squalls close by to force 3-4, yippee, time to kill the 'iron topsail' and get the boat sailing. The squalls have now moved on but the wind is still with us with force 3-4 from the NE and is pushing us along nicely at 5-6kts, and in the right direction, the butter has melted and the trade winds have set, and look to be there for the rest of the voyage and may get even stronger to force 5, at this rate we may arrive in St Lucia by the 6th December if not sooner.

Other than the short rain squall it was a pleasant enough evening expect for the drone of the engine, the sea was quite calm, the nearly full moon was high in sky and with us from dusk til dawn. A few startled ships around trying to negotiate their way through a fleet of 70 odd yachts.

The culinary skills of the crew are excelling themselves with Phil's de-constructed cottage pie last night and Jeremy's bacon and eggs for lunch. I wonder what's treat we shall have this evening.

Whilst I have been writing wind has increased further to 13.5kts with a boat speed 6.8kts...great...

Time to get on with some work, or sleep, either will do

Alison, Phil, Jeremy Richard

Yacht Cerulean of Penryn Ventis Secundis