Day 2

Wallace's Sailing Adventure on "Arbella"
Mike and Vicki Wallace
Thu 29 Nov 2012 13:29

27:34.71N 22:02.64W  We have sailed 420 miles in 48 hours…not bad.  Better sleeping last night, as we are now ONLY taking 20-30 degree rolls, sea state is 8-10 feet, sailing with reefed main and full genoa, with 22-25 knots of wind, on a course of about 290 degrees, wind coming from 060 (east of southeast), so we are on a starboard tack—broad reach, for sailors.  We just reviewed the ARC Fleet Tracker and find we are in “cornersville”, way north of the pack…very alone…so we will see how our strategy works.  We plan to go to a port tack in about 24 hours and head more directly to St. Lucia.  The developing weather low ahead of us is difficult to assess, and causing the variability in “guesses” as to optimal course, and likely creating the dispersion of the ships.  While it is a BIG ocean, at 3am Eric and I were on watch when we found ourselves on a dead collision course with a 900 foot tanker.  While “sailing vessels” can argue that they have right of way, we gave way to the big guy, altered course 90 degrees, and passed one mile astern of him…dong so also broke up the boredom of a middle of the night watch!  We have had a few technical problems aboard…most importantly, the instant hot quick working last night….that is as critical as the ice cream machine failing on a submarine…all hands to the rescue…Paul is masterful at fixing things, and is on it!  But Paul also has some leisure time for his ukulele…quite entertaining.  Sleep deprivation is, of course, the challenge in these conditions, but everyone seems to now be getting on top of that.

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