ARC+ Day 1 - 9th November

Bamarandi
David & Donald
Mon 9 Nov 2015 14:49
Position 25.52.506N 017.06.276W

Recovered from our night being entertained by the Las Palmas Drag Queen and entourage and after several days at Las Palmas fettling the good ship Bamarandi - plus enjoying some shopping (the boys all have new matching sailing shorts bought (in a sale of course) over 2 days one after the other had seen the other) and relaxing in between - we headed out from Las Palmas marina squeezing past a Lagoon cat Laissez Faire moored astern of us at 12.00 to be ready for the 13:00 start.

We headed out to sea to stretch the boats legs after a few days in port and then back in to be ready for 1pm to cross over the start line. It was great seeing all the 64 boats gathered with sails up ready to start. The ARC+ Committee Boat broadcast on Channel 72 a 5 minute countdown and then the start accompanied by a loud bang!   One monohull went over the line early unfortunately meaning a minimum 3 hour penalty for that boat. All multihulls went over the line at the right time (or after) and so we were all off.

You are allowed to use engines for less than a third of the total passage. We only had our sails up and noticed we were being overtaken by lots of other boats to realise that they had quite a wake behind them!  To also get out of the 64 boat melé we fired up both our engines and ran them for about 10 minutes - then turned off - which is how they have been ever since.

The wind is good, the weather and sea conditions too.  We have had periods of some bigger wave patterns but as they are with us we have little banging and slapping just quite a lot of swaying around, a particular challenge for the galley.  They have to choose the right moment for their many complex whisking, beating and pouring manoeuvres. The culinary standards remain 5* however. 

Once clear of the start we were joined straight away by a good size pod of dolphins who stayed with us for quite a while in our bow wave, frequently diving in and out of the water to look at us and show off. There were some with lighter grey patches and spots - we will have to get out our iSpy book of Dolphins for more detail on the exact genre.

In the heavier seas we had waves coming right up the transom and washing into the cockpit - a little of it finding its way into our generator and engine rooms so the bilge pumps did their stuff followed by Caitlin getting in amongst it and doing a great job with sponge and bucket. 

We can see a few others in the fleet ahead and behind us. Our AIS system also shows those boats that have the same system together with their name, heading, speed etc. Different boats have played different strategies. Ours has been to hold our tacs for longer periods in the favourable winds and we have seen speeds of 6 - 11+ knots. We have flown our large blue gennaker sail out front for the first time for a few hours - but the winds became too strong and we didn’t want to strain the rigging so we have opted to fly the genoa and main for much of the time.

Overnight we sailed well keeping the main and genoa up and have made good progress as you will see. We were visited at around 3am by a lone dolphin leaping high out of the sea next to us doing somersaults and belly flops obviously determined to keep those on watch as mesmerised as the LPDQ had done a few nights before - but with no thong - and wearing less make-up!

We have managed to cover more miles in the 24 hours since the ARC+ start than in any 24 hour period since we left Antibes. We had to motor-sail much of the way down from Antibes but have not used the engines (other than for about 10 mins) in this 24 hours. Our sail power delivering great progress considering the size and weight of the boat. We have covered 189 nautical miles since we crossed the start line meaning we have averaged 7.9 knots over the period. 

Sunrise was wonderful this morning - it’s a sunny day and we are all in shorts and tee shirts. We are about 150nm off the coast of Morocco heading south with a place called Sebkha Tah shown on the map in line with where we are. Not a destination anyone has heard of on board and probably not on LPDQ’s world tour venue list.

 Pringle (and Smarties) stocks doing well.

697nm to go to Mindelo, Cape Verde.

The boat is going well, everyone on board is fine and enjoying the trip.