ARC Day 15 - Have the trade winds finally arrived?
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Position 12:48.79N 041:35.15W Date 2359 UTC Sunday 5 December 2010 When sending the email of yesterday’s diary we received an
updated weather briefing from Chris Tibbs, a meteorologist well known in yachting
circles, who gave pre-ARC lectures and provides weather support during the
ARC. He said that for yachts as far south as ourselves and at our longitude we
should by Sunday expect stronger trade winds to replace the light winds that we
have had for the last week or more. Furthermore we should expect a line of
squalls to lie between the two wind patterns. Well in the early hours of the
morning we passed through a very impressive line of squalls; or rather they
passed through us! 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 The successful evolution was followed by another Blue Peter Spag Bog
and as a special treat and pandering to my more basic childhood tastes,
Butterscotch Instant Whip. Supplies in the freezer are bearing up and the Mate
still has meals in hand for the completion of the trip. Our current boat time is 2 hours behind UTC (For traditionalists -
GMT). At midnight UTC, 2200 boat time, the log (through the water) showed
2,007nm. The distance over the ground was 1,968nm, the difference being
represented by current and possibly calibration error in the log. Editors note – in the entry of two days ago I referred to the
baking of a carrot cake. This cake was in fact a Banana and Walnut Cake. I
apologise for this error and the distress that it may have caused amongst our
readers’. |