How did I get here to write my first blog in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean (nearer to the other side really). Sailing started for me through my brother, Stu, about 10 years ago and he took me annually on hops across the English Channel in his 22ft boat with a passage time of about 12 hours and covering some 50 odd miles. The next few days would be 20 mile hops each day to other Channel Islands and after 5 days or so return back home. I really felt it was a great adventure each time and looked forward to the next year. 3 years ago I took Pete with me and a few others and chartered a 32ft boat and did the same trip except because it was bigger we managed to get further south and made Jersey. Pete had never left sight of land before and revelled in the freedom and exhilaration a boat gives you. 2 years ago over a pint or two he said he was interested in competing in the ARC and would I be interested. Anybody who likes sailing can’t refuse an offer like that! So time marched on and Cat-Man-Do came on the scene. 50 mile hops are ok on a small boat but the prospect of 2700 miles even on a 38.5ft catamaran was hard to imagine. To her credit she is a fine voluminous boat in which you feel incredibly safe and able to cope with all the elements the North Atlantic can throw at you.

 To be able to do a “little jaunt” like this there has to be certain things in place.

Firstly I would like to thank my wife, Laura, for her continued support and enthusiasm for my trip. There were times earlier on in the planning when I was a bit dubious mainly about the length of time away from home and the huge distance involved, especially considering my other sailing trips.  It’s hard to decide what to take and what not to take when baggage allowance and space is at a premium but we managed and managed well.

Secondly its not everyone that can take nearly 5 weeks of work in one stretch so a big thank you to Steve, Geoff and Andrew who are looking after my emergencies at the Practice.

Thirdly a big thank you to Pete for organising this so well, (and obviously buying the boat in the first place!!) To date it has gone extremely well and are making good progress as you all know, probably better than we know ourselves!

The last thanks go to the other crew, Brian and Rob, they too have put an awful lot of time and effort into this project and the morale and camaraderie on board has been excellent and it’s a pleasure to sail with all three

So to today’s blog :-

What has happened in the last 24 hours, well it started about 3:00 am when a rather nasty squall showed its ugly head with wind speeds gusting up to 35kn and kept following us across the Atlantic. It decided to peak at 10:00 with a top end speed of 45.5kn. I was on the helm at the time and with those speeds the boat takes off and is in her element as we race across the waves (as Rob said at the time-better than any arcade game!) Gladly it has died down to a respectable 20kn. Most of the day has been sharing steering the boat more or less towards St Lucia. Apart from that the sausage has stayed well and truly hidden today and will remain like that until at least tomorrow.

That’s all folks

Howard