ARC 2009; ready, steady, GO!
And they're off! After a busy week of preperation, victualling the yacht,
fixing little issues and of course socialising the crew of EH01 Caspian
Services crossed the start line today at 1240 heading for St Lucia.
It was almost a non starter as just as we where about to leave the dock,
lines slipped, team kit on etc the engine decided not to start. Some
panicked 'language' from the skipper (me) and the timely intervention of
Adrian the resident mechanic and we discoverd a faulty connection on the
engine solenoid. A quick 'jump start' and we got away but I was twitching to
say the least. Its all fixed now though and as we settle in our watch system
we have just put away the first of many dinners as we head in a SSW
direction.
I have chosen caution for the first few days at sea and therefore we have
dropped the spinnaker at dusk(and therefore some speed) and are running
under poled out headsail and main.
It wasnt an easy decision as we where 4th in class earlier and surfing at 12
to 13 knots but I have to remember this is a marathon not a sprint and
whilst this is a great crew they dont have much spinnaker experience, so we
will build this up over the next few days.
The crew are: Simon Thomas, Paul Thomas, Gabor Ujvari, Rob Mann, David Lowe,
Adrian Hume, Cara Denholme, Mike Butler, Roeland Grutterink and me Andy
Middleton.
Catch ya later!
Andy.
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