Eric cracks open a bottle of Spanish vintage Champagne to celebrate the achievement and the end of our adventure.

 

 

Flying fish are getting bolder one hit Eric in the head last night , however he failed to tell the tale as we found him dead on deck in the morning,

 

 

First boat seen in nearly 3 days. We appeared to stalked her for most of the day they she disappeared around mid day. When we download the ARC fleet positions later we will find out who she was. Still able to fly Kite, but it has not been plain sailing today as a few passing squalls have meant we have run it up and down 3 times.  The spinnaker is now seeing a lot of use so we have to be mindful of checking the wear in the Halyards. The port side guy nearly let go to day.

 

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We are getting good at this fishing game caught another Dorada, with the lucky squid. He has 3 kills to his name now, the other 5 lures have none.

Spinnaker days continues, Boat is going well but we are not really gaining on any boats today as every one appears to have the same wind.

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Beautiful hot sunny day, lots of flying fish around us, and we caught another Dorada using the same lure as last time. This in now known as the lucky squid.

 

The proud hunter gatherer this time is Eric

 

 

The sail repair kit had been lost so there was no point inspecting the damaged Jennaker, however we found it today and we thought there could be a hope of repairing it albeit it may take several days. The damage report does was not good, there is no chance of effecting a makeshift repair on board.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spinaker day, winds constant, hot, sun shining, blue skies, moderate waves, 18 - 20 Knts. Boat going well.

 

As we head west we are chasing the sun, so we are now adjusting our watches to avoid jet lag in St.lucia. Offical Ellisa time today is UT  minus 1hr .

 

We had pretty little hawk land on the spreaders for a while to take a well desevred rest, she was a long way from home and looked very tried.

 

No fish today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately day 7 and 8 may have not made it through cyber space. so this is a resend and may appear out of sequence,

 

 The Tropic of Cancer crossed and we finally caught a fish and yes it was big!  Not really sure how big , but we hope to be eating it for a few days. We think it was a Dorada. This will replace the meat that had to be tossed.

 

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In the night we noticed that up a odd vibration which turn out to be something snagged iaround  the prop.  Ian dived under boat and cut it free some rope and a plastic bag.. Whilst he was there he acquired a cool blue rinse  courtesy of the antifoul,

 

During the squall  in which we damaged the Jennaker we also lost the Autopilot. The autopilot was saying we were heading East; our conclusion was that this happened either randomly when someone was pressing the buttons , or was down to a voltage drop which occurred at the same time. We were not able to recalibrate as the wind was too high , eventually by evening it lighten enough for us to do the two x 360 degree turns required to reset it. Unforntately this did not work. We tried for a few hours resetting different parameters but nothing fix it. We just about settled on the notion of having to manually helm 24x7 to St. Lucia when we solved the puzzel. The problem was down to a portable LED light (the kind you find in a petrol station) which was now hanging in a different place than normal. Unknowingly these nice little LED's  also had a small magnet at the back,  and this one was inconveinently placed near the fluxgate compass which was hidden inside the warddrobe. The magnet had inverted the the reading by 180.

 

On the subject of auto "Pilots", 3 pilots came along side last night. 

 

Overall position in our race fleet still  9th.

 

Still no fish., but Eric has got into making fresh bread.

 

 

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750 miles logged. 

 

Big change from yesterday day time, wind kicked to 20kts which was fine, boat went like a train making up the lost ground of from the low/ no wind afternoon.

 

Unfortunately we had a big squall in night which forced us to drop the kite, bad news as the sheet tripped by itself quickly followed by the guy so it flew like a flag; really not good at 30kts. Next port for the Jennaker  in North Sails repair loft!

 

This morning  we have cloud skies , rain and squall after squall. The outlook is the same for tomorrow,

 

Overall position has slipped to 9th.

 

Last few moments before Jen is confined to Locker

 

 

Still no fish....

 

 

 

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615 miles logged.  Overnighty wind held around 16kts but moved around too much to allow setting a polled out genoa; this mean we were unable to sail our intended course which in turned forced us to gybe every 2 hours.This is not good at all when tying to sleep. Eric had a hankering for Frey Bentos pies so thats we had, served with Pototoes and Green beans,

 

This morning the wind has dropped to around 9knts so even with our Jennaka we are only making about 4kts. This was not in line with the forecast which ptredicted 18. Anyway its a beatiful day again blue skies, and blue seas of course, 26 degrees . 

 

 

Still no fish....

 

 

 

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Two nights have passed without incident and morale is good.  The wind has held nicely blowing 20-30kts and we are making good progress.  Both the spinnaker and Jennaker have gone up and we are making good speed against the fleet. We were in 7th place in the IRC div.

 

We have rigged the new fishing reel but no  fish as yet.

 

The meat has gone a bit wiffy so we are cracking though it whilst its still fit to eat.

 

We have seen 2 schools of dolphin , and have had just one flying fishing on the deck so far.

 

 

 

The Race is finally underway! We left the pontoon to the sound of  rousing Spanish opera that was blasted across the marina, and crowds of waving specator lined the breakwater and seafront. The start line was like every races start line despite all  the skippers being reminded that this is a 3000 mile ocean race and to be senisble. The line was marked by a Spanish "battleship" which was really quite small , and quite hard to see amongst the melay of the boats. The IRC class started a few minutes ahead of the main fleet;  Ellisa had good start and was amongst the leading pack across the line, Unmissable we hoped as she flew her massive union Jack.