Nearly There !!
Imagine of Plymouth
Arthur
Tue 11 Dec 2007 13:56
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OOW log
Sailing ship IMAGINE OF PLYMOUTH
Stardate: Lost track, don't know, sometime in
December, this year....
Well, Blog followers....
We are nearly there. We've nearly made
it.
Our epic journey where others have journeyed before
us, is nearly over.
As of 09.15am our time, 13.15 UK time we have 43.41
nautical miles to go. At present speed, about 5 to 6 hours sailing time.
Since yesturday, we certainly have been thru the
washing machine. We havn't shrunk, not yet anyway, but blimey riley, have we
seen rain, squalls and then some.
We had some more dolphins all around us yesturday.
These were obviously small families, as some of them were only about 1 1/2 foot
long, swimming very close to adult ones. Groups of 2 adults and 3 babies all
over the place.
After the hectic day of sail changes yesturday, we
settled for a nice 'last supper' onboard with a reasonably good sunset, and then
it all went down the pan.
We slowly got enveloped into what started as a few
small squalls, that all merged into 1 super squall, 12miles wide by 8 miles.
This then promptly followed us for nearly all the night. Hard rain, loads of
wind, then all over the place wind, then none. Again, we had to motor for a
while, until it bloody well caught up with us again this morning.
So, still we have shed loads of rain. But we are
sailing hard towards St Lucia, averaging 9 - 10 knots down the waves again... 25
- 30 knot winds. The storm from the other day has broken into a tropical
storm...... thank god we got away from that one.
This morning, Robert woke last, 2 the sight of the
rest of us being pelted by rain. Bloody hell, this isn't the caribbean weather,
were the shouts from down below. So he prepared a great moral boosting bacon and
egg roll for us all, then laughed as he sat in the air con down below. Well, at
least he was awake for once!!!
So, as we near the end and have a bit of time to
reflect on the journey, and the fabulous time that most of us had, even in the
rubbish weather and the non existant NE trade winds that we were promised,
I think a damn good acheivement is felt all round. For some of us, we will do it
again, some, it's an initiation into sailing, and some, never to be repeated.
But all in all, a good bunch of guys having fun, laughing alot, NOT DRINKING
ALCOHOL (yes, you read that right), and learning from the
experience.
I for one would like to thank Admiral Chris for
this experience, for buying the boat in the first place, to make this possible,
and for putting up with us as we turned his new pride and joy into messy pit, to
say the least, with waterproofs and gear all over the place, and for Capt
Arthur, for getting me to come in the first place, not that I needed any
persuading.
We would like to thank all of you followers for
your emails of support and phonecalls. All of which have helped immensly while
we put up with natures biggest elements, the ocean, and the loanly vastness, and
although wishing certain members of family had been around to witness the feat,
knowing that they were up there looking down and smiling on us has helped
hugely.
Thank you again, and we all look forward to seeing
you all soon, with our tales of the intrepid 5, on the fine vessel IMAGINE OF
PLYMOUTH, and the journey to St Lucia, and beyond. OK, just round the corner to
Barbados!
Now, it just leaves us with one mission. It's time
to party for a while in St Lucia. Well, it would be rude not too,
eh!!!
That's all folks. Thanks for listening, you've been
swell. Now turn the lights out on the way out. Bye for now....
Mark, Chris, Arthur, Rudy and
Robert.......!!
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