ARC POSITION DAY TWO
Ladyliv
Wed 28 Nov 2007 21:17
Tuesday, November 27, 2007 5:54 PM
Subject: Lady Liv Yacht Diaries: November 27: Log Day 2.
This second report finds Lady Liv and her crew at 25: 53N and 18:38W some
295 miles along our route to Rodney Bay, St. Lucia in the Windward
Islands. The vessel and crew are well and in good spirits. We have had
excellent sailing weather and are now being pushed along our course by the
North-east Trades. It is great to have fine weather, the beginnings of
warm temperatures, steady winds and the anticipation of even better things
to come. Last night we had largely clear skies and a full moon.
Ahhh......Trade wind sailing at its best!!!
We have already settled into our watches and the daily routine of life
aboard a small vessel, although Lady Liv has plenty of room for us and all
the food and water plus our personal belongings we managed to stuff into
her. The Captain hauled us all on deck in the afternoon and had a
practising down-wind sailing and setting the spiniker pole. After some
clumsy first efforts we managed to impress him and did not receive the ten
lashes he promised for our failure to perfom. We also received specific
instructions/reminders on how to use the marine toilet and especially how
to dispose of wet nappies. More critical to our safety were the
instructions on the "three minute rig check". Very useful. In any case,
all systems seemed to be working well. Of course, below it was very noisy
during heavy winds and high waves something similar to being inside an
empty barrel.
Our speed during this period has varied from an exciting 9 knots to a more
stately 5 knots. We have been sailing wing-on-wing along a course of
approximately 250 degrees. The 230 or so ARC 2007 vessels are somewhere
out there but we were kept company by only two and that at some distance.
We were entertained by a spirited performance of some two dozen dolphins
who in their usual playful way swam around our boat leaping into the air
and dashing in front of our bow. We are looking forward to more of this
kind of entertainment as we go along our route.
We are well stocked with food and drink. We have also stowed some
champagne to toast our mid point of the journey. Our first few meals were
a quick sandwich as the winds and waves were high and cooking was not on
our minds. Our first proper meal was last night with smoked salmon,
avocado, Marion's excellent and well aged meat sauce over pasta. For
dessert some of us had peaches in sweet syrup or Danish butter cookies.
You can tell from this menu that whatever seasickness we may have felt
early on had all disappeared.
Thus far, no major crises faced. One of our crew did misplace his wet
nappies but to the relief of his crew mates these were eventually found.
We also lost and later recoverd the DAN bouy.
Our crew consists of Captain, Bob (Heff) Heffron, Brian (First Mate)
Alderson, Ian (Medic) Whitelock , David (the Engineer!) Hughes, Michael
(Gentleman) Smith, Mike (Goldilocks) Rose are all Brits with Emil (Email)
Baran as the only "outsider", a Canadian.
We plan to start our fishing tomorrow and will report on this in our next
log.