ARC DIARY 1st DECEMBER - DAY 6

Ladyliv
Tue 4 Dec 2007 00:11

LADY LIV ARC DIARY
1ST DECEMBER 2007 - DAY 6

SV Lady Liv continues to be driven relentlessly by the boisterous trades
toward our
goal, Rodney Bay, St. Lucia. We have reached 23:22N and 26:59W and a
milestone for
our journey...only 2000 miles to go to Rodney Bay. The winds are blowing
at about
25kts from the north-east and our speeds vary between 7.5kts and 10kts on
a course
of about 260 degrees of down wind sailing. The swells are moderate and at
about 2 to
4 meters. We encounter the occasional squal but the weather remains as
predicted by
Chris Tibbs in Las Palmas and typical of trade wind sailing for this time
of the
year. We have had our best two days run so far, 156 nautical miles today
and 133
nautical miles yesterday. At one point we even managed to surf down one
wave at a
dizzying 14.4kts. The seas are getting warmer and bluer .....true "blue
water"
sailing. Our sail plan varies between wing-on-wing (goose wing) and a
starboard
reach. We hand steer during daylight hours and are on automatic during the
night.

Today we changed sails in 20kt winds. The first days out we had Lady Liv's
number 2
jib or 100% to give the crew an opportunity to become fully accustomed to
the yacht.
The Captain has now full confidence in the crew and so we raised the much
bigger
number 1 or 145%. The Captain led the change team on the wildly pitching
foredeck
and was ably assisted by Mike Smith and Goldilocks (Mike Rose). The others
were in
the cockpit at the helm and pulling on various lines. The exercise was a
success but
did involve some serious and intricate acrobatics on the part of the
foredeck team.
The sail was pulled into the cabin via the forward hatch, flaked and
stowed in a
seamanlike manner.

Our chefs continue to produce masterpeices for the dinner table!!! Last
night we
were delighted with a unique curry produced by David and Ian which included a
dessert of Sticky Toffee Pudding. Today, we are expecting ...."a la chien
hache".

Personal notes:

Our Captain has "beat" his crew into a well oiled (albeit sober) machine
and is
taking pride in his achievement.

Ian and David continue to inspire us all in the gally (kitchen for you
landlubbers)
while Ian continues as the champion humourist of LLL.

Brian has finally been able to get some sun sights after finding the horizon.

Michael Smith is the most focussed of the lot and has started on a new
adventure
book by Wilbur Smith....he also produced egg and bacon sandwiches which we
all
fought over.

Mike Rose is practising his down wind sailing in high seas and
trades....something
he does not see very often.

Emil (Email) continues to learn much about seamanship from his bearded and
less
bearded colleagues.

Tomorrow is another day in the trades and the crew are struggling to face yet
another day of the same!!!!!!!!. Until later.....the well fed, oiled and
happy crew
of the Lively Lady Liv.