18:22:49N 45:12:82W

ARC 2014 Blog for Yacht 'Jo'
Ted Watts/ Mark Watts
Fri 5 Dec 2014 18:56

Friday 5th December 2014

....more excitement yesterday afternoon as we were visited by a Minke whale, identified by George from a handy whale and dolphin identification guide. The whale was really curious to check us out and swam all around the boat as well as underneath, turning corkscrews and getting really up close. The whale was only about 7- 8 metres long and possibly a pup and he stayed with us for nearly 30 minutes

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As of 0951 hrs today the crew celebrated the fact that we now have less than 1,000 nautical miles to Rodney Bay St Lucia. However, whilst we have made good progress to date, the winds have become progressively lighter and when you are moving along at less than 5 knots, 1000 nm feels like a long way to go!  The smart money is now on the 12th December for our arrival.

During the day, we caught up with a large catamaran (Svetlaya) and unusually our convergent courses brought us within 70’ of each other on port tack. We exchanged greetings and carried on past. However, as we passed them approximately 1.5 boat lengths ahead, we were caught in their wind shadow. This usually isn’t a problem as the boat behind usually bears away or hardens up to windward. However, when the boat was within 1 boat length a lady on board started shouting to us to get out of the way because their steering was not fully functional! George who was on the wheel had the presence of mind to switch the engine on and start to motor, however it was too late and they caught the sugar scoop on our starboard quarter. The damage looks messy but thankfully is neither structural nor have they penetrated the hull. I certainly feel shamefaced that in a patch of water the size we are in that we could have had a collision with another boat despite all our mitigating circumstances! It has certainly put a dampener on today’s proceedings.

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Damage to our starboard stern quarter