The race is on

Ninaofsouthampton
Tue 27 Nov 2018 11:45
Amazed after 300 miles to have 8 ARC boats within a 15 mile radius of us. We are strictly not racing but monitoring relative progress is becoming compulsive!!

Closest to us and running parallel is the, no doubt, very elegant Swan54, Festina Lente. We have seen her repeatedly and maybe she, like us, is getting daily routing advice from sailing legend Chris Tibbs.

Just South I of her is Theia of London, a CNB Bordeaux 60. Alan says it’s a performance cruiser. Certainly a big girl to keep up with.

Slightly behind to the North and 4 miles away is Meltemi, Beneteau Oceanis 54, and behind her Theodora, Grand Soleil 50. Plus at the top of our AIS screen is Leontina, Beneteau First 47.7.

Just behind us all is Silhouette, an Oyster 575

There is 1 further sailing boat which must be doing the ARC but the AIS system is not showing her name. Just too far away I think.

So a pretty classy fleet one way and another and Nina is enjoying the challenge.

Apologies to those who aren’t into sailing boats. Really did this blog to capture the moment. I really didn’t expect to see many yachts after a few days and here we are in sight of 7 boats

All well on board. We are cracking along at about 8 knots with the new Genoa poled out and 15-20 knots of tail wind. Swell is slight so just nothing to hold her back

The Skipper

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