ARC Log - Day 16

Global Yacht Racing's P42
Global Yacht Racing
Tue 9 Dec 2008 22:38
14:06.6N 058:51.9W
Author: Ric

The nights are now very well lit by an almost full moon making sail changes that much easier. Until about 4am that is, when it goes very, very dark. This means you can't see the approaching squalls and the first you know about them is the dramatic wind shift followed by a few spots of rain.

This happened last night, and we decided to take the spinnaker down as a precaution. Something went wrong with the drop and we shredded it into lots of smaller spinnakers! We don't have a blame culture on board, but we all know it was Paul's fault (he was actually in bed at the time). So tonight we're being even more cautious - we still have a strong position in the race, and we need to cross the finish line successfully before we can claim it. That means still having a working boat!

We think we've had our last Wayfarer experience, so we're contemplating throwing the rest of the cutlery overboard now. We've still got plenty of cake, although George complained last night that the cake tasted a bit salty. He'd grabbed a handful of leftover cous cous from the galley instead!

With just over 100 miles to go to St. Lucia, this will be the last of my ramblings, unless I get all creative after a few glasses of rum punch. Thanks to everyone who has been following our progress - hopefully you've been inspired, perhaps horrified, and maybe a few of you will join us on the ARC with Global Yacht Racing next year.

Ric
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Skipper, P42
Global Yacht Racing