ARC Log - Day 10
Global Yacht Racing's P42
Global Yacht Racing
Wed 3 Dec 2008 19:55
Author: Ric
It's RAINING! It's been raining for hours. Not that kind of 'Ooo-quick, get the shower gel' kind of tropical rain - this is the proper, non-stop English channel, wet drizzle. It hasn't really got light all day, and we've been ghosting along through the murk with rarely more than 8 knots of breeze from varying angles - mostly behind us. The only shimmer of hope is the featureless image of another yacht, Nisida, only about a mile off our port bow - we've been gaining on them slowly all afternoon, although we suspect that this is because they've chosen to stay below and mend their broken fridge. We're lucky not to have such distractions, although I admit that a fridge would be a nice creature comfort.
Other yachts to the south, notably Fair Do's VII and Desna have slowly got past us in the last 24 hours. They're now about 25 miles ahead, their much lighter hulls being a big advantage while the wind is so light. As long as we can keep them less than a day ahead we could still beat them on corrected time, but with 1200 miles to go, anything could happen yet.
Paul's taken to domestic chores today - cooking and sewing. We're all thankful for the slight variation to our diet, as he prepared a pasta, chorizo and sauce dish (which actually would have looked quite at home in a foil bag like the rest of our food). He's now hiding from the rain, sewing up our running spinnaker that's taken a bit of wear and tear over the last few days.
One of our snap shackles blew apart in the night, releasing the kite from the end of the pole. Sandy ('spoons'), Jo, Mike and Sebi got the situation under control, which involved getting the kite down and repacked without waking me up, which is excellent news in my book. I was woken for the re-hoist, slightly confused as to why we were putting another spinnaker up - not sure I fully regained consciousness throughout the whole thing, and enjoyed the 16 minutes remaining of my off-watch.
More drama - Sebi became our first galley casualty, scalding his hand while making a cup of tea. He insisted on finishing the job before treating the injury - Paul obviously looked desperate for that tea! I was extremely excited to have reason to break into our extensive medical kit and enjoyed playing nurse. Poor Sebi now looks a sorry state - the dressing may be overkill for such a minor injury, but it makes him feel special.
We had a message from Jeremy at ARC control, concerned that the loss of our spoons represents an illegal dumping of the boat's equipment and as such makes us lighter and at a competitive advantage. They've insisted that the offender is punished by any forfeit deemed suitable by the skipper. Can't wait for the bar in St. Lucia...
Got to go - our wonderful solar powered wind instruments have just failed again - told you it was dark!
Nurse Ric