Day 16 – Noon 3^rd June to Noon 4^th June

24 hours to go and nothing was going to stop us now. We celebrated with a bottle of bubbly during our last night at sea party.

The wind did it’s best to keep us guessing until the end but we finally crossed the finish line with just over an hour before the deadline. And then amidst a fanfare of cheering and foghorns being sounded by the rest of the ARCE fleet we arrived in the harbour at Horta.

It had been a real battle and we were all tired but very happy.

Facts and Figures

1 boat 4 crew

15 Days 22 Hours 27 Minutes and 31 Seconds

2,016 miles sailed

Maximum wind speed 52 knots

Minimum wind speed 0 knots

5 days of gales

5 days becalmed

Used 750 litres of water of which we made 450 litres on the way

Used 250 litres of diesel

Good Points

Never seen so many dolphins – they were magnificent

Watching shearwaters in a gale

Nick fixing the steering cables during bad weather

Overcoming the gales

The laughter on board

5 metre waves – awesome

Making the finish line before the cut off

Bad Points

Steering cables coming adrift

Autopilot packing up with 1,250 miles still to go

Hand steering for over 1,000 miles

Not seeing any whales

Gales that went on for 96 hours

Sleep deprivation

5 metre waves - scary

Nick feeling seasick near to the start

The weather never did what was forecast

Getting thrown around like a cork

Thanks

Special thanks have to go to Graham this leg for pitching in and providing us with hot food in difficult conditions. Brilliant job mate – thanks

To Nick for fixing the steering cables in rough weather

To Barrie for being the other watch leader in horrible conditions

To Pat for organising things back at home so that we could carry on with the crossing.

Paul - Peejay