Silver Bear to the rescue
Silver Bear
Ray Lawry
Tue 1 Dec 2009 15:36
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17:57.4380N 34:39.2070W
We've had a fairly interesting day
yesterday,another yacht ,too small to participate in the ARC, but sailing the
Atlantic called 'Starfire',sent a message asking for our help as they had
lost half their rudder.Starfire is a Sadler 25 being sailed by 2 young lads,Alan
22 and Tom 23.Alan's dad who met Ray on a sailing course asked Ray if he would
keep a fatherly eye on them.Anyway they are a real pair of characters as you can
imagine and apart from needing a few beers to be bought for them and the use of
our mobile phone because of course their's was out of credit,they have
been pretty independent, until yesterday when we got a call for help as
they had lost half their rudder. Having notified ARC control we diverted SE to
try to get back to Starfire.Not much fun sailing into the wind in 25-30 knts and
a rough sea,4 hours into our rescue mission we received a satelite call from the
coastguard Falmouth to say the boys had managed to repair their rudder.Somewhere
on a 25 yacht they had found some spare timber,bolted it to what was left of
their rudder and were back on course for St Lucia.We decided to stay south as we
thought they may still need some help.This morning they phoned us to ask if we
were prepared to shadow them over the next few days.All crew agreed we
would.David said,we should stop picking up young men.We have another tale to
tell but that will have to wait.So we have slowed
down and are hoping to get within 10 miles of Starfire.We have enough provisions
to last an extra couple of days.We will keep you updated of any further
developments.
So apart from that excitement ,we are
still,sunbathing,baking bread,much better than the part baked stuff,reading and
cooking.Andy and Ray have finally had enough of the sextant.
Bye for now,Ray,Ali Andy and David.
Below; farewell Las Palmas
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