What a difference a day makes! 23:54.46N 019:06.82
Seaflute
Tue 8 Nov 2016 18:16
Day three of the ARC+ rally and we've been flying along in 20 knots of
beautiful trade wind. We have passed a number of yachts who had motored well
ahead during the light winds during the first twenty four hours. We averaged
9 knots per hour over a thirteen hour period and us that's pretty
impressive. It's currently hard for us to know where all the other yachts
are if they are more than 25 miles from us which is the range of our AIS
system (Automated Identification System). The ARC facilitate a daily radio
web on the SSB (Short Wave Side Band Radio) radio. We got to use ours today
for the first time thanks to Tom and his newly acquired ham radio skills.
It's a great tool and can enable you to communicate with people thousands of
miles away. You may not know who they are, or what they are saying but you
can enjoy the achievement. Anyway, part of the daily radio net is a roll
call and position report which is collated and emailed back to base. The ARC
team then email the whole fleets positions to each of the yachts able to
receive this information. If you were a competitive type, you may then want
to plot these positions on a chart and work out your relative positions.
Also, if you were this competitive type, you may also start to consider the
handicap adjustments and motoring time penalties, to see how well you may be
fairing if this was a race, which of course it isn't. Well I for one am glad
it's not a race, just imagine the time it would take to do this, rather than
use the time usefully shortening sail to stop the rolling, but of course
this would also make the boat go slower! , where did all that time go?
The crew are all well and getting used to life offshore again. We have
started a formal watch system on this leg which entails one crew each day on
galley duty, then the rest of the crew standing four hour watches during the
day and three hours during the hours of darkness. Lindy and Liz stood their
first solo watches last night and did a great job. I am charging up the
walkie talkies tonight so if they need any advice they can call me.
I must log off now as Tom has just cooked a cassoulet and I need to watch
the sunset.
By for now
Skipper Peds