Sunday Evening:

We left an hour or so after the Fanfare of the ARC start.  Our leaving  was slightly hampered by a number of ARC boats returning for repairs.  A couple of hours later we caught the tail enders and have since been wading through the fleet.  One ARC boat radioed  the port for help as they had lost their steering , managed to wrap a sheet around the prop and wanted to be towed back the 10 miles or so they had made. Another  had done a crash jibe and injured a crew member’s  hand.  Others had engine and rigging failures and wanted return for repairs and start again.We had a great run through the acceleration zone with a lot of 11 knot plus sailing, but now after sunset the wind has veered NE and dropped to a mere force 3.  So we’re testing the engine for a bit.  We’ve been treated to a  spectacular moon rise.

Midnight.  We’ve been sailing again since 8pm and have passed dozens of ARC boats including Scorpione Dei Mari who at 30 meters is much bigger than us .  The crew includes Juan Carlos who owns the main chandlerly in Gran Canaria and who was extremely helpful and generous  with his time during our ordeal.  We’re steaming along at 10 knots and the moon is fantastic on the water.

With  four of us the watch system is  two hours on and six hours off.  However as Nik is new to the boat I will stay up an extra hour and Steve will get up an hour early until he is ready to do a solo watch.

Noon 27/11/07

We’re zipping along at 8 knots and two dorados take both the fishing lines, the second one 20 seconds after the first. We turn  into the wind and drop the Yankee reducing boat speed to a crawl. Not we’re travelling in the opposite direction. After much wrestling Steve and Sotiris manage to gaff the larger dorado but when Sotiris put him on the aft deck he leapt about  and escaped.  The second one which was of a more managable size was landed by Nik and was not so lucky as his friend.

During all this, Scorpione Del Mari who had been lagging 4 miles behind us gained a couple, as did Heartbeat, another large ARC Yacht which has been shadowing us for some hours.  We have long since passed the slower members of the fleet and there are only these two yachts close by.

2 PM.  24 hour run 198 miles even with stopping for  fish.