Day 5 ARC - The Postmen of the Sea

Sulana's Voyage
Alan and Sue Brook
Thu 25 Nov 2010 18:37
20:01.5 N 21:53.7 W

As at 18.15 UTC.

Day 5 and a change of wind. It has now switched around to the NNE and so we
are able to steer on a close fetch, a little south of west, and at last we
are making good speed again. Our near neighbours, who have just closed with
us from leeward, all sitting out on the rail, and are on a racing Beneteau
47.5, seem to think we are doing OK.

It is very tempting to come up to west and point at the finish in St. Lucia
but we are not yet far enough south to pick up what is currently a fairly
weak trade wind. Boats outside us to the west are likely to experience head
winds so their position "nearer to the finish" may not last. Boats nearer to
Africa will be further south of us so the question is: can we draw level
and get in ahead of them when we finally join the trade wind run for home?

The published fleet order is a little confused because many boats decided to
motor in yesterday's light stuff and it is not easy to identify who they
might be for the time being.

Life on board is very relaxed, wonderful food comes out of the galley
prepared by Ben our chief assisted by the two sous-chefs, Sue and Fiona, who
keep spiriting up bread and cakes. We will probably roll down the gangway by
the end of this voyage!

We are working a three hour "rolling watch" at night so there are always two
on deck and we change the order daily, so we each have different company as
the nights pass. During the day there is one officially on watch and most of
the rest around doing jobs or just relaxing.

We still haven't caught that fish but we have sighted lots! Schools of
dolphin keep visiting and playing around the boat showing off their best
tricks and two pods of pilot whales have cruised by today, just two or three
hundred yards away.

One important story we need to tell you about our trip across the Atlantic
is that, on behalf of a Las Palmas charity, we are one of several ARC yachts
acting as a "Postman of the Sea". This charity is called "Los Correos de la
Mar" and one of their organisers, a very friendly and helpful member of the
marina staff, approached Alan just the day before the off and asked if we
could carry some "Correos mailbags" from the generous people of Gran Canaria
to the people in St. Lucia, viz. any who might be in need after the terrible
hurricane.

The motto of Los Correos de la Mar is "Unete a Nosotros y ayudanos a ayudar",
which we read as meaning "Unite with us and help us to help".
A good one for a charity founded and run by "sailors of solidarity for
transporting humanitarian help"!

Los Correos de la Mar specialise in sending parcels to places like Brazil,
in South America, Senegal, in West Africa and islands in the Caribbean;
wherever they feel there may be a need for their donated gifts of school
material, clothes, sewing machines, musical instruments, wheelchairs, etc.

Having just literally stuffed "Sulana" absolutely full of all the best to be
found in the Canaries, it was somewhat of a challenge to think where to take
even more on board, but how could one refuse such a request. We agreed in
our best Spanish to accept 4 bags from the delightful Senora Martha
Hezemans.

If anybody wants to contact Martha and her organisation she can be reached
on marthaconhache {CHANGE TO AT} gmail {DOT} com
(which email handle/tag translates roughly to Martha with an H!).

Their website is www.correosdelamar.org.

In the end 5 'mailbags' came (fortunately none with wheelchairs in them!)
and we will be delighted to be able to complete this very human gesture of
goodwill. These have found a small corner of cabin sole space in our
forecabin for now.
Let's hope it does not get too rough and bouncy in the forecast headwinds we
anticipate getting in a couple of days time.

It will be interesting to answer the standard Customs and Immigration
official questions in Rodney Bay marina -
"Did you pack your bags yourself and has anyone given you anything to carry
for them????"



JPEG image

JPEG image