Harmonie - Rally start pictures and daily update

Rally start pictures and daily update

Harmonie

Don and Anne Myers

Sat 26 Jan 2008 18:54

13:23.296N 70:14.448W

Now that the waves have calmed down a bit, I was able to download our pictures from the rally start. Picture 1 is the happy couple with official World ARC Rally t-shirts on just before leaving the dock in St. Lucia and heading out on our round-the-world quest. Sorry for the poor picture quality, but this is the first time we have attempted to send pictures with emails via the satellite phone and therefore, don't want the files to be too big.

Picture 2 shows the rally boats just after we all crossed the start line. The first night we could see lights from nearby boats and could also spot about 10 boats on radar. By the second day, we could see only one boat nearby. By the third day, we could not see any boats, but knew several were within 25 miles because we could hear them on the radio. It's amazing how 30+ boats all headed for the same place can spread out so quickly and become invisible.

Although we can't see anyone else, we do take comfort in knowing they are not too far away. Every day at noon, a roll call is held over the SSB (long-range radio) and all boats report in with their latitude and longitude position and wind conditions. This is really nice because it gives us a sense for where everyone is. Out here we have no access to the internet, so we can't see the fleet viewer on the World ARC website. However, the daily roll call basically gives us the same information, so it works out well.

We are currently about sixty miles away from the closest land (Aruba), but the feeling is quite different than what it was when we were on our own in the Atlantic during our trip from Norfolk to St. Thomas. Then, there was a true feeling of isolation, our little boat floating all alone on the vast ocean. Now, although we can't see anyone, just knowing they are there makes this eight day trip feel more like an island hop than a Caribbean Sea crossing. I probably take more comfort from this than Don does (or at least than he will admit to), but all in all it's a good feeling and really the reason we decided to join the rally in the first place.

Speaking of taking comfort from the other boats nearby...we've just learned that there is a boat that sunk not too far from our current position (15 miles). The boat that went down is not one of the World ARC boats and apparently had been having trouble for quite a while. This makes sense because the weather is beautiful right now and certainly not cause for a boat to go under. One of the rally boats that is ahead of us (Tillymint) found one survivor in the water and brought them on board. There are three other people somewhere in the water, so we have diverted our course along with three other World ARC boats, to see if we can help in the search. A coast guard boat is also on the way. We should know more tomorrow, so I will write an update then.

Other than the fact that we are on our way to try and find survivors in the sea, we are doing very well. The weather is perfect for a smooth downwind sail, we are going fast (7-9 knots), and are ahead of schedule. It's possible we may get to Panama in seven days instead of eight. Very nice.

Anne