18:07.0N 31:00.5W Celebrations - special dinner

Tatt av vinden
Bjørn Larsen
Tue 2 Dec 2008 17:59
Posistion 1200 UTC: 18:07N 30:26W Course: 267 degrees (T).

Once more a few reasons for celebration:

We have done more than one third.
We have passed longitude 30, which means we once again ajusted the time on
board. We are now UTC -2.
We are also now in the great circle route for StLucia.

The winds are still very light, but at the moment more sutherly, so we can
have the genoa on the same side as the main. We are reaching. Somewhere
between 5 and 6 knots. About a knot due to the current. Seems it will stay
light for most of the passage...

We are entering an area with higher squall activity. So far we have luckily
experienced none.

We feel adapted to life at sea now. The days are warm and pleasant. We read
and do the daily practical things, and some times we even feel we have time
just to relax.

This morning we were called by "Second wind" - another ARC boat. Yhey asked
us if we could lend them a cup of sugar! They hadn't been speaking to other
boats since the start. They told they had a slow start. They had been
sailing almost parallell to us all night, but now they had hoisted ther
parasailor (sort of spinnaker), and during the day they have reached very
close to the horizon (ahead of us).

When we see that, we miss our genaker. One hour and a broken halyard. That
was a very short time. The halyard was chafed of. We had noted the problem
in the Med, and thought we had solved it before it broke a second time, but
alas... There is something wrong with the rigging of course. But now it will
have to wait till St Lucia.

We still have a radar picture turned 90 degrees out of place, and the vhf
will not transmitt 25W, just 1W. Luckily we have a backup combined with our
SSB. And that is even more powerful, but the antenna is lower.

There are other small problems as well, but they are small. Eva had a broken
rib, which has healed now, and Bjørn has a broken tooth (which has not
healed). (No, this is not what it sounds like, it did nott occur on the same
time...).

Almost two more weeks to go. High sprit. Still fresh fruit. 28 degrees C.