35:19N 52:58W Position Update.... Day of the Dolphin...Washing Day
The Snark on The ARC
Ben Little
Mon 16 May 2011 23:17
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Hi Folks,
another day becalmed on the high seas. Now I
know what the mean on the shipping forecast when they say "moving more slowly"
as that is what we seem to be doing today. We were getting all excited
last night as we had wind off our beam and we were able to get some headway in
the quiet of the night without the rumble of the trusty iron mainsail but by 1pm
it had faded to 4 knots on the nose so no use to anyone.
Come on the Wind Witch!! Come on the Wind
Witch!!
Anything for a bit of a Southerly or Westerly or
any combination, even a Northerly but generally nothing or something out of the
North East is what we are seeing.
However the day was not lost, in addition to
improving our tans we had a wildlife extravaganza with Whales (OK maybe just
one), Turtles (at least 3 one with a bird perched on it) and lots and lots of
Dolphins. Several pods of them with many many dolphins in each, at one
point we had at least a dozen one the bow with many more cavorting around us
showing off. To save bandwidth for those at sea I have sent the pics to
the blog in a separate message and will do a big update when we get to Horta
(assuming we do not starve or run out of fuel). We are now over a third or
the distance to Horta in 4 days which puts us on schedule for a 12 day passage,
but the winds need to improve as currently under motor our average speed is
dropping off. I heard that Triple D is behind us so wishing
them fair wind. Chimera is probably already in Horta! The ARC fleet
will I imagine do one of their mass starts in a couple of days, I have not
checked the wind in Bermuda but it sounded like there was not much of it
about. I wonder how long they will all sit inside the reef with sails
flapping before someone says bugger this and cranks up the old engine!
Back to The Snark and our day. Why so many
dolphins today? And why so close to the boat when before they have stayed
at a distance? Well the popular theory on the boat is that they were
attracted by the colourful array of underwear pegged to the windward rail
(picture sent separately). Chris did a courtesy wash today since his 5
pairs were all on the 2nd or 3rd day and he wanted to look his best in case he
was to appear in any blog photos or videos. Although this year he brought
with him some swimming shorts. (for those who don't know what I am going
on about see the you tube video "I'm on a Snark" for more details (!!! those
easily offended by bad language or viewing with young children are
recommended to watch with no sound).
Sadly no fish catches to report, we still have
fresh meat in stores but when we go beyond the 11 day mark we will either
have to go veggie, live of tinned goods or lots and lots of pasta (or rice and
soya sauce for Mike). So in the words of "The Cat in The
Hat" when you wish...wish for fish. The great news is WHEN
we do catch one we have lots and lots of pickled ginger to go with our sashimi
(and of course sushi vinegar, wasabi, and soya sauce).
That is all for today, dialing in to check the
weather report and hoping that a double dose of chanting from WW has paid
dividends.
All are well and in good spirits despite a lack of
sailing wind. Farewell for now.
Ben and the Crew of The Snark
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