22:11N 64:32W Second Night on Route to Bermuda

The Snark on The ARC
Ben Little
Sat 30 Apr 2011 23:42
High Snark Bloggers
 
Bermuda is now less than 600 Nm distant and we are closing the gap visibly on the charts.  The Snark seems to be sailing well, We are now into day 2 of our trip to Bermuda and have travelled approx 240 Nautical Miles of the 840 total so not bad going, 192 Nm in our first 24 hours at an average of 8 knots which is good going.  The seas have been rough and we have had to proceed with 2 reefs in order for it to me manageable but it is now much calmer with less wind, still good progress but more comfortable with it.  We are expecting some head winds before we get to Bermuda but hopefully the forecast will change with the efforts of our Wind Witch
 
Lets get the specifics down,
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Dear WW
 
we would very much appreciate the winds coming out of the South East for the next 4 days, speeds of 12-15 Knots would be appreciated  anything above 10 is fine.  As proof of your powers would you please wipe away the threat of 25 Knot head winds which appear on the current charts of the area starting Monday,Tuesday.  We will be in port we trust by Wednesday evening so if we must have wind from the north let it be after that please. 
 
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We plan to stay a few days in Bermuda anchoring in St Georges Harbour where we will wait for fair wind, provision the boat, have a good clean down, fix anything that needs it and rest, and with luck pick up Quentin the last of our 4 man crew for the main crossing.
 
If some of the larger ARC boats are quick they may catch us up before we leave but they do not start till May 5th from Tortola so perhaps we will be long gone. 
 
Sun Set was beautiful tonight, and with the calmer weather the crew and I are settling down to a much less stressful evening.  Last night Mike Chris and I hand steered the whole night as we did not have sufficient battery power to run the auto helm and could not get the generator started to re charge.  It turns out that the oil level was too low for us to operate it with that level of boat healing going on..  Easily fixed in daylight but not during the night. 
 
Fishing has been a disappointment so far, after much excitement today with the reel buzzing regularly we have only caught Sargasso weed, let us hope for more success tomorrow,  So no Fish for tea, just spaghetti and meat balls with a Caprese salad, some Chianti would have been a good accompaniment but sadly we are a dry boat just now, we can celebrate in Bermuda when we get there
 
Ben and the Crew of The Snark
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