29:13.63N 13:44.68W 16th November Almost at the start line
The Snark on The ARC
Ben Little
Sun 15 Nov 2009 23:47
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Hello again,
This may be the last but one blog for the trip, I
hope they have been fun to follow. Special wishes out there to Coleen and
Milo. We should be in sight of land during the day on Monday if not actually in
port so I hope we can call home on mobiles.
Well we have almost made it to the start
line. Today was a very different day, thanks Julie for your wind prayers
they worked! The wind is perfect not too fierce not too soft, I hate
to be fussy but you know could you please specify a direction next time as the
wind you have sent us is directly on our nose at the minute and we have been on
a hard tack all day and now proceeding under engine as we are keen to get there
as quick as possible and hand over our broken sail to the sailmaker on Monday
rather than Tuesday. We may have difficulty with this as we are running to
the bottom of our fuel supply and may have to make a stop in Lanzarote for a
refill which implies waiting till the pumps open probably delaying us several
hours. So Julie if you are up early a quick addendum to your prayers
asking for a 90 degree wind direction shift to the North West would help us sail
the last 50 Miles.
So what did we see today, well we failed to land a
fish but we did manage to hook a few. I think we need bigger hooks as the
fish seem able to throw them. I guess bigger hooks will mean bigger fish
but bring it on I think we can cope. We saw some more turtles, I am still
awaiting some sort of explanation of the Phenomenon from our budding naturalists
out there? We did not swim with them due to the quite rough seas and the
fact that we were roaring along under sail (though not in exactly the right
direction... Julie). We also had another long chat with Epic Fanny, who
sadly we have left a long way behind us, they were able to confirm that I was
not losing my marbles the other night and in fact I did see (or mostly
hear) a pod of Whales near the boat whether they thought we
were mother or a potential mate I do not know. The North Atlantic seems to
be teaming with sea life even if we can't eat it all (no one for turtle soup I
hear you cry).
Thanks to Dugald we are all becoming budding
amateur astrologers. He has with him a pocket star gazers guide to the
cosmos which we have all been looking at with interest. We have found in
the night sky, to name a few, Cassiopeia (the big W), Ursa Minor (not sure what
creature but it contains the north star), Ursa Major (the plough), and the
square of Pegasus (or as we like to call it the Horse Box). Sadly for
Dugald his students appear to have surpassed the master and we are now able to
identify Polaris (the North Star) faster than he can, he wagered a fiver on the
outcome and conceded defeat, We failed to identify the currency of the bet so it
may be we get five cans of beer on arrival in Las Palmas.
The air temperature has turned much warmer and it
is really too warm for the foulies we have all been wearing at night. I am
thankful for this as we don't really like pulling on lots of clothes at night it
is not what we wanted. We seem also to have left behind our heavy evening
dew which one night actually filled the sail bad with water not to mention
soaking the decks. It was the same night we lost the Spinnaker so maybe
the dampness and weight of water was a factor. We have been re-reading our
Atlantic guide and it sagely advises that "most crews avoid flying a spinnaker
at night", now we know why, but I know that the winning couple (on handicap)
last year flew one most nights and they were a 2 handed boat with just a young
child on board.
Enough for now I think, I will post once more
before we hit Las Palmas but may take a break during the week depending
on how busy we are. We leave on the 22nd so normal service will be
resumed then.
hope to hear from you all soon
Ben and the Crew.
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