14:17.5N 59:10.8W The final night 8th Xecember 2009
The Snark on The ARC
Ben Little
Tue 8 Dec 2009 08:24
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Hi Bloggers,
It is clear now that this will be the last night of
the trip, we may run past sunset depending on the wind, however it will
definitely be the last full night watch that any of the crew will sit. I
am glad of this as this has been one of the least comfortable watches following
a very tiring one last night. Tonight I drew the last watch 4am till 8am,
I get to see the sunrise and, in theory at least, I get a good 8 hours before I
have to start it. Tonight it was very bumpy during the first watch with
Dugald pitch black and difficult to steer, it was also very hot and close in the
cabin so I did not get much sleep, after the watch change I was up on deck a bit
with Chris as he was having great difficulties avoiding the gybe. The wind
was coming up in a minor squall, and it took me quite some time as well to calm
the whole thing down, again in the pitch black. Actually I think the angle
of steer was wrong, we are now back on the straight to St Lucia track and the
going is quite smooth The wind order (thanks Julie) has arrived and
we are tracking nicely. I am writing this a little later than usual as I
have been sitting with George (the autopilot, for less regular readers) making
sure he was settled and not about to fall for the gybe at the next big
wave. All seems fine though we lost about an hour due to a poor course and
lots of gybe activity during the night. As I said it was a tough night
compounded by a tired crew.
So what's news since last time. Well the less
good news is that the generator is again on the blink (note to self, revise ARC
gear survey form) again we have overheating but this time I can actually see
that the water flow has stopped, Either intake of outtake is blocked (unlikely)
or the impeller is in need of replacement. In the event of the latter,
since I don't have a replacement and it would take a 9 fingered dwarf to get at
the fitting (he would also need 3 hands to avoid losing the connecting
screws). Elusive chaps these, if you see one let me know.
Given that we are almost there we have decided to forgo the ice maker
(which does not like to run in rough seas anyway) and the aircon (could have
done with that last tonight) for one night and fix all in St
Lucia. I don't think even the penguins could fashion an effective impeller
from Duck Tape, no matter how much they used.
So what of the sweepstake. Well so far it
looks like the skipper will win the beer prize from the crew (what a
surprise). Dugald's detailed wiggle analysis seems to have let him
down. The blogger prize of the slightly soiled snark Tshirt does not seem
to be drawing very much interest, in fact it seems likely that ARC rally control
will scoop the prize with a guess of 09/12/2009 01:11:23 local. I
suspect they (despite their assertions to the contrary) have failed to account
for the turtle drift factor. My stretch goal is now to arrive before
sunset today 8th December, it will be tight even with good wind and careful
sailing. It is not too late to enter, though perhaps a little unfair on
the ARC team.
We had an apology from our Wind Witch who said that
she could not do her proper chanting on Friday due to attending a masquerade
ball that she had by Magic laid on for all her Witchy and Warlocky friends no
doubt. This coincides with our break in reliable wind quite
uncannily. All joking apart I will be very careful that next time I am
smearing anchovy sauce on her steak she is looking the other way or
she may turn me into one.
I think we shall leave the philosophizing till
another night. I am too tired and not a little stressed by the current
wind conditions to think clearly, Expect at least one more blog in the
next days or so with a round up of the results, finishing time
etc. I also have a bunch of photos to upload I expect. I have raided
Dugald's camera and I expect there is some good stuff in there. Well there
should be as actually he has 3 cameras with him. We also did a photo shoot
for Yachting Magazine, to get Chris all he needs for his final article. He
had a lot of gear from various apparel vendors who want to see a return with
their kit appearing in the article next year. One of the major drivers for
getting in early today is so that we can cross the line in daylight and get a
good photo of the boat from the ARC photographer, Crew gear on if we can find
some clean (or nearly clean) ones.
One last observation before I close, I am surprised
that we have seen so few boat lights tonight as we come toward the finish line,
There has been one but they have headed somewhat south from us so I hope we are
heading for the right island?? I know we are now and have checked it several
times. However earlier in the trip we did have a waypoint marked for a
different island which was strangely labeled as St Lucia on the plotter at a
certain magnification. It was even roughly the right shape, course now
corrected. There are quite a number of boats finishing in this time window
and as we all converge on a single point around Pigeon island one would imagine
more boats to be visible.
So goodnight from the Snark and all
aboard.
Ben
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