14:04.N 60:57.7W Final result Tuesday 8th December
The Snark on The ARC
Ben Little
Tue 8 Dec 2009 20:27
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First order of business is the winner of our
sweepstake, Our Wind Witch Julie Gundry announced that she had guessed the
arrival time correctly and so it came to pass. The closest guess for our
arrival time and the slightly soiled Snark T Shirt goes to Julie Gundry, the
Good Witch of the East Midlands. With a guess of 18:00 local time St Lucia,
Tuesday. Thanks Julie for all your support I know your busy flying
hither and thither collecting Christmas gifts for all you Coven so I really
appreciate the time you put in for wind conjuring and indeed for your many
messages of support. Even the ones which were just thinly disguised
threats to make sure your brother made it home safely. But even since his
departure you have continued to send us wind so your diligence is greatly
appreciated.
The slightly soiled T-shirt is on its' way to
you. Any particular crew member you wanted it soiled by?
It has been a great adventure, I feel my blog of
last night was off par since I was suffering from food poisoning and the
associated headache and nausea. Thankfully it has passed now and with only
a small recourse to the screwdriver to help clean things up (Snark crew will
know what this means others can wonder). So I thought I would drop in for
a final thought as we arrive.
We have spent the day, predictably, counting down
the miles and revising down our finish time, Dugald is still defensive
about his calculation methods, which estimated the finish at several hours
hence, as I reminded him he did not correctly allow for the turtle drift
(neither did, despite their claim ARC control). The truth is we were all
conservative and my estimate of 9pm looks like being 3 hours too
late. Perhaps none of us wanted it to end. I know I have
looked forward to this landfall for the past 6 or 7 months since I left Venice
with a crew of 2 young lads who had never sailed before. I thoroughly
enjoyed that leg of the trip and have done every other. Each new crew
brought on board a new set of skills and challenges for them and for me. I
hope that they all enjoyed it and would look forward to having any of them on
board again in the near future. Without them I would not have made the
start line. Thanks go to
Sam and Ben Robinson
Venice to Corfu
Coleen and Milo Little, and Joseph Tranter
Corfu to Corfu around the Greek islands
Peter Fennel
Corfu to Mallorca
Chris Lander
Mallorca to Estepona (near Gibraltar)
Dugald Moore and Chris
Lander
Gibraltar to Las Palmas
Dugald Moore and Chris White
THE
ARC 2009
New potential SNARK crew please let me
know.
So what happens next, well there are a lot of
variables or options which is a great place to be in, though somewhat
confusing. We shall certainly be taking the Snark on at least one
Caribbean cruise this year from St Lucia to Antigua (or thereabouts) at
Easter time. Despite having spent the best part of the last 6 months
afloat I am not fed up with sailing, though I have to say I do like the
landfalls, and exploring new anchorages and a trip of 2 weeks or more with only
one land fall is a long time to spend on the boat. As one sailor put it,
it's a bit like going on a caravan holiday where you can't talk to anyone
outside, there is no TV and if you step outside you drown. I am not a good
sleeper afloat and I am constantly being woken by the noises of the boat, very
alert to problems real or imagined during the night, so the nights where we had
a lot of wind were quite hard going.
I have been asked did I achieve what I wanted to,
have I fulfilled the objectives I set out to fulfill, would I do it
again. Yes, No and Maybe but not the same way (at least not now). To
elaborate:
Yes--- I fulfilled the objective which was to put
some flesh on the bones of a childhood dream (see blog of 2 nights ago) which
while it has had several incarnations was all about a boat crossing the
ocean. The specifics (what ocean, which boat) were not cast in iron.
At one time I hoped to sail back to the UK from china.
No --- I did not really have any detailed
objectives set out, in a work environment I get the business of delivering what
you set out to achieve and setting out the expected outcomes in great detail,
but I don't approach the rest of my life that way so hard to give a sensible
answer to this. I did make up one soft target on the way which was to
get in before the other Hanse 461/470s if I could. I did not really expect
to but it seems based on the last two reports that we are ahead of both of them
by a good few hours. Dugald made a big thing about his disapproval of my
aspiration but there you go. I made sure he arrived with all his legs and
arms attached and he took care that we had enough food to eat (though I cooked
it) I know eating well is a common objective (but not limited to the ARC) right
now our Ice maker is going full tilt to produce for some pre arrival rum and
cokes (or G&T) take you pick and our finish line Magnum (of cheap
fizz) is in the cool box.
Maybe but not the same way --- I'd cross another
Ocean I may even sail the boat back, but there are a lot of other places to
visit and routes to take so I doubt in the short term I would ARC it again in
this direction. I would however highly recommend it as a way to do an
East West Crossing of the Atlantic first time out or not. I learned a lot
from the process and the money spent on the entry fee is money well spent, in
the end it's about the same as a trip to the Chandlery. One thing the ARC
crew set out to do early on is to instill in the boat owner/skipper what it
means to be a skipper, by which I mean that there are a wide range of
responsibilities which one may have as skipper but frankly you need to wake
up to them before you set out. Starting out with the boat prep it
is quite a big learning step. I'd also like to mention that I don't
think I would have got even half way through the list without the help of
my father with whom I drove down to Venice and fitted numerous cruising
essentials, all of which work (unlike our generator at the moment), so thanks
Dad!!
Back to the options, I guess there are others
who may have say on that front but after Easter it is an open book for the
Snark, and I shall be doing something new in the New Year (other than a new
sailing trip), again there are options and again others get a say but they all
sound fun to me and I wouldn't have it any other way.
For those of you I shall see immediately on my
return I am looking forward to it by the minute, for those I may not see till
the new year. Have a wonderful Christmas and a fantastic New Year and get
in touch. I fear that Christmas cards have gone by the wayside this year
due to the hectic ARC schedule, please forgive my oversight.
As I close I really know we have arrived
already....Mobile Phone Coverage has resumed... so finish line or no we
have landed. I am deviously looking forward to finding out if the fabled
land sickness is a reality, if anyone will suffer it will be Dug. He tells
me one of his friends or neigbours claims to suffer, I will have my camera ready
for the comedy moment. Seriously though Dug has not up chucked once which
is really great, it would have been a big down for all of us if he
had.
What a final blog we have had reflection, up chuck
and food poisoning and subject matter, suitable subjects of an ocean
voyage!!
Happy landings wherever you are.
Ben
PS look out for some pictures which I promise to
post ahead of the weekend.
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