38:36.77N 18:05.45 Leaving Corfu

The Snark on The ARC
Ben Little
Mon 24 Aug 2009 16:57
Having picked up Pete last night in Corfu town we had a very apprehensive start to our journey to Mallorca.  As his plane was due to land and I was trying to get some sleep ahead of the scheduled midnight departure, the rumbles of distant thunder and quite an awesome lightening display lit up the sky.  I took rather longer than planned on a safety briefing for Pete as we looked at the various storms circling around us, and the particularly persistent one to the West (where we were heading).  At around 1:30am, I decided that the storms were heading south away from us and it was safe to proceed.
 
Pete went to bed shortly after and we were both pretty jumpy so I was surprised to hear that he had a sound nights sleep, if a short one.  He got up with the sunrise around 6am to find me getting the sails out and quickly has picked up the ropes (literally).  We spent about half the day under sail in 9-12 knots of wind, and had the Spinnaker out for most of that time, we have been making good progress though I am still learning how to set the sail effectively and suspect that our wind meter is out of alignment.
 
It is now 7:45 Greek time and the sun is setting behind some wispy clouds, not thunder heads like last night.  I expect a fine day tomorrow but I am going to check the weather all the same.  Sadly no dolphins so far this trip and no fish either though our constant tangles in the line seem to make this unlikely.  Further investment in a suitable rod and reel seems like the only sensible way forward.
 
Bye for now.   
 
Ben and Pete