38:36.77N 18:05.45 Leaving Corfu
The Snark on The ARC
Ben Little
Mon 24 Aug 2009 16:57
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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
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