25:16N 64:37W Proceeding Northward More Slowly HALF WAY
The Snark on The ARC
Ben Little
Mon 2 May 2011 00:40
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Hi folks,
The wind has slowed considerably, after a good push
to start us off the it has died off from around the 15-18 Knot mark at the start
to around 5 or 6 Knots from the East. Under these conditions we are still
able to pootle along at about 5 Knots but we really would like to get to Bermuda
ahead of some strong Northerly winds forecast that look like they will try and
blow us back to Tortola. Nothing frightening about the winds just it won't
be much fun with 20 Knots on the nose to get there for the last 24 hours.
We motor sailed for a while to get the miles under out keel before nightfall and
we have now slowed down again to allow ourselves a window to get some sleep as
the engine will be very noisy.
We had some fun today with our colored sails and
managed to burn along at a very respectable 8+ knots for much of the afternoon
despite some fairly light winds. We had the inevitable hoist and retrieve
- hoist and retrieve while we ironed out some twists in the sails but good news
is that Kenny at the sail loft in St Lucia had managed to repair the damage
from The ARC of 2009 despite seeming to have lost our Spinnaker
Sheets. Fortunately we plenty of spare line on the boat for just
such an eventuality.
So another plea to the Wind Witch, maybe we need to
make an offering of some kind?? We are trying to sacrifice a fish in your
honour and I trust we will have more success tomorrow.
Even with no winds we are now within engine range
of Bermuda so we will get there in the next 2-3 days regardless of the wind
conditions. I think everyone is now comfortable with the boat and
getting into the rhythm of things. Lots of reading (I am 2 books down now
for this leg) and the first blood to me in the battleships league. No
Scotland vs. England vs. USA this time around but I guess it is
Chester 1, Leicester 0. Maybe we can engage in a London/Chester and
Leicester London Clash tomorrow if the winds are light and time passes
slowly.
We are not alone out here, for the first time in a
while we can see the lights from other ships in the night! We have seen
two sails who appear to be sailing very close to one another. They also
seem to be quite large boats from the speed they are moving, we were certainly
being caught at one stage but we seem to have gained ground during the
evening. maybe they are motor sailing. We left Tortola a couple of
hours ahead of another Bermuda bound boat Rain
Maker. They do not appear to have made
much rain and if they have we have left it quite some way behind. We were
able to raise them on the VHF for the first evening but the next morning we
seemed to have lost them out of range which to be fair makes sense as we are a
slightly larger boat with an extra crew and a lot more sail area. I
doubt it is them who have caught us up but it would be nice to see them in St
George Bermuda if not. I guess it is also nice to have company in the
night and I would rather sailing boats than the huge tanker/container ship we
saw on the first night.
Vital statistics for the voyage so
far (approx)
Distance Travelled 420Nm
Average speed 7.7 Knots
Max Speed 11.5 Knots (this is recorded on the
log and indicates a sustained speed)
Ben and the Crew of The Snark
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