Sunday 26 November 2023 - one week in
The Adventures of Tin Man
Andy Topp & Steve Arnold
Sun 26 Nov 2023 21:32
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17:12.80N
028:9.72W what three words : newswire.stop.playtime
(By Steve)
It's been another day of milestones. At 12:30 this
afternoon (boat time which is London -1 hour), we hit the 1,000 mile marker on
our passage log. The event was documented on film with compulsory attendance in
the cockpit for celebrations. Coincidently this also (give or take an hour or
two) coincided with our one week at sea milestone - our "expedition" having
started at 10:30 boat time last Sunday when we stepped off land for the last
time and let the lines slip.
One week in meant it was time for some of the crew to do
some laundry. Andy and I will be away for three months in total so we have
plenty of clothes with us, but for some of the others it was laundry or turning
inside out decision day, and thankfully they chose laundry.
Today also turned out to be exercise day. Whilst we were
in Las Palmas for the week leading up to our departure we were so busy with
different tasks (fixing things, doing maintenance, provisioning) that there was
no time and no need for additional exercise. However one week in and my Apple
devices are starting to get quite passive aggressive with alerts about the
relative lack of movement they're recording - my daily steps having dropped from
10k or more to a little over 200 per day. When your entire world consists of an
area about 11 metres long by four metres wide, and you're sharing that with four
other guys, there is limited opportunity for much movement. Andy has already
done a couple of exercise sessions on the bow of the boat this last week but
today we pretty much all took our turn to head to what can only be described as
the gym with the world's greatest view - breezy and warm but shaded from the sun
by the enormous bright white code zero sail flying out the front - to do some
squats, push ups and whatever else we could with the little equipment we have
improvised a gym with.
We gathered in the cockpit afterwards to congratulate
ourselves on a productive day, and celebrate our achievements, with a nice
chilled bottle of fizz.
One week in and our fresh food is now almost all gone.
We have some tomatoes and some padron peppers left in the fridge, and we still
have a mountain of cooked meats and cheese which we got from the amazing Las
Palmas market on Saturday last week. We have avoided a cockroach infestation,
which had plagued a couple of other boats, by removing most of the packaging
(particularly cardboard which can harbour cockroach eggs), and washing
everything prior to bringing it on board.
Last night we had a beautiful sirloin cooked to
perfection by Jooj. The first of two steak nights we have - the other coming up
some time this week. Once that's gone we are onto the frozen batch cooked meals
for the rest of the trip (unless we catch any more fish). If all else fails we
also have plenty of canned food, rice, pasta, and tons of flour to make bread -
so we definitely won't starve. We believe we must have some of the nicest food
on board out of the entire ARC fleet (possibly with the exception of the
super-yachts which probably have their own chefs!). Tonight we had a really
great stew accompanied by fresh bread made by Sam using sea water instead of
fresh water and adding salt. I admit I was sceptical but it was delicious.
Last night became the fourth night in a row we had an
uninvited flying fish guest to deal with. Lucky for the fish Sam and I were on
duty in the cockpit as it landed with a thud down by our feet - I was able to
pick it up and throw it back in the sea although it left a rank smelling slime
on my hands. Nothing quite prepares you in the quiet darkness of 4am in the
Atlantic, surrounded by absolutely nothing for as far as the eye can see, for
the sudden and dramatic appearance of a fish flying through the air at you.
Let's see if we have another tonight. They have a current survival rate of only
25%! Needless to say the hatches have all been closed.
We sailed through the night and all through today with
the code zero up and our average speed has been really good. We had a
competition with ourselves eariler to see if we could get the code zero away,
turn the boat upwind, hoist the main sail, turn back downwind and get the code
zero out again, in under five minutes. "Three, two, one, go!" and it was all
hands on. The whole thing went really smoothly and we all looked at each other
triumphant and expectant for the result only to realise that we had assigned
everyone a job but no one the responsibility for timing it! We concluded we had
definitely done it in under five minutes and had a beer to
celebrate.
For those keeping an eye on YB Races app we have
improved our standing both overall and in our division and we hope to make
further gains over the coming week. We are now solidly running at over 150 miles
per day and our progress towards St Lucia is quicker than a lot of other boats
slightly ahead of us. Fingers crossed! (Maybe it could be a race?)
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