Monday 4 December 2023
The Adventures of Tin Man
Andy Topp & Steve Arnold
Mon 4 Dec 2023 22:01
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14:39.6N
46:26.77W what three words :
personifying.nibs.tiresome
The wind lull over the weekend has gone so today's
sailing has been on point. Unfortunately we have dropped down a place in the
pack standings but we don't really mind. Our average velocity made good (the
speed at which we are progressing towards St Lucia on a straight line) is
solidly above 6. We need it to be between 5.8 and 6.3 on average over the next
six days in order to arrive during daylight hours (7am to 7pm) on Sunday. We
would need to do an average of around 6.7 to arrive by 10pm Saturday which now
feels unachievable. We don't really want to arrive during the night - we arrived
into Gran Canaria following our sail down from the UK at 2am and whilst it was
nice to be done we would rather have arrived during the day. We also want the
welcome party atmosphere as we arrive in St Lucia and suspect that may be
somewhat muted if we were to arrive in the dead of night. Our plan therefore is
to get to the ten mile marker and then make a decision as to whether we hand
around outside or go over the finish line there and then. Either way, we will
have achieved what we set out to achieve.
With 855 miles to go (as at 8pm UK time) the miles are
now really coming down. We continue to average around 150 miles per day so by
this time tomorrow we should be down to 700, then 550, then 400 which really
will feel like the home straight. Several boats in the race division are now in
St Lucia and the rate of those completing is starting to ramp up and will most
likey peak around Friday.
I had a great night last night - my evening shift
finished at 11 and I was not back on until 5am so had a good six hours sleep.
This doesn't sound much but six hours on an ocean passage is really good. The
beauty of the 5am to 9am shift is you get to see the sunrise. The way the shift
patterns work betwee 7am and 9am you're solo. At 7am Sam, who had been on since
3am, went down for some sleep and the others weren't up yet although generally
by 8am most are. This gave me a rare hour of solitude - just me and the sunrise.
I'm a really social person - I love being around people it gives me energy and
genuinely spending this long in such a small space with these wonderful people
has been a real joy for me. However, there was something really special about
that short moment where I got to sit and look at the rays of sunshine fanning
out from behind the cloud masking the sunrise creating an almost angelic
display.
Morning coffee soon came and the day began in it's
regular fashion. It is remarkable that after so long together conversation has
not once dried up. There always seems to be something to talk about, some
amazing thing to wonder over or something to try and calculate or figure out.
Not once have I been bored or fed up or tired of the social element of this
experience. I hope my fellow crew members feel the same :)
We have now passed the 45 degree west mark which, from a
longitudinal perspective places us now over 75% of the way (east/west) between
London and St Lucia and it also means that at some point we will need to correct
our clocks by another hour. We are currently 2 hours behind GMT which is why,
for those in the UK, the blogs may appear to coming later in the evening than
before. I'm trying to write them pre dinner but I was on cooking duty tonight so
it's been a bit busy! We will probably wait another few days before changing the
clocks and then the final change we will most likely do as we arrive.
Oh and the new country music sensation "Squall Country"
is almost finished recording in the studio with music video to be shot later the
week. Watch this space!
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