Day Two: Introductions and our initial routing
Titania
The Dobbs family and friends
Mon 26 Nov 2018 13:46
|
25:36:80 N 16:23:51 W
Distance to finish: 2603 nautical miles
(NM)
Welcome to the Titania ARC2018 blog! We will try to update this every few days, and try to keep it
interesting.
Titania of Cowes departed Las Palmas (Gran Canaria)
yesterday at 1300 along with nearly 200 other yachts, under blue skies and
light winds. Overnight, gradually the fleet has spread out and today there are
only a couple of other yachts visible to the naked eye.
First, let me introduce you to the crew, several of whom
are members of Seaview Yacht Club (SVYC) on the Isle of Wight:
The plan is for each of us to update the blog in their
own style.
If you are following us on the official ARC tracker www.worldcruising.com/arc/arc/eventfleetviews.aspx
you will see that we are tracking SSW, rather then directly towards Saint Lucia.
This is avoid a large area of light wind to our west, caused by a ridge of
high pressure. There is an old saying that to cross the Atlantic, you "head
south until the butter melts" and then turn west. Luckily for us, we have good
fridges onboard, so the butter will remain in good condition. But going south
gets us into the trade winds, which blow nicely from east to west, pushing us
along towards the Caribbean.
We are not in the Racing class of ARC2018, but all of us
are quite competitive and like to get the boat moving... So we are trying to
choose a course that gives us the best compromise between finding good winds
to move us quickly through the water, and actually getting to St Lucia. We
have sophisticated routing software onboard to help, and we are getting regular
detailed weather updates through our satellite internet connection.
Dolphins swam in our wake last night, and this morning
we think we saw a whale in the distance. The weather is sunny, with clear skies
and gentle seas. Daytime is shorts + t-shirts weather. Conditions are pretty
idyllic for now, and we are going to play with our spinnaker this afternoon,
after 24 hours under just main + jib. Back row, L-R: Nick, Ned, Pierre, Todd
Front row: Freddie, Richard, Robin, Simon
Lunch will be on the table in a few minutes, so I'll
sign off for now.
Ned |
