Wednesday 27th July
Whitesatin
Wed 27 Jul 2016 20:33
Correction from yesterday's blog - we left Funchal on Monday lunchtime (not Tuesday) and tied up at Puerto Calero, Lanzarote at 11:30 this morning, 46 hours after leaving Madeira.
We didn't want the Crosses to feel hard done by as the Blanchards had experienced an 'interesting' passage; this has been very close to that, with Force 7 gusting at times.
Vicki has been on her special diet again. This time the wind was on the beam (rather than downwind) so the waves sometimes knocked the boat sideways. On one of these 'hits' David was caught off guard in the forepeak and has hurt his back (copying Helen); we may try to find a Dr tomorrow if things haven't improved.
However, our biggest excitement was in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Fiona was on watch at 01:00 and noticed a cruise ship (which had been in Funchal) was following our track and bearing down on us at an alarming rate. She alerted David, who radioed the cruise ship (Aida), spoke to the man on watch who confirmed that they were aware of us and would be overtaking us on our starboard side. They duly did and passed within a mile of us, which is quite close in these seas (but nothing for the Solent).
Anyhow, we are now at our final destination for the time being and the statistics are as follows:
18 and a half days at sea
10 nights at sea
We have called at 10 ports
We have anchored 3 nights
1,622 nautical miles.
I am now going to pass over to the Crosses for them to have the final word.
Thank you everybody for your support. In the ARC we will be tracked by the professionals but this trip we would have been on our own if it hadn't been for you.
We believe (and sincerely hope) that the difficult bit is now over.
Loads of love
Vicki
We've had a fabulous (and it has to be said, rather challenging) passage from Madeira to Lanzarote, with winds consistently higher than forecast. Although a calmer passage would have been nice, at least it showed us that we could cope with the conditions. As food is always an important part of long sailing trips but challenging to prepare in the confines of a boat's galley (even without any hint of seasickness), in the morning of our departure from Funchal Vicki had made up a delicious chicken stew in 'Mr D's' cooker - you heat everything together in an inner container and then place it in its outer vacuum chamber and 6 hours later you have a hot meal ready and waiting. By that evening we were all very grateful that the food could be served up with no more preparation involved; Jon made a spag bol the next day in the same way, and he and David not only had it that night but also for breakfast and lunch today! A highlight of the trip for me was when I was on watch during the night yesterday and the clouds rolled back and I could lay back and looks at the stars - it's one of the things I think we're all really looking forward to on the ARC.
Fiona and Jon
White Satin
