ARC 2023 Start
Graptolite's Sailing Log
Martyn Pickup & Heike Richter
Sun 19 Nov 2023 12:00
We have been in Las Palmas forever spending money on parts as fast as we can and loading up with huge amounts of food, but the big day has finally arrived and the ARC 2023 Las Palmas to St Lucia rally starts today. Graptolite's crew this year is myself, Martyn Pickup (UK) , Mrs P - Heike Richter (DE), old university and sailing friend Tim Relton (UK), Mrs R - Rosie Carnall (UK) and a recent find, John Eberhard (US/FR). Friends Mayk and Peter came to see us off and we had some celebratory fizzy before joining the queue to get out of the marina.
Not for the first time, Graptolite crossed the race start line with a recently discovered major defect. In 2007 we started with a mainsail on deck and in-mast furling parts dropped inside the mast. A problem solved by sheltering in an island wind-shadow and poking about inside the mast with a coathook and chewing gum to fish out essential fittings. Keeping with tradition, this time we crossed the start line with a non-working autopilot. For those not familiar with boats, this is a disturbing problem which involves needing to arm-wrestle with the ship's wheel 24 hours a day for several weeks. This partly explains why we ended up crossing the start line twice in very light winds. After a couple of hours work with cable ties, the problem was mostly fixed to everyone's relief. It still makes an unpleasant clanking noise where a control chain catches as the boat rolls but it needs the boat to be still to adjust.