Day One the start, now at 27 19N 15 30W
Gwylan
Charles Manby
Sun 22 Nov 2009 21:06
|
Enormously fun departure with hundreds of
people and the local brass band. Amazing start, spectacular with 225
boats. Skipper failed to read the Sailing Instructions so we managed to
use the wrong orange buoy as one end of the line and therefore were probably 5
mins late, which doesn't matter! Wind built from 10 knots to 17-20, we
flew the parasailor after 10 mins and now still have it up, having executed a
spinnaker gybe in the dark in 18 knots which was a pretty good start!
Advice - bring a 25 year old Kiwi who is massively strong and knows his
stuff.
Dinner was sausages and lentils - delicious.
We have made up a lot of ground and now seem to be quite near the front, at
least for those boats with AIS. It's an Oyster party here, we (56 feet)
are up with an Oyster 82, 72, 655 and another 56. We are only just behind
our friends on Satori but they have 8 feet more in length than us.
Lucky the Bear enjoyed the sunshine and the huge
crowds waving. He wasn't quite sure if it is a good idea to fly the
spinnaker at night for the first night but the competitive types think the wind
is very steady and we will be more comfortable this way.
Off to do a bit of star-gazing and chasing
down the moon.
Charles
|