Evening blog
Imagine of Plymouth
Arthur
Thu 29 Nov 2007 20:04
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Hi All!!
Well we had a good run today and definately
hit the trade winds, steaming along. We covered 70 miles in 9 hours which is
very fast, 8 knot average. Do not forget this is a Cruising Jeaneau 54DS fully
loaded with everything, enough food to feet the whole ARC fleet plus full tanks
of water and diesel.
Spinnaker went up around 1021 and came down at 1900
so that we could eat and have a bit of a rest as it was hand steering all the
way............ Lunch was consumed doing nearly 9 knots carefully prepared by
Chris who appears to have spend the whole day in the galley finding his way.
Went not in the galley he was taking a siesta.
Mark was reading a book and Robert just commented
on life on the ocean and is starting to realise that the Atlantic is very big
and that we are onboard for at least another 10 days!!
Today we where hit by a very spectacular squal and
Arthur decided to keep the kite up................I gave the controls to him and
we where zooming along, it was a bit scary as you never know what comes out of
squal but we have a well rehearsed procedure to get to kite down quickly (me
hanging of the snuffer whilst Arthur is describing all the colors of ropes
people need to let go or pull.
Anyway it was pretty awesome, we where really
flying and it was real excitement. Hate to think what would have happened in a
broach as we have gear laying loose everywhere. Robert and Chris felt so relaxed
they stood up and chatted happily along . As we did not reply they realished we
where sailing on the edge....
Anwyay the squall went and sailed along very
hppily. My intention was to finish Top Gear Magazine but only got through 4
pages. It is strange how busy you can be ket onboard a boat.
Dinner was prepared by Chris who during a roll
launched the contents of meal all over the galley!!
Despite all the movies we have onboard, 100's books
and music nobody apart from Mark who read a book has touched anything. Arthur
and Rudy completed the ARC questionnaire which will make some interesting
reading for the people commissioned this boat. Nothing
worked.......
Robert is now obsessed with fishing although so far
the bait has been flying above the water as we have been going so fast!! Maybe
some luck this evening. Arthur has swicthed on the underwater lights to attract
the fish!
Better finish this off as I am on
watch.
Appreciate if somebody could send me on update on
the Barcelona World Race and Americas Cup. Been unable to purchase a newspaper
or surf the net.
Hope all is well and please do not hesitate to
update us with your news!
Regards for Imagine of Plymouth
Position as of 29 November at 2000 22
44 18N and 026 21 900 W
Water temperature is 29.2 C onbaord it is approx 25
C. Had bimin up so that we could sit in shade but it made helming with the kite
difficult so this came down again
Most boats appear to be South of us. We are taking
a direct route. Bit of a gamble wind wise but seems to be good so far and is
also what the ARC racing division is doing.
We know that a similar boat us ours is well behind
us and has got lots of engine hours. We only have 4.5 logged since Sunday
start.
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