He first 24 Hours - Hoff and the Knightrider Team
Knightime
Mon 23 Nov 2009 20:06
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Well at last, the beginning of the Great
Adventure - ARC 2009, the culmination of three months work and an
eighteen hundred mile delivery trip from UK to Las Palmas, via Lagos,
Portugal and Lanzaote in The Canaries. We were sad to say farewell to
Valerie, Lucy and Millie who had all travelled out from UK to LP and
been a great support team - I can't thank you enough for all of your
assistance in getting us to the start line, fully victualled and in great shape
for the Atlantic crossing ahead. As we cast off, a Marching Band stood on
the pontoon playing a renditition of 'Happy Birthday To You', to
celebrate Kitt's (otherwise known as Captain Rick) Birthday which happened
to coincide with 'Race Day'. All the red lights went out and we scorched
away from the grid, not exactly from pole position, but mid-fleet, due to a
slight mix up with identifying the correct outer distance mark!! However,
Hoff worked hard for the next 2 hours, rolling a number of other ARC
yachts & making up the time lost, then passed the wheel on to the
another member of the crew, feeling he had redeemed himself, slightly.
Meanwhile, Choff (Mike F) conjured up a fantastic chicken dinner under a
rising wind strength & somewhat challenging sea conditions. This galley
cooking lark was a first for Choff, which he later described as making
dinner whilst simultaneously riding a motorbike!! We headed south
through the night with Knightrider ducking and diving with ease through
the moderate to rough seas. At our first 24 hour ARC check in we were
pleased to have covered something approaching 170 miles, albeit, due to the wind
direction, more towards Africa than St Lucia! As often the case, not much
sleep was achieved during the first day at sea, but with less wind
forecast, plus crew finding their sea legs this will soon
pass. Well thats all for now and standby for tomorrows
episode where all the other Knightrider characters will be
introduced.
Mike (The
Hoff)
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