Blog entry from Steve
Halcyon
Rob Withers
Thu 17 Nov 2011 17:11
Still in marina at Las Palmas.
James and Sarah have now arrived, all satisfactorily.
Alistair has left to go back to UK, he is returning on Sunday,
hopefully in enough time to make a comfortable start at 1:00. Since he
is not due to land until 10:30 or 11:00 it might be a bit tight.
The day has been usefully filled by taking on more provisions and
stowing them. We are now fully supplied except for the perishable stuff
which we will buy on Saturday morning. Alistair has been in charge of
quantities so we should be pretty safe from running out. All the stores
so far have been very successfully stowed, and there is still enough
room left for the rest. Quite satisfying really, although the boat is
noticeably lower in the water.
Also quite a lot of cleaning...the jobs that have been done and all the
activity have left their mark on the state of the boat so some work was
necessary. In addition to that, Sarah's tolerance level is less than
any of us lads, so standards had to improve a bit.
Handicaps have now been published. These are in the form of a factor by
which a boat's time is multiplied to give a time which can be compared
with other yachts. Ours is 0.85. This is the third lowest of all the
boats in the ARC. We are now quite sure how to treat this, either as
an incentive to try to prove the handicapper wrong, or to treat it as
a personal insult to our sleek and solid lady Halcyon!
Pictures attached are of some of the sterling work being done over the
day.
All the best to everyone
Steve
