23:29N 24:27W 26th November .... Happy Thanksgiving
The Snark on The ARC
Ben Little
Thu 26 Nov 2009 05:09
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Hello Bloggers,
So on the menu today in honour of our American
guest (sorry no concession to spellings here, we don't want a boat full of
unwanted 'u's) we have a fine bottle of Rioja recommended by our friends at El
Court, Smoked Salmon, Steak with sautéed potatoes and a still to be
determined veg option. We may even go for a desert (choice of tinned
peaches or chocolate). Perhaps we should fire up the ice maker to add that
special touch to our pre dinner G&T in fact I think it is a must. I'm
feeling hungry already but at 5 am in the morning at the start of a shift it is
not surprising. For those of you who don't (count in 90% of all non US
citizens here) understand what Thanksgiving is all about, go rent a copy of
Pocahontas (sp?). According to Chris our resident Guru it is about eating
a lot and watching the football. Sadly we can only get it half right, but
we could round it all off with a game of Cluedo or battleships, or we have yet
to initiate Chris in our ongoing card tournament.
Another calm night but with decent wind to keep us
trotting along at better than 7 Knots. We have decided for a night of more
southerly travel on the port gybe to get us into butter melting territory.
Can't recall if I have explained this before... Old salts will tell that the
tradition for transatlantic crossing from the Canaries is to head SSW or SW till
the butter melts, then more of less due west to the Caribbean. This is a
bit of a dog leg and depending that adds a couple of hundred miles (or more) to
the trip but will give you better wind conditions when you get there. Well
we have been checking the butter and it has not yet melted, for this to happen I
am not sure how far south we need to go, as on the modern day cruising yacht it
would take a refrigerator failure (or 2) or perhaps some other sort of power
crisis in order for us to have liquid butter. Our Chocolate rations on the
other hand are getting decidedly sticky so perhaps it is time to temper our
southbound track and stick to the westerly direct route. So you see our
traditional guides to navigation are becoming redundant in the new technological
age. At least one old method is there to help us, if all else fails head
for the sunset!
In terms of our progress here are the
stats:
670 miles on the log
average speed 7.7 (bit disappointed by this
as we had 8.4 the first day)
2100 miles to go (roughly route
dependent)
top sustained speed 12.6 Knots (this means it is
recorded on our log rather than appearing for 5 seconds on the plotter as we
flip over a wave)
What else to tell.... Well the wildlife is
back, our friends the dolphins are back, I think though these are some new
ones, a small pod maybe 5 or 6 of the little fellows. We all made it
to the bows in time to see them but sadly our resident Journo Chris was a
little late with his Camera and did not manage to get the video or photo
footage he needed, perhaps tomorrow. Also we resumed our fishing
exploits. Sadly a rather large fish took an interest in one of our
(perhaps rather ambitious) lures and took a chunk of the rig and then a second
took a small lure and pulled so hard it seems to have
bust the reel. I will take a look at the innards tomorrow
to see if it can be fixed. We have a hand line but it is
difficult to haul in. Actually this may be part of the problem with
the reel, as we are accelerating at times to over 10 knots the pull on the
line from just the rig is quite something and may be adding to the
strain. All the same I shall be very sad if we don't manage to land
something.
I think that is it for the night. I shall now
download the fleet positions to see where everyone else is headed (another
traditional navigation method).
keep in touch
Ben
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