with a few special moments to keep us and trying to avoid squalls. We were not
amused. One was Keith’s first attempt at very successful at either. Our track over
bread-making (with a little help from Lucy). these days looks like that taken by a crazed
Here is the proud man with the result of his skipper meandering all over the mid-Atlantic
Sailing away from the fleet at the start
endeavours (which may have a ring of truth to it) and we
got caught in an enormous rain storm which
lasted for about two hours
Winds were already frustratingly light and
Fishing started to take on more importance,
we continued to head more south then west
but at the speed we were travelling only
to seek better winds. This was the pattern
sea monsters would take our bait of lurid
of the next few days as we made out
fluorescent orange plastic squid – and they
way down to just west of the Cape Verde
did, three times! Unfortunately they snapped
Islands. The one advantage was that the
the line and disappeared most of our fishing
weather warmed up considerably and night
tackle. So we were reduced to a reel of
watches only required t-shirt and shorts
light rope with a lure tied onto it and that
(plus the obligatory life-jacket after dark).
did the trick. We landed a decent sized fish,
we think it is a Whahoo (if anyone knows
Marine life stepped in to entertain us. We
better please tell us). It was expertly filleted
had one huge pod of Striped Dolphin keep
by James and we enjoyed Whahoo sushi
us company for hours, and at night the first
marinated in lime juice for lunch and large
flying fish came aboard. These proved to be
fillets in a teriyaki sauce for dinner
dangerous later on when Keith got hit three
times by kamikazi flying fish in the middle of
On the 5th day we finally got some decent
the night!
breeze with 20knots from the NNE. With
For the first week
the wind remained
frustratingly light
and from the east “
The daily position reports
from all 225 boats in the
making it very difficult ARC race indicated that
for us to sail directly
downwind towards
we were still doing quite
St. Lucia, but the well towards the front of
daily position reports
from all 225 boats
the fleet.
in the ARC race
indicated that we
were still doing quite well towards the front
one reef in the main and the spinnaker we
of the fleet.
did a 24-hour run of 240 miles –an average
”
speed of 10 knots!
Life on board had settled down to a routine
of watch-keeping, sleeping and eating
However this did not last long and we
spent the next few days searching for wind
Concentrated sailing after the start- it didn’t Our first flying fish on board
last long!
»
  FEBRUARY 2009 : MULTIHULL REVIEW  7
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