31/10/2009 by admin.

Well, the last 24 hours have been very good, we have done 162 miles. We got all hands on deck yesterday morning to get the spinnaker up and had it flying right through to 17:00 last night, when we replaced it with the cruising chute which is easier to handle during the hours of darknes.The spinnaker hoist and retrieval went really well, no problems, so we have all gained a bit more confidance in handling the big coloured sails. The wind died on us at 0500 this morning so at the watch change, we brought the cruising chute down and put the engine on. Everyone has settled in well to the watch routine of staggered 3 hour watches so we will keep the same watch rota for the ARC.We now have 176 miles to go, so we are slightly ahead of schedule and should easily reach Las Palmas by 16:00 tomorrow. It’s 31′C outside , wall to wall sunshine. I will probably stop the boat for an hour this afternoon so we can do a spot of swimming. So if you don’t hear from us tomorrow, the swimming didn’t go well. Taffy has been remarkably quiet recently, I suspect a touch of mal de mer. However, I am sure we will see more of him when we get in sight of land tomorrow. John has been sharing his favorite music on his pink IPOD shuffle with the rst of the crew. The Specials and Bob Marley seem to figure prominently. We hope to put a combined playlist together for the ARC, which should make for interesting listening. The big discussion at the moment is what song we want to play when we arrive in St Lucia. Duran Duran “Rio” and Bob Marley “don’t worry about a thing” are the front runners at the moment. Looking forward to our first sight of land for 4 days tomorrow. Chris

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25/10/2009 by admin.

En route to Las Palmas - 2.

We have had some near perfect sailing weather over the last 24 hours, with steady NNE winds of between 10 and 25 knots. We flew the cruising chute all day yesterday and all night, getting an average boat speed of 7 knots. Plenty of sunshine during the day, and unbelievably clear night skies, with no light pollution. When you are on night watch you can see literally thousands of stars , and shooting stars go past very 5 minutes.  The food is holding out well, with Pam’s pre-cooked shepherds pie going down particularly well last night. Liz announced to the crew today after her shower that there are likely to be a few bad hair days, as she was taking the “easy-going” approach to hair care. The rest of us have been warned ! We have the spinnaker up today and are rattling along at 7.5 knots, great fun. It is noticeably warmer today, with temperatures of 26′ C in the shade. We are about 150 miles off the North African coast and have just passed the half way mark to  Las Palmas, 315 miles to go. Our expected ETA in Las Palmas is Tuesday 27th at 16:00. The forecast is for the wind to drop tomorrow and Tuesday, so we are making the most of the breeze today as we will probably have to put the engine on tomorrow. Chris

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24/10/2009 by admin.

“Fizz en route to Las Palmas. We left Vilamoura yesterday, 23rd October, in bright sunshine with hardly any wind, heading for Las Palmas, 660 miles away, with our ARC crew of Liz Absalom, John Pryke, David Warner, Stuart and myself on board. We were barely out of sight of land before Liz’s first aid skills were in demand, when David suffered a wasp sting on his hand. After a full day of motoring, the wind picked up at sunset and we were able to set the main and genoa and give the engine a rest. The wind steadily strengthened from the NNE during the night, gusting to 28 knots at one stage. After a fitful night’s sleep, the sun is out again today, and we have a steady 15-18knots of breeze from the NNW. The cruising chute went up this morning after breakfast, and we have been averaging 8 knots + ever since. We saw some dolphins this morning jumping in our bow wave. No matter how many times you see them, they are always a great sight. Everyone is getting their hand in with some steering practice, giving the autohelm a rest.  We are hoping to get to Las Palmas before sunset on Tuesday, but it all depends on the wind. Stu is particularly keen to get there on Tuesday, as it is his turn to cook dinner.More to follow tomorrow. Chris “

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22/10/2009 by admin.

Danny Absalom joined us for a few days on Fizz on Friday 16th . Weather was predictably hot and sunny on Saturday as we sailed round to Portimao. When asked what he wanted to do for the weekend, Danny went for the chill-out option, i.e. long lie-ins and sunbathing so the agenda was set. Once we were alongside in Portimao we took the dinghy across to Ferragudo to the Soggy Euro bar on the beach. We spent the afternoon sampling their Sangria and Stu and Danny went swimming before we headed back to Fizz for dinner. Sunday was swimming pool day at the marina and on Monday we sailed back to Vilamoura with the cruising chute up going at a respectable 7kts + in about 12-15kts of breeze. Pam flew back to the UK that night, and as always her timing was perfect as on Tuesday we were hit by the predicted tail end of the stormy weather that was running over the UK. We had wind and rain for most of the day, so spent a few hours in the marina office playing pool and doing internet stuff. Dan flew back to the UK Tuesday evening, and Stu and I are now getting Fizz ready for the trip down to Las Palmas this Friday 23rd October. The trip to Las Palmas in the Canary Islands will take approx 4 days, over 650 miles, and we will have our full ARC crew of Liz Absalom, John Pryke, David Warner, Stu and myself on board. So it will be a great opportunity to have a final shake down cruise before the start of the ARC in November. The weather has been pretty lousy the last 3 days, with strong winds and rain, but the forecasts are showing a break in the weather on Friday which should allow us to start heading south to the Canaries.
Liz joined us on Wednesday and we are expecting the remaining crew, John and David , to join us today, ready for the off tomorrow. Hopefully I will be able to file blogs and position reports over the next 4-5 days while we are at sea.
Chris
22nd October 2009

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18/10/2009 by admin.

On Thursday 15th October, we had David and Eila, friends of ours from Upper Beeding who were on holiday in Tavira for a week, over for a day’s sailing. With wind in short supply but plenty of sunshine, we sailed/drifted down to Albufeira, about 6 miles west of Vilamoura. We found a quiet spot just off the beach outside Albufeira and dropped the anchor for lunch. Soon after dropping anchor we were joined by about 6 dolphins swimming close by the boat, a great sight. After lunch David led the charge into the sea for a spot of swimming by executing a majestic swallow dive of the taff rail, closely followed by Stu, and after a considerable period of time and some persuasion, by myself via the stern ladder. Eila and Stu went for a spin in the RIB, which Eila decided was almost as much fun as riding a motorbike, her preferred mode of transport. On returning to Vilamoura that evening, we went out for a curry at one of several Indian restaurants within a stone’s throw of the Marina, before David and Eila headed back to Tavira

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18/10/2009 by admin.

Fizz had a short spell out of the water in Portimao for a week to get some work done on anti-fouling and fitting a new generator while we were back in the UK . Pam,Stu, Pauline and I returned to Portimao on the 5th October and Pauline ( Taffy’s owner ,although he dosen’t see it that way) joined us for a week’s break. We spent the first few days in a hotel in Portimao while the outstanding work on Fizz was completed, and re-joined Fizz in the water on the 8th October. Apart from a couple of days of cloud and rain early in the week, we have had non-stop sunshine and blue skies. Pauline exhausted the shoe shops in Portimao within a couple of days, so we decided to sail round to Vilamoura, about 20 miles east along the Algarve. Vilamoura is much more brash and noisy than Portimao. The Marina has over 1,000 berths and is surrounded by bars, restaurants, and Karaoke joints belting out noise through to the early hours of the morning. Pauline felt more at home here, and was particularly keen to visit a few of the Karaoke bars to showcase her impersonation of Katherine Jenkins. Unfortunately that night we had mislaid the gate entry card so were unable to go ashore, much to Pauline’s frustration and everyone else’s relief ! Funnily enough the gate entry card was found the following morning and we headed off to the beach after Pauline had given the Vilamoura shoe shops the once over. Pauline’s week with us on board Fizz seemed to fly past and before we knew it we were putting her in a taxi for the trip back to Faro airport, suitably suntanned, relaxed and with a suitcase full of shoes.

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