Fizz ARC day 9

30/11/2009 by admin.

“Day 9, and we have just celebrated reaching the halfway point, with some champagne and cigars (I had no idea Liz smoked cigars !). Today we have had the strongest winds to date with a good Force 6 blowing for most of the day. This has helped us in terms of boat speed, but the seas have been very steep and confused, so it has not been the most comfortable of days. We met up with another ARC boat earlier today, the Goldina, a 57′ Najad, which passed less than a mile from us. We had a chat on the VHF with them and swapped stories, then wished each other good winds and agreed to meet up in St Lucia.  The sun is now setting in the west and the wind has moderated, so we are getting ready for supper. We have adjusted our course to a direct line to St Lucia with the wind directly behind us. We have rigged the genoa on the port spinaker pole with the main out on a preventer to stbd, so are running well dead downwind. St Lucia here we come !! As we are sailing fairly fast today, the fishing has been put on hold, so no fish for supper tonight. We are now in the rain squall zone where you can get sudden squalls blowing through with winds in excess of 30 kts. These can be rig-breaking wind conditions, so we need to be vigilant, particularly at night, and ensure we reduce our sail area in time if there is a squall coming through. Having said that, it would be good to have a fresh water washdown as the boat is covered in salt. Poor old Fizz will need a good wash-down when we get to St Lucia. Well, the dinner gong has just sounded, so I had better get dressed for dinner, don’t want to be late.Till tomorrow. Chris”

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