Better breezes are coming.....
Copyright © Happy Spirit
16 Dec 2003 10:00 GMT Reports from boats arriving early this morning are that conditions are now a good 25 knots on the approach to St. Lucia, which is wonderful news for the last few yachts yet to arrive. Every new arrival says “Are we the last?”, however there are still 24 ARC yachts to finish.
For the first time in what feels like weeks, the marina lies still and quiet at 2am. Crews have partied hard since arriving and energy is being conserved it seems for the final ARC weekend. Not too much however as tonight sees the Marina Manger’s Cocktail Party which is always a lively affair!
Stories are coming in from boats thick and fast as more and more crew find out they have been mentioned on the website news and want to tell more of their story. So much happens on each boat’s passage that it’s impossible to report everyone’s highs and lows, however hopefully the various snippets we report manage to give readers an insight into what an Atlantic passage can involve.
So what’s new? Well, it seems Pinball Wizard likely get the prize for the most hours hand steering as their Autohelm packed up just two days out of Las Palmas. They have calculated that each of the three crew members handled 160 hours of hand steering each – that’s a lot of concentration!
Swedish father and daughters team, aboard Milou, the Beneteau Oceanis ’39, claim they caught a 2 metre Marlin during their crossing. After a 45 minute fight, the fish broke free alongside the boat and the lure shot into Dad, Johan’s, arm. He and daughters Mirjam and Lou however, arrived all smiles, Johan with only a very small war wound!
German yacht Moana talked enthusiastically about their mid-Atlantic swimming party, which when you have no wind and temperatures in the high 30’s, is the only sensible thing to do really.
Yacht Josephine who arrived early morning yesterday reported hitting a whale. We hope to find out more about this, however their catalogue of disasters also included the Skipper Jim Gardner knocking himself out – what a trip!
As we write, Italian yacht Nonna Bimba has just tied up (4.30am local time) and while her crew stretch their legs and wake up friends on other boats, the radio is quiet. We await daybreak and likely more yachts arriving then.
Sue Richards
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