ARC start delayed.

[KellysEye]

>Don't they adjust their speed to sail in convoy? I can imagine that being fun, and an interesting challenge!

After the first night we didn't see another ARC boat until we reached St Lucia. Crossing times range for 12/14 days for the fastest racing boats and up 27/28 for the slowest boats.

To find out more and expand your knowledge about the ARC and Atlantic crossings go to their site, boats will be publishing their logs in day or two. http://www.worldcruising.com/index.aspx

 

[estarzinger]

Still a large barrier of light and turbulent winds starting on late 12/05 - early 12/07. There might be a way thru, but the gribs have not yet been able to forecast where it will be. The safe routing right now is south and underneath.

Nice sailing now, and it returns after this barrier is passed (12/08).

View attachment 22387

 

[snowleopard]

Reports are of 4 metre following seas with NE'erly wind speeds of 30 knots (mean) increasing to 35 knots with 40 knot gusts from Saturday morning 0700Z.

We had that 24 hrs out of Las Palmas. Not having a wind instrument and having a fairly gung ho crew we failed to appreciate how much the wind had risen and were trundling along under full main + jib at 9 knots with long spells at 11 knots. I guess in a mono with rolling and risk of broaching that could be pretty wearing.

 

[nigelmercier]

We're moored up in La Gomera, so it's probably windier on the east side of Gran Canaria than here; looking over the breakwater, it's as rough as a badgers' backside out at sea and the forecasts we've been looking at today suggest it's not likely to get much better (here or points south & west) for the next week!...

In fact it got worse from the Sunday to the Thursday, so the delayed start was not a good idea.

 

[jerrytug]

>Don't they adjust their speed to sail in convoy? I can imagine that being fun, and an interesting challenge!

After the first night we didn't see another ARC boat until we reached St Lucia. Crossing times range for 12/14 days for the fastest racing boats and up 27/28 for the slowest boats.

To find out more and expand your knowledge about the ARC and Atlantic crossings go to their site, boats will be publishing their logs in day or two. http://www.worldcruising.com/index.aspx

That's very interesting thanks.

 

[estarzinger]

I am always interested in how spread out fleets get. I would intuitively think they would group into several logical routing clumps, but usually it just looks random, like someone threw darts.

View attachment 22458

Here are the two routing options today. Adrena is picking the north today by 9hrs. I would still go south (less risk), or just plan on motoring down the middle for a while

View attachment 22459

 

[estarzinger]

As forecast, the middle of the fleet has reached the wind hole (with heavy rain).

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