Forum Member doing the Arc

Nothing formal !

I had a brief what’s app chat yesterday which I paste below some “ highlights. “

In reply to my “ no updates “ question

Will write something later. Not really an update a day as all a bit the same! Making good progress though!”

When will you arrive ?

Eta Monday midday. Bar midday +10mins

And then re position

Albatross is the one we're fending off and might take one other. Going for podium.

I gather beer is running low !

I looked at the weather the other day and it seemed to be a pretty consistent 15 kts or so up their chuff with nothin severe. I don’t know the weather expectation but given it is past hurricane season I guess the weather is the good side of the typical expectation

If I here any more will post.
 
UPDATE: Sat 7th Dec. 10:00 GMT

Been a while since the last update as very much a case of sail, eat, sleep repeat. We’ve been making good progress and keeping our speed up overall to between 8.5-10.5kn daily. Average distance is around the 200nm mark which is decent. Big spells of no wind but not as bad as when it was a motor boat rally at the start.

We’re currently lying 4th in Cruising Class and 13th overall which we’re pleased with given where we (and the boat) started out. Not much chance of a podium as the boat in 3rd is slightly quicker and c. 50 miles ahead. We don’t have the time to close the gap even if we had the extra 1kn in speed differential. We also are #1 Oyster at the moment but others driving hard.

Life on board very chilled, boat behaving impeccably although it’s been very rock n roll for the last week+. Champagne Hippy has certainly been built to last and given that some systems e.g. steering (!!) are running 24/7 under big load, there has been very little maintenance required. Boat chat has moved on to our first drinks/food in St Lucia. There was a welcome happy hour at the start of the week with our “half way” party. We also named the boat again. Nice relaxed atmosphere between watches.

Speaking of drinks, our beer and wine calcs were obviously wrong. We did a proper audit yesterday and after a fair distribution of beer/wine (as in 1 bottle and 4 cans each for 4+ days), we had a charity auction of the remaining 2 bottles and 2 cans. The auction raised £340 and our chosen charity was the “Champagne Hippy First Bar Tab Fund”. You know when people are getting desperate when they’re paying £70 for one can of Cruzcampo and £120 for a £6 bottle of Rioja that you could use to degrease a chain. Post auction trading has also begun – night watches seem popular but value not there as current market is 4 beers...

Weather has kind to us. Cruising winds at c. 20-25kn and when a squall hits, which is very frequent now, c. 30kn. We are then quickly reefing sails and getting extremely wet for about 10 mins. The mini-storms are amazing to watch coming in on the radar. They form and move very quickly.

Wildlife has been reasonable, saw some sperm whales and more dolphins. Flying fish are everywhere too – I think these were created the same day as a duck-billed platypus. Unfortunately our body count is quite high. When they land on deck during the day, we can chuck them back but at night they’re on suicide missions apparently. Yet to have one land in my cabin through the deck hatch but there is still time I suppose!

Looking forward to dry land and cold beer. Still hoping for a podium. This boat and the team that created it truly deserve it.
 
yep, but if you use the scroller on the bottom and go back in time (brilliant feature btw!) you'll notice that some boats left a few days late...
well, didn't help some that were 30odd feet either, I guess hull speed is hull speed!

well done to them

V.
 
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