Monday 7th - Some people on the line, they think it's all over ...

Fishing tally for the day again very good – 3 fish, including long-billed spearfish only hours before the finish. Sac fishing (Phil) scores again and hauled in by Martin this time – what a catch!
Making reasonable speed with parasail, skip and crew more relaxed.
We are aware via radar and AIS where other yachts are but considering we are only about 40 miles from the finish there are no boats visible. Expect to finish around 1700 local time.
Midday a very intensive squall strikes with gusts up to 30 knots and heavy rain but with the jury rig our only option is to run with the weather. At 1215 a loud bang and the parasailor splits in half, half of it staying aloft held by the mast head and the other half hits the water. We recover the sail and set sail again under white sails only with about 4 hours to Rodney Bay. At this stage we find out later that our competitors (like Les Papillons) have jettisoned water to help boat speed! That’s what you might call a dry boat! Meanwhile Skip looks circumspect and says “Another 8k of sails gone, give me a sherry”.
We cross the line at 1707 local time, 42nd overall out of 209 – from 4 days seeing no boats they converge from all sides with 2 crossing just ahead and 4 astern. The elation is palpable. We’ve done it! We are on a high and drop the sails for the first time in 15 days and motor into the marina to receive a screaming supportive welcome from Nicky and Thea on the end of the breakwater and a standing ovation from Les Papillons . Jasmina is the heroine having sailed so well and safely even when tested to the limit. After this Stu And the family know they can sail anywhere with her.
As for me (Rob), I have ticked the box I wanted to tick for years and, yes, it has been worth it. But far more than that, I have had the rare privilidge of spending 15 days with 5 very good and dear friends and I suppose you shouldn’t need to sail 2700 miles to find that out.
So, Jasmina, where are you going to take us next for a new adventure?
Finally, a massive thank you from the whole crew to our 51 blog followers – your support and comments made a big difference and helped us to know that in the big wilderness of the Atlantic ocean we were never alone. We also know that many wanted to and tried adding comments but were thwarted by the technology. Oh well – we knew you were there in spirit.
This blog by Phil and Rob

Tuesday 8th in St Lucia

Hey there all you blog followers. Well we made it safe and sound arriving at 1707 local time (we are 4 hours behind UK), although blew the parasailor one hour before the end which added to the bill! Nicky and Thea were on the end of the breakwater waving us in which was fantastic. Has been manic since then so sorry for the late blog but all is well. Philip said he’d do it but has gone awol with Thea somewhere.
We’ll put the traditional blog entry in later today.
Speak soon.
Skip

Sat 5th / Sun 6th December - Under Pressure

As we come to within 400miles of the finish we start to pick up other ARC boats on the radar. A very clever system called AIS tells you a vessels length, heading and speed. Unfortunately this for us means confirmation that we are sailing slower than a lot of our competitors. Our ‘broken’, ‘damaged ‘and ‘torn ‘list has grown to the size of an average families weekly supermarket shopping list! ( Nicki has apparently put ‘Foxfields’ on the market in an attempt to raise funds for repairs.) This along with our ‘battered tackle’, fortunately a nautical term, has meant our race position suffering. It also meant putting our thinking caps on. As the repaired parasailor is now poled out on the starboard side with the main boom, we decide to lash the broken spinnaker pole to the main deck so that it protrudes mainly out on the port side and we run a sheet through it to the partially unfurled genoa so we can goose wing the boat. (Skip said I should comment that I wrote this all by myself!)All for an extra ½ knot of speed! Our radar also showed up a tanker heading in our direction whose length was measured as a percentage of a nautical mile – we made a note to definitely avoid this guy!
Had a day off fishing yesterday as stocks on board are good and Phil is concerned about the environmental impact he is having with his hugely successful rods. Sauteed Skipjack Tuna steaks for dinner last night washed down with a good bottle of wine from Nicki’s private cellar (promise we will replace x) made for an excellent evening. A midnight jibe of the parasailor gave Skip, Marty and I, a very late job to do as the wind direction had changed from the forecast. We are now on a good course to hopefully take us into St. Lucia with an ETA of Monday 9pm (just in time for last orders!)
Love to all at home
Andy x

Have added picture of Marty's "Blue foot" problem!

Skip

Friday 4th Dec - Day 12 - A Painted Ship upon a painted Ocean

Better progress averaging over 7 knots after 2 poor days of dealing with almost no wind, and as a result watching us descend the leader board. We are using only one sail now (the parasailor) and using the main boom to hold out the clew (back corner of the sail). Cannot use white sails downwind now because no pole so sacrificing about a knot - 24 miles per day!! Very frustrating.

But we are now around 500 miles from St Lucia so there is a remote chance of making it Monday night but more likely to be early hours of Tuesday morning. Skip still trying to make further mods to our limited sailing arrangements and cannot decide if we are racing or cruising. Thanks Nick for ideas from the home front (clever plan for jury rigging the spinnaker pole).

The day got off to a good start with two tuna striking both lines at the same time which Phil and Skip hauled in. Skip claims his is bigger. We ate the smaller one for lunch sashimi style and have stuck the big one in the freezer. They certainly looked and smelled good and, I am told, tasted good.

However, I must report things are not as smooth as they may appear - being at sea without other human contact is beginning to tell - cracks are appearing just below the surface. The Skip has started to have long, loud and not very complimentary conversations with his laptop - coupled with frequent references to the chart with words "can't be round - must be flat", heard frequently.Last night's middle watch (Phil and Steve) claimed to see many denizens of the deep - killer whales, blue whales, giant squid and even Moby Dick (sorry, not true that bit, just another of Martin's medical problems which Dr. Madden says is curable). But they didn't alert the rest of the crew who later heard bawdy sea shanties from the cockpit. Follow on shift found an empty bottle of Captain Morgan's rum .... (Skip's addition - actually they did see killer whales right by the boat - scary). Whilst the other watch (Martin of blue feet and Moby Dick and Andy) spent longs periods with maps muttering "pieces of eight".

As we converge on St Lucia radio traffic between boats has increased but become somewht Pythonesque - A bit like the "we lived together in a shoe box on the M62" sketch.

1st yacht to us : How's your boat, over?

Reply : We've shreaded the cruising chute, torn the Parasailor, broken the vang and the spinnaker pole, over.

1st yacht : Not serious then, we've lost the cruising chute, spinnaker, genoa and the generator has packed up, over.

3rd yacht : That's nothing, we have no sails at all, no rudder, no engine - we stear by a crew member hanging over the stern with a tea tray ....

I think you get the drift.

First two yachts finished today havign been neck and neck for the last 24 hours - only 16 minutes apart after 2700 miles!

This blog enrty by Robert.

Wed/Thur - Days 10/11 - We are not alone

Excellent tuna salad sandwiches for lunch yesterday with the last of the fresh salad. Courtesy of assistant chef Martin. Winds dying to 7 or 8 knots slowing us down although “we are still racing” according to the captain. Crew relaxing reading, sunbathing and sleeping during the afternoon. Skipper continues to tweak and faff.
Late afternoon Skip proposes a change of sail to improve speed – let out mainsail .... under equipment failure.. the vang. Sheared at the boom and main unuseable until jury rig can be sorted out. Only parasail in tact now – but we’re still racing (?).
Fishing maestro Phil has a senior moment and fails to switch reel to noisy and unknown fish strips all 625 meters out. Takes four of us to retrive the line but the fish, also bored, leaves the scene.
Phil redeems himself by catching a 2 feet long Wahoo (lovely tiger stripes) which we decide to release.
Overnight, with a full moon, the wind dies even further to 3 to 5 knots and we have to leave our chosen course to preserve parasail – getting nowhere – but we are still racing (aren’t we?).
Early morning tropical storms with gusts up to 32 knots and Jasmina is flying. The team are huddled in the cockpit trying to keep dry.
For the first time in 5 days we have company on the horizon – radio contact with Mojomo and Captain Blind – both seem to be having equipment problems. Rivendell, an Oyster 82 is 20 miles to starboard.
Our current position shows are poor day, only 133 miles whereas others manged 160 plus. We are still (only just but not for much longer) first in class and have slipped to 22nd overall. We should have gone further South!!
Finally Skip and crew are worried about a medical condition, Martin’s blue feet. Not sure if contagious but we will report if it gets worse. Dr. Madden, any thoughts? We told Martin we’ve never seen a blue cow so we don’t think it’s his shoes.
Now using the main boom as a spinnaker pole – still racing(?).
This blog by Steve (Cabin Boy).

Tuesday 1st December - What a difference a day makes!

Monday night shift was going well tanking along at 9 to 10 knots with parasailor (spinnaker) but at 0330 Martin's dongle (a special sacrificial link to attach to the pole) parted and sent the p/s flying. We bagged it quickly and, we thought, successfully 9more later) and resorted to white sails (main and genoa). At dawn tried to goosewing (pole the genoa out on the other side to the main) and the mast fitting of the pole sheared off. The pole missed Andy's shiny head by inches!

So now minus the cruising chute and the spinnaker pole.

Weather turned cloudy and squally and wind veared ESE so headed South for better currents. Because weather unpredictable the loss of downwind sails may not be issue yet.

Had a good lunch so decide to hit the soup mountain (i think we have 64 cans!) and the team settled down to the first episode of the Wire on DVD. 3 of the crew nodded off (as the previous night took it's toll) but 1st Mate stayed the course (AP). Then in a downpour around midnight the pc got wet so delay in this blog due to drying time needed but putting it on the generator for an hour.

Decided to play the long game now (reluctantly!) and try to get their without wrecking any more kit. Hope we haven't lost out too badly to the others, particularly Baghira and Les Papillons (both Beneteau 57's) but we will see.

Many thanks to all of you adding comments, recently Jane, Jayne, Kilo, Peter, Ken and crew, Philip, Julian, Thea et al. Greatly enjoyed by the team here.

Skip. Andy will add recent events.

8am Wednesday

As reported earlier, the last 24hours has seen us suffer some serious setbacks so the mood on board has been one of quiet contemplation. Not now! Skip managed a total of 8 hours sleep last night and is bursting at the seams with renewed enthusiasm for taking these other boats on. His hardy crew stay quiet and wipe sleep from their eyes as they don their deck shoes and protective gloves for the tasks ahead. Unfortunately proper inspection of the parasailor shows a 150cm 'L' shape tear was made when she broke her fastenings. No problem - Skip, Mart and myself set about her with sail tape, needles and thread and within 3 hours she is repaired. Now hoisted with the main, we are making good speed ahead.

Results Time.

Every day at noon GMT all ARC boats are required to call in their positions. Great News. We are 1st in our class of 21, 5th out of the 155 boats in the cruising class and 18th overall in the whole of the fleet of 209. (these results do not allow for handicap correction but who cares!) Beers are around to celebrate - Rob enjoys a cigar.

12.30pm Now the sun is shining, the boat speed is good and all seems well with the world. As I sit in the cockpit writing this blog, I glance to the back of the boat and am presented with a scene reminicent of many a nature programme. Just like seals basking in the midday sun, Steve and Martin are in quiet competition for the most bronzed flesh and their toned, muscular, schwarzenesk bodies roll and twist with the movement of the boat. A sight to behold!

Phil alternates between chapters of his book and the tweaking of his fishing reel permanently positioned at the rear of the boat. Yesterdays fishing excitement led only to the landing of a sizeable plastic bag for Phil so after some general mickey-take and various photographes, lures have now been changed. Fish beware - Phil means business.

Rob is up on deck reading a book and generally looking very distinquished with a now 'full on ARC' beard. Only Rob and Steve are yet to succumb to the razor so are competeting for the honour of being Jasmina's first Santa Claus. Children beware!

The wind is dropping below 7 knots, the speed is too low, I've got to go.....

Love to all back home

Andyx

Monday 30th - Another quiet day!

Skip decided at 3am that a sail change was required so a moonlit drop of the genoa and hoist of the parasailor was performed. 5.30am saw the main sail being lowered as we seek for the ultimate sail plan......and everyone said this would be simple downwind sailing!!

8.30am martin prepared scrambled eggs with hot bread, jam, and coffee for the majority of the crew who were awake. Top Job. Then to the commissioning of the washing machine...no simple task. Take six blokes,one new washing machine, one french instruction manual and one spanish bottle of Ariel and what do you get? A challenge. Solved easily of course...about two hours later.

Then all hands on deck for the lowering of the parasailor as the spinnaker pole was to be moved over to the port side. A small tear was noted on the wing of the parasailor so the needle and thread came into action before a succesful re-hoisting. Bread, cheese, ham and pickles for lunch and just as the ring-pulls on the ice cold beers were clicked back the fishing line started to run. It does have this knack of taking off just as we sit down to eat. Anyway, I was given the honour and succesfully landed a 4/5 lbs Dorado to add to the young wahoo fish caught after dinner the previous night. Phil has certainly mastered the art of Atlantic fishing as our boat total for succesfully landed fish reaches 5.

Everyones spirits remain high as we continue to make good progress in the race. Still 2nd in our class and just about holding on to the top 20 overall which is certainly exceeding our expectations. Fingers crossed we can keep it up. Rob is in great form and regularily climbs the saloon steps to enjoy a cigar in the cockpit. He has taken to holding up his marker board with 'FWA' printed in large initials accompanied by a broad grin and a thumbs up. We know the 'A' stands for 'awesome' but remain unsure about the preceding letters. We think it best left this way.

Another spectacular sunset ends the day with the smell of my good lady wifes preprepared sweet and sour pork wafting up from the galley. It will soon be time for the night shifts to begin and the now heavily suntanned crew members will await the next performance enhancing instruction from our ever competitive skipper. Its a tough life!

Love to all back home

Andy