Friday 27 Nov
Race Day 5
A word from the crew
Day 5 here on Challenger 3 and time is starting to get a little warped on board! Ricky and Dave (Skipper and Mate) remain on UT (GMT), whilst the rest of the crew had a 26 hour day yesterday which involved two seven hour watches during the day. This brings us two hours behind UK time to allow for the journey Westward- sunset and sunrise has once more returned to more normal hours. It does mean however that poor Dave and Ricky seem to be eating at most peculiar hours-perhaps accounting for Ricky’s Bake Off at 1am which kept all on night watches happy with delicious brownies.
Both the wind and sea started to ease of yesterday. The spinnaker was flown all day and into the night, remaining up as the sun rose this morning. Winds died right off as darkness encroached and plummeted down to 6 or 7 knots in the wee hours of the morning. But no rest for the wicked. Just as people were starting to drift off on deck around 3am, gust of 26 knots blew in and fear of a squall brewing meant that cots were strapped up to prevent any sleeping beauties from waking up on the floor. Luckily gusts died down quickly and the spinnaker stayed up.
Otherwise, on the sailing front, there was very little activity over the last 24 hours, with the only significant change being made this morning as we gybed to account for a north-easterly wind shift. Gybe ran smoothly.
Given that we had a relatively little work to do with the sails, and endless 7-hour watches, we were lucky that nature provided us with considerable entertainment. Throughout the day, we saw three separate schools of dolphins come alongside the boat. Jumping, twisting and diving, cameras were grabbed in order to catch these spectacular creatures showing off and playing in the bow waves.
Dolphins, whales and flying fish
Not only did we see hundreds of dolphins, but we were also tailed by what we believe was a small pilot whale, although for the moment it remains unidentified. On top of that, we witnessed our first flying fish attack as one of these small, winged creatures leapt on deck in the middle of the night. Much to some peoples’ annoyance, this fish was seen as friend, not food, and was thrown back in the ocean.
As well as some exciting amphibious sightings, the sky was glorious all day. The sun really burned for the first time this trip and sun cream was lathered on. As always, sunset was a treat to watch, and a perfectly full moon kept the spinnaker lit up all night.
The only other key thing to mention is that all culinary excellence was surpassed last night by Jerry and Kirstie. With the extra two hours in the day, Jerry concocted a beef stew at about 3pm, leaving it to simmer until dinner at 7. The results were pure genius and the boat settled into complete quiet as all on board were silenced by its deliciousness. (Apparently the magic ingredient was a sprinkle of cinnamon according to Jerry!)
All continues to go well on board, with the odd lesson on knot tying and weather keeping people busy. Oh and I forgot to mention that we saw a boat cross ahead of us for the first time- an oil tanker. Nice to know that there is still human life out there!
And one more thing, most importantly of all, we reached 1000 nautical miles at 8am this morning, leaving us with around 1800nm to go. We are making progress!
Love to all back home!
(Especially to all of Frog Chat if you get a chance to see this, from Rosie!)
Dave the mate’s joke of the day
And for those who appreciate dad jokes, Dave’s joke of the day:
‘A sandwich walks into a bar and says, “Can I have a drink, please”. The barman replies, “Sorry, we don’t serve food.”’ Ba dum dum ch…
Rosie and Keith
A word from Skipper Ricky
We have been flying our spinnaker for 36 hours now and it looks like it will be up a fair while yet. We rode through a squall scare which just bought a moderate increase in wind and a few spots of rain and then gybed on the following wind shift.
Life on board has settled into a routine now and the mother watches are starting some serious competition with cooking and baking. The watch system is working well and all is good and happy on board. The passing wild life is keeping everyone entertained and I am sure we now have thousands of photos of patches of sea where a dolphin was just a moment ago. The bright full moon is making spotting the Southern Cross difficult but we think we have spied part of it just on the horizon. Hopefully it will continue to appear as we sail further South.
As far as the racing is concerned, I have one of Baldrick’s cunning plans. It may require some special powers from a crop of turnips to come to fruition, but at least it is a plan which we can play out and hope to triumph in our quest to overtake Challenger 1…
No details as I am sure there are spies everywhere !
Ricky (skipper)
You can see where Challenger 3 currently is and all the other ARC boats here: https://www.worldcruising.com/arc/arc/eventfleetviewer.aspx
If you fancy racing across the Atlantic join us next year on the ARC 2016
