At some point soon the FCS crew should be doing this
As the FCS crew approaches the half-way mark they are bonding well and developing a wide understanding of life and teamwork on Challenger 3. In this blog you’ll be taken right into their daily life…
A Night at The Opera
Dear All,
What a great performance I witnessed last night. It all looked like a well-tuned orchestra! You all certainly tried to get the best from your instruments!
And then there was the conductor high above you, balancing on the pulpit, hair blowing wildly around her face, both arms lifted, baton in hand! All of you illuminated by the decklight, setting a dramatic scenery. It looked fantastic!
And then there was the director, looking on from the side curtain, making sure all went smoothly – untethered mind – shouting “I declare this bazaar open!” To enhance the dramatic scenario, he chucked a few buckets of water on you! What a show! I’m so happy to be part of such a brilliant team, although I can only watch the drama!
A helmsman’s view.
Ralf
Looking Back on Saturday (26th) and Challenger 2’s Challenge
An action packed couple of days. The crew is honing their helming skills well, ranging from relaxed and on course to wide eyes and zig-zagging, but all are improving massively and doing amazingly well, especially in the dark nights with rolling waves.
Challenger 2 loomed out of the darkness last night, cutting in front of us and taking the lead for the first time. Helming fever hit a new high as people tried their best to helm well and chase Challenger 2.
Day 7 (Saturday) and Challenge 2 took the lead. How long would the FCS crew let that last?
Having our Yankee 3 up instead of 2 (a tear forced us to drop it just before dark), we were under-canvased compared to Challenger 2, but Ricky, unable to settle, took the helm and managed to stop a wide gap opening up, ably assisted by Andrew and a couple of others. A sleepy but happy skipper this morning.
Sail stitched and patched we re-hoisted our Yankee 2 and saw our boat speed improve. During the day we did several more gybes due to a change of plan on getting more up to date wind/weather information. A crucial decision to avoid potentially getting becalmed over the next few days.
The last of the gybes came after I treated myself to a shower and a couple of hours sleep on my off watch – it has been a tiring few days! We dropped the Yankee 2 again for a few more repairs before re-hoisting and continuing the gybe… needless to say, my salt-free cleanliness was short lived as a wave or two soaked me once again.
A pleasant start to the night watch with an amazing beef curry and starry sky. The crew is chatting loudly and excitedly behind me in the saloon, the Skipper is catching up on some sleep and I am looking forward to mine. It looks like some interesting and varied sailing ahead…there’s no sign of the typical ARC trade winds yet!
Midnight and Time to Reflect on the Wind
Kirstie (slightly tired, salty Mate) Todays 00:00 to 06:00 watch for me holds the faint hope of a sunrise as we have adjusted the boat clock by an hour and will do so again today and tomorrow. This will bring the sun back in line with our normal expectations of being up during the day and not during the night. It will, however, undoubtedly bring confusion to myself as we stick to UT for all the boat communications and the Skipper and Mate’s watch times.
Although it has not been typical ARC Trade Wind sailing; by being further North than normal we have kept some fast and at times testing downwind sailing conditions. Today we will finally be enveloped by the edge of the sluggish Low Pressure south of the Azores which has been so disruptive.
We made a last minute gybe and dash to get a bit further North after some updated weather information earlier and I think Challenger 2 kept to the Southern gybe. So it will be interesting today to see how it unfolds. If the information we are working from is correct we should have a day or so of light to very light conditions and by midnight today (Sunday) we will hopefully just have made our way to better winds.
If Challenger 2 is 30 or so miles South, they may find the lighter winds last a bit more into Monday morning, but then forecasts are just forecasts.
Early Sunday morning the three ships were very close for an Atlantic race
The Weather’s Ahead
Thursday is looking like a very interesting day weather-wise, as a deep unseasonal low heads our way and will give us strong to very strong Southerly winds followed rather quickly by strong to very strong Northerly winds. We plan to be as South as possible as soon as possible after we have skirted past this current low, but I am not sure on the strategy for the next low. We may just blast through it in typical Challenger fashion.
Our boat equipment is all faring well. We have patched various small holes in our Yankee 2, including a small tear in the leech which could easily have developed into a catastrophic rip. At the moment we have been quite conservative with our sail plan, preserving our larger sails for the light winds which we expect soon. And, apart from a few hours earlier in the race, our spinnaker has been safely in its bag.
The FCS Crew is Binding to December 5th
The crew have gelled into a really excellent lot and the shifting mother watch system which sees movement of crew from one watch to another has meant that they are all getting to know one another and we have no inter watch rivalry but rather people willingly helping each other above and below decks which is excellent. At times it is difficult to discern who is on and who is off watch as the gybes seem to attract most of the crew to help out.
We are rapidly approaching half way, with currently 1225 miles done and 1609 miles to go. Just a measure on miles to go vs miles to go at the start, we will be halfway when we have 1351 miles to go, but traditionally when our miles done exceeds our miles to go, it is party time!
The ETA for the finish has moved on to 5 December, but the GPS calculation has no way of telling that today will be a light and frustrating day with little progress towards the Rum Punch, or that we will be heading almost everywhere except on a course of 251 on Thursday as we deal with the strange weather on that day.
Halfway to their destination and a well earned rum punch
Sunday 27th, 4:30am
Ricky (Slightly Sleepy Skipper) So far so good, the forecast wind shift happened pretty much bang on time, just the strength is a little more than forecast, but I’m not complaining about that. So we gybed at about 3:30. I naively thought I could be quiet about it and leave Kirstie and the other two watch leaders asleep, but at the first sign of noise, and in Kirstie’s case the deck floodlight shining into her cabin, both Andrew and Kirstie were up like jack rabbits willing and eager to help.
The gybe is well practiced now and went smoothly and with the wind shifting almost as we gybed, we were left on a beam reach on the Port Gybe heading directly to Rodney Bay, St Lucia.
Hopefully, the rest of the forecast is as accurate or with a little bit more wind and we can get through the lighter stuff today with minimal pain.
By midday the Captain’s tactics and crew’s hard work was paying off
Daylight and Quite Literally Sun Day
Ricky (Skipper) Bikini weather has finally arrived for the ARC 2016, with just a splattering of showers to keep us all on our toes. The crew has been enjoying a respite from the bouncy sea state as it calms down in the lighter winds.
We seem to be escaping from the dreaded light winds forecast for today, hopefully, it will continue through the afternoon and we will be able to dive South for some warmer weather and to find the traditional trade route winds. We have a full suite of sails available to us, all in good condition, and are currently making excellent progress using our Yankee 1 and the Staysail as well as a full mainsail.
First Class Training and Adventures All Year
In case you didn’t know First Class Sailing provides the full range of RYA sailing courses, plus a huge variety of yachting experiences – including sailing the ARC yacht to Las Palmas via the Bay of Biscay and back across the Atlantic to the UK from Antigua.
The company has been awarded a Trip Advisor certificate of excellence three years running.
Sailing holidays to various parts of the world are on offer, including Norwegian fjord cruises next year and participation in races such as the 2017 ARC Rally, The Rolex Fastnet – a race from Cowes to Ireland, finishing in Plymouth – and the Round the Island race circumnavigating the Isle of Wight.
Anyone wishing to book a place at the 2017 ARC with First Class Sailing should contact Charlie Tulloch on 0203 006 3717 or via email [email protected]
