ARC 2010 Lancelot

Welcome to my website on “ARC 2010″!

The ARC is the Atlantic Rally Cruise, an annual transatlantic race from Las Palmas to St Lucia. I will be taking part on the British yacht Lancelot.

This year is the 25th anniversary of the ARC and I’m very excited about taking part in the race.

This will be the first experience I have had of yachting, taking my nautical adventures onto a different level from the two tallship trips I did over the last couple of years in the South Pacific and Antarctica.

The longest sea passage I did on those trips was six days and I always wondered what a longer trip would be like, so here I am, on the verge of an atlantic crossing….

Lancelot in the trade winds...



Saturday November 20 2010 (departing Nov 21)

On the verge of departure, tomorrow at 8am we all get on the boat, well some are already ensconced ,and then after a hearty breakfast (read McDo Sausage Mufins, not quite sure about that one…) we will head out into the bay to get ready for the start, due at some time around 13h00 !

The last couple of days have been taken up with acclimatizing and getting some briefing on the boat and crossing. Most of the briefing was taken up with safety and emergency procedures, lifejackets, ship lines, man overboard procedures, fire etc etc! All essential , but hopefully not to be needed information.

The yacht is quite small (“no kidding” – final realization hits home!!)

We will be “hot bedding” as there are only three cabins (for the 8 of us) and it will be quite a contrast with the tallship experience.

The crew has been split into two groups of four for the watches, with the daylight watches being three sets of four hours and the nighttime four sets of three hours. So it will be pretty much non-stop!

The weather forecast is for some light winds to begin with and a relatively smooth crossing meaning the trip will be longer than two weeks, probably more like 17 days with arrival in St Lucia on December 8! On departing Las Palmas tomorrow we will head south westwards towards the Cap Verde islands to hook up with the trade winds which will take us westwards across to St Lucia. We are due to have some relatively good sailing conditions out of Las Palmas but then will hit some calmer sailing conditions before we pick up the trade winds. “Trade winds”, just the sound of it feels incredible!

I may be able to send some updates through to this blog from the crossing as the boat has email which will be used on a daily basis. At the same time, charging equipment could be a challenge as we only have two hours a day charging time apparently and everyone, like me, has come with multiple bits of equipment!! As a backstop, I went out to buy a notepad to do the blog in a more traditional style today.

Crew mates all seem fine so far: it has been great to see Lia again, ship’s Doc from the Europa and the one who dealt with my broken pelvis! I’m sure is she praying her medical expertise isn’t called upon on this trip. The rest of the crew is balanced in terms of gender, four guys, four girls and expertise, from the fine sailors to the less well equipped (I’ll let you guess which category I fall into!).

Now I should really post this and get to bed as it is nearly midnight and tomorrow will come round very quickly! But I am finalizing accommodation arrangements in St Lucia: with a couple of the crew we have decided to rent out villas near the town we sail into, we have to move half way through the week because of places being booked up but in my view being in a big villa will be most definitely called for after the cramped conditions of the Lancelot!

It feels some way off now though….

In the meantime, let’s hope for an exciting yet safe passage across the Atlantic!

Getting over sea sickness...

Wednesday 24 November 2010

My first blog entry of the trip and a very welcome one too as it is the first time since early on Monday morning that I have felt well enough to even contemplates typing. I have had one of my worst experiences of sea sickness in my whole life (no exaggeration here), but I’m glad to report the worst now appears to be behind me and I have enjoyed a first proper day at sea feeling human again!

At dawn we were treated to the wonderful sight of dolphins swimming alongside Lancelot and jumping the waves out in front of the bow. A truly magical sight and one captured by Mick on video. On another occasion I will hope to do the same but at that time I was still feeling somewhat fragile. I haven’t been participating on night watches for two days now, spending Monday evening on deck sleeping in my sleeping bag and yesterday down on a comfy bed in the main cabin. I will spare readers of this blog the details of my last 48 hours but it was pretty grim, reminds me of the old adage about feeling like you’re dying when you have sea sickness to finally wishing you had died later on!

Anyway, let’s hope I have fully recovered now. We are passing by Cap Verde islands with the idea if I was really bad I would have to get off there and quit – yes it was that bad. But I’m now hopeful that I will be able carry on. As I write this it is just past 6pm UK time we have just had thai curry for dinner, the sun is setting and the sea is a wonderful calm as we sail gracefully along at 4 knots or so. It has been a somewhat calmer day than the last couple where we were doing more like 7-10 knots.

But the calm conditions did bring an opportunity to do the one thing I had wondered whether we would have occasion to do – swim in the deep blue Atlantic! Mid-afternoon it was baking hot, limited wind – in fact our speed read 0.00 knots – and Jacko decided to give up with the spinnaker. As a result the call went up “who fancies a swim”, which was enthusiastically welcomed by me! Perhaps too enthusiastically as this was quickly followed up by the comment “but come back to the boat” by one wag!

As the crew jumped in to the rather surprisingly warm water a chorus of rhapsody from the bohemian swimmers could be heard across the calm, blue waters of the ocean, perhaps drifting as far as some of our competitors whose masts and sails we could make out on the horizon. I spent the most time in the sea, truly invigorated by the experience and the break from the boat, it has to be said! And we swam in sea with a depth of 3400m, something I had always thought would be cool to do – and so it was.

Now the spinnaker is being hosted again as we set in for the night watches. I will be back on for these watches, starting I think at 10pm. Calls for tea and coffee are going up and it feels good to have rejoined the human race! More to follow…

Racing tactics as we inch along...

Thursday 25 November 2010

Fully recovered from sea sickness! Hurrah! And I can report a fantastic night and then day aboard Lancelot continuing our southward bound journey towards Cap Verde and beyond. Indeed, now further beyond these islands to a 10 degree latitude because the weather forecast is showing the most favorable winds in these areas.

Our skipper Jacko chose to do the southerly route which means heading far south before making the turn westwards and heading directly across to St Lucia. The alternative route would have been to have sailed directly west from Las Palmas out towards the Caribbean – the Northerly route. This may be the quicker route but is also the more demanding on boats and crews; we heard this afternoon that crews on this route are facing 35 knot headwinds at the moment!

Jacko also explained the ARC’s handicap system to our watch last night. The Lancelot has a handicap of 1.044 meaning our race time will be multiplied by this figure to produce our overall race time. Our handicap is actually slighter smaller than for other identical boats and Jacko explained that this was due to some of the modifications he has made to the boat to reduce its ranking: for example, given that the most powerful sail is the spinnaker, Jacko has brought smaller mainsails and jibs, reducing our ranking when compared to other yachts using their standard size sails. Crafty little manoeuvre but a good one to eek out these little advantages which may prove critical in a long voyage.

As a result of the rankings and the handicaps, the resulting positions of the yachts may be little more than academic at the moment, just in case you have checked the ARC website for positioning and are wondering why we are still piddling around near the coast of Africa!

In amongst all this discussion of rankings, handicaps and racing strategies there was also some time for some proper sailing. And what a wonderful experience it was! Picture the scene: around 5.30 in the morning on the 4-7 watch, full moon directly above and taking the helm on a southwesterly 240 degree heading which I finally fixed on a star I later discovered is called Regal from Orion system – this little beauty was perfectly positioned just to starboard of the mast so I could steer the boat along properly by the stars with only the occasional glance down at the compass to check we were still all on course – it was fantastic!

Today has been more of the same, some calm sailing conditions around lunchtime when I was back on the helm but then picking up again this afternoon. I took a first opportunity to get some video of the ocean as we sailed along, bravely making it forward to the bow of the ship – hooked in I assure you – to get some great footage of our graceful sail southwards.

And then the fish, just after lunch the line went taught, then arced and so began a wee struggle with a dorado fish which was eventually heaved from the sea a good half an hour or so later. It’s weight was estimated at around 15lbs and is currently in the oven for dinner, and just as it was being prepared another was caught so this could become something of a fish voyage, not so good for fish eaters like me….! But an impressive looking fish all the same!

Becalmed around Cap Verde...

Friday 26 November 2010

As I write this it’s just past midday on another calm day, which is becoming something of a routine recently. We have been sailing since around 4am with minimal wind support, large parts of the time stuck on 0.00 knots (!), but being carried along by a little current. We are closing in on Cap Verde, but then again I have been saying that for the last few days – thank god I’m no longer ill waiting to get off there as I think I would be going stir crazy!

In contrast my spirits are good despite the lack of wind and relatively slow progress towards our destination. I suppose I should expect it, after all I’m the bod who sailed the Drake Passage with headwinds and a relatively calm crossing..! But I think some of my fellow travelers’ spirits were a bit frayed this morning, which I know from my own experience can happen with the lack of sleep and relatively tight conditions in which we are all living. But now all good, cruising along in mid-twenties degrees with Santana playing in the cockpit wiling away the hours until we pass Cap Verde.

In the meantime, let me record our passage last night which despite the lack of wind was quite spectacular. My watch was first on at 7pm and we sailed through a couple of dark hours as the moon was yet to come up and clouds obscured many of the helpful sailing stars, although Regal wasn’t slated to make an appearance until a bit later.

Anyway with the near pitch black conditions we were treated to a display of bio-luminescence (“glow in the dark plankton”) which in of itself looked pretty special rushing along the bow of the boat and leaving a colourful wake behind us. But then the special became the wonderful as a pod of dolphins materialized and shot in and around the boat leaving their own coloured jet stream in their wake! Fantastic sight, the dolphins were actually lit up as they swam to and fro alongside the boat and around the bow. So, in recompense of no wind we were treated to this great show which was followed up at dawn by a most wonderful sunrise, one of many I’m sure.

I was on the helm at the time trying to steer a course with minimal wind, but allowing me to position the boat to my best advantage to get some great shots as the sun finally rose above the horizon. The rest of the morning we meandered slowly onwards, drifting along under a light wind, beginning with just a mainsail and jib and now moving onto a spinnaker as we seek to make some ground. I have been nicknamed Bishop by my watch after the android in the Alien films on the grounds that I have the patience to maintain a course in whatever condition – like the infamous android, although saying that he did have a major malfunction at one point!...

On that note, it must be nearly lunchtime but I don’t see any signs yet from the usual galley crew, well we don’t have a galley, but there are always one or two who take on culinary responsibility, let’s hope they are feeling peckish soon…!

Breaking the shackles of an Atlantic calm...

Saturday November 27 2010

After lunch yesterday we broke free from the seemingly never-ending shackles of ocean calm to finally get some hours of proper sailing under our belts. Slowly modifying our course further to the west to pick up, hopefully, the trade winds, and our passage across to St Lucia, Lancelot fairly charged along in the late afternoon and into the early evening.

Helming the boat in these kind of conditions is a fantastic experience as you weave between the waves, steering as close to the wind as one dares and enjoying the yacht’s pitch as she crosses the undulating valleys of the building Atlantic swell.

Overnight our sailing conditions changed again and we took a downwind tack to continue our westerly course. With the spinnaker set at the front it is quite a challenging sail set to navigate in as the sail, lying perpendicular to the yacht, only has a narrow range in which to move before she collapses or ends up being wrapped around the rigging. When coupled with sailing in quiet conditions this can be a tricky task as the sail has a tendency to flop around even more, and last night’s seas weren’t helping in this regard either. This all requires a lot of concentration and our watch decided to split the responsibilities with one person helming following the compass heading, another watching the spinnaker for signs of collapse and another on knot speed watch! But many hands make light work and we achieved some pretty good speeds.

By my last watch of the morning Jacko decided that a change of course was required so we gybed to the south and took on a much more stable course, which was perfect timing as I was about to hit the sack at 8am! And sleep soundly I did only rousing myself at midday to find calm conditions had returned leaving the yacht more or less marooned once again. After a late breakfast I was back on the helm to trying to coax as much speed out of the weak winds as possible as we inched our way forward. Thankfully the wind gradually picked up and as I write this just past 5pm we are fairly rolling along, happy days! Some time off now before our next watch at 8pm.

Morale on the boat is good.

It certainly is better when the wind picks up and we’re rolling along properly. Piddling around at 1 knot just doesn’t cut the mustard really. We’re nearly a week into the crossing and everyone has settled into the routine now. It’s interesting to see how we’re all interacting, given that we were all strangers up to a week ago, Lia and I apart.

One can observe certain frustrations at times but I think we’re all getting on remarkably well. Compared to a tallship the space on here is very limited so patience and good humour are very much required!

Relapsing into sea sickness...

Tuesday November 30 2010

What a tough two days: upwind sailing, turbulent seas and a second round bout of sea sickness! But I’m still here standing, perhaps only because we have had a no-wind calm day. Picking up my last entry from Saturday, by the time we had moved on 24 hours the wind speed was really picking up, consistently over 13 knots and on occasion topping 20 knots.

The seas were choppy and rough and this coupled with the swell made for much tougher sailing conditions. The main challenge is really keeping one’s balance when the yacht is heeling steeply. I was down to put on a life jacket with the safety line fairly early on as I was concerned about slipping and doing christ knows what to myself! Lia followed my example but I was surprised to see no one else do the same.

Anyway, we chugged along fairly merrily towards the evening but here things were to get just a bit tougher. My second night watch was from 5am to 8am and as soon as I roused from my slumber – sleeping is no easy task when the seas are rolling so heavily - I knew I was going to have problems with sea sickness. On deck it wasn’t long before I was being sick again, hanging on for dear life on the low side of the yacht and heaving the previous evening’s chili over the side of the boat. Clearly I do not have the constitution for sailing in such small boats as this - I had rarely been ill on a tallship and indeed sea sickness was not one of my concerns ahead of this trip. But it has been for the last 10 days I can tell you!! We carried on sailing, or should I say the rest of my watch did, and I clung on literally, continuing to be sick and glumly accepting the regular drenching the Atlantic ocean was giving us all as the waves crashed over the bow! Happy days.

Come 8am it was watch over and four hours respite beckoned. I headed straight for my bed, trying and partially succeeding in sleeping for two hours despite the damp conditions. Getting up again mid-morning I thought the worst might have passed but I was soon being sick again, stuck in a frustratingly monotonous 30 minute cycle. Under heavy advice from the crew I took the helm to see if a combination of concentration and horizon focus could do the trick – it worked to a degree, but I think in only slightly extending the gaps between each vomit! I couldn’t quite believe I was helming a yacht upwind across the Atlantic in average 15 knot wind speeds feeling as bad as I was at times. In the end our watch came to a close and I spent the rest of the afternoon adopting my preferred approach to recovering – lying down on deck, sun hat and shades with my eyes closed to the bouncing horizon! This combined with a night off watches and much calmer seas have left me feeling considerably better today!

On to more pleasant issues and our position in the race. The last update Jacko had was pretty positive in that we are lying in the top three places in our racing category and more importantly are very well placed in terms of sailing tactics. We have been sailing in light winds today but this is expected to pick up over night with the expectation that it won’t be too long before we pick up the famous trade winds, the north-easterlies which should power us all the way to St Lucia. The long range weather forecast indicates that we should have them through to next Monday so fingers crossed. This will be downwind sailing with the spinnaker set and a different kind of motion from the upwind variety – more surfing off several meter high swells. I’m just hoping that my constitution can cope with that as I think it will be fabulous.

When you compare our sailing conditions, current and expected, with our competitors it is clear to see why we are well placed: those yachts having opted for the northerly route are currently sailing upwind into 25 knot winds – “punishment” was how this was described! When I wondered outloud how I would have fared in such conditions, Jacko said that in all likeliness I would have been emergency evacuated given that those conditions are expected to last through until the end of the weekend!! Let’s hit those trade winds and surf to the finish which as I write this is 1728 nautical miles away, but in perfect timing Jacko just used the navigation equipment to give Linda an updated ETA and it looks like December 11 at 9h50am on the basis of doing 7.5 knots average…we need to pick up the pace again as we’re currently meandering along at 1.5!!

Anyway, today has been a pleasant off day, clothes have been washed, cabins have been cleaned up, I have packed non essentials away as I found they went flying in our cabin in the rough sea conditions, and a shower and shave has been had so I feel part of the human race again. This is quite a trip, ranging from fantastic helming moments to feeling pretty low with sea sickness. A roller-coaster ride if ever I have been on one! More to follow, mal de mer permitting…