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!
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