ARC Europe – Saturday 22nd May 2010

Position @1200 UTC

34⁰ 55.56 N 56⁰ 46.76 W

Nautical Miles traveled in last 24 hrs:- 135

As you can see we have dropped our daily tally of nautical miles thanks to last night not producing any wind! In fact my watch with Grainne, was very eventfull. We took over at 2100, by 2130 it was raining and then the wind had died whch made the sails flapand and all I could see was £ notes going up before my eyes! We brought in the Main, later we tightend up the genoa ut to no avail and eventually had to furl the genoa and turn on the engine.

The rest of the night was a noisy tripwith a lot of wallowing, very uncomfortable!

Morning dawned, no wind, but whilst Grainne and I were on watch, we were visited by a pod of dolphins. They were all around us playing in the bough wave, circleing the boat, diving underneath etc. This went on for at least half an hour then just as suddenly as they came, they went!

With the winds not knowing where they wanted to come from or at what strength, the boat was verycomfortable, albiet travelling very slowly, but an ideal situation to bake a cake. So out came the “Carrot Cake” mix andhey presto an hour later we had 2 cakes, actualy 1 cake mix split into 2 baking tins. Our oven cannot get hot enough to bake a deep traditional cake. Anyway after cooling I icedone and we allenjoyed a slice. I also cooked the lastof the fresh chicken. This will be browned offfor Sunday Roast, Lunch tomorrow!

By midday we had the winds setlingvin from the north, north east around 12 to 16 knots so at least wewere sailing,nbot quite the exact way wBe want to go but at least we are on olur way.But, and there is always a but; they are cold winds, heading down from the Artic I think.

Grainne was up and about a bit today and she seemed to be better, whilst we were onw atch tgetherwe chatted about it and naturally I went on about mind over matter and not giving in to itand today she wasoutof her cabin more than in it,so that is good. I have greatdificulty with he name so tday I christened her “Paddy” so that’sall right!

After lunch we spotted a whale off on our starboard beam, too far away to identyfy but his breathing hole on the back of his neck suggested he was a big un, from where we were it was an almighty spout!

This afternoonsfilm was, naturally James Bond! On her Majesty’s Secret Service, one of the best I think. This was followed by tonight’s dinner, it was a “Buffet” salad, Cornbeef, Sardines, Mackerel and Andrew’s special home made spicy potato wedges, very nice. This log was finished in time for me to start my watch at 2100hrs, oh and yes we are still sailing!

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