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ARC 2016: Day 15, The Home Straight Too hot on deck, so I am busying myself in the nav area, trying to look like I am doing something important. Still in pretty light winds, not really averaged over 12knots for last few days, but at least we are moving. Clouds have been something of a feature of this crossing, with some pretty impressive shapes sizes, and colours been shown off. Some even had sticky down spinny bits (water spouts), and many have had flashy bangy special effects. Our passage through the light patch a few days ago went better than expected, with more wind (mostly from cloud) than expected, there was a rather alarming amount of lightning all round us, so much so that we put a selection of communications location and safety electronic devices in the oven to protect them in the event of a direct hit, I happily report this step was actually not needed! It seems that the two Northern boats managed to escape the light winds up there, but it has cost them, and we have therefore been leading for last few days in class. The final run in is looking good for us now (albeit quite light for another 24hrs). We expect to finish sometime Wednesday night. Food rations have held up (suplemented by some big fish!) So the tinned extra food is likely to remain unopened, we have 4 full evening meals in the freezer, so Chilli con carne, Chicken Tikka massala, Thai Green Curry, and Beef in black been sauce all remain to be eaten. Food has been amazing (thanks Sarah) cant wait for a steak though! Apart from two blocked toilets, this crossing has been quite enjoyable, the southern route has had a few bonuses, warmer earlier, bigger fish, and more showers (big sqaulls) I had 3 proper soapy showers in one day two days ago, so at least I should smell ok at the finish. We have less than 600 miles to go now, and over 100miles on the next boat so looking fairly comfortable to get in first. The handicap on Aphrodite is looking better too now, it will be interesting to see if Philippe and his team on Quokka can sneak into the second spot on rating now, if the wind holds in the S as forecast, it should go in their favor. The 3hr penalty for being over the start line may cost Aphrodite 2nd place. Think it is time for some afternoon tunes to accompany our nice chilled out downwind sailing, I am hoping 'Surfing USA' will be more appropriate before the trip is out! All for now Cheers Ross

ARC 2016 Day 8: The Beautiful South? Been a few days since we wrote anything, been a bit busy working out what weather is up to and catching lots of fish, a Scarlet ARC 1st!

As we had assumed there has been no middle option on the weather, so we have been forced to sail down south of 13 deg N, plus side it is warm, downside, it is too hot! Other plus is the bigger fish! So far we have hooked 10fish and kept 4 of them, two mahi Mahi, 4kg and 10kg, a Wahoo at 4kg and a big fat Tuna at 13kg! The freezer is more full than at the start!

I think I have to accept the N route was likely quicker, however the risks of it outweighed the gains in my view, our strongest competitor in class is as always the Quokka, with Philippe back in the reins, we match raced each other for the first 3 days, never more than 1.5miles apart, they have optimised with a no.4 jib, ideal for when the spin is up, this is a strategy I have previously employed, however lots of jib reaching has take a toll on them, our much larger furling jib configuration proving much faster in the conditions since we were alongside.

The Northern route also required commitment to work, a few boats opting to try and get S after being North, perhaps due to one of the forecast models showing potentially 30knots wind on the nose on the N route. Only 2 in our class stuck with the uncompromised N approach and have done well out of it (Aphrodite and Palpatine). We are seperated on rating from Aphrodite by a meer 2% now, but a massive 800plus miles of Latitude!

We have some tricky conditions to deal with in the next 12hrs, and suffered a lack of wind last night, but after that we should (fingers crossed) be rewarded with a trade wind run in to St Lucia, speed will finally rise!

Those North have an apparently clearer run down, albeit in a little less wind than we should enjoy, it seems that the South may yet pay off!

Our latest weather routing showed us in the bar first followed by Quokka then Palpatine and Aphrodite, Aphrodite beating Palpatine on handicap, however as we have seen nothing is set in stone and the weather can certainly change again!

All is well on board, we have made a mini bimini to shelter from the worst of the mid day sun, sunhats and factor 50 a very much ‘de rigour’.

The last 3 nights have been clear with some awesome stars and many shooting stars as a bonus, night time temps on deck are rather pleasant, its just the midday heat that is a little hot!

Our route saw us further South than the finish line before our halfway party! That has never happened to us before! Halfway was toasted with fresh Tuna Sashimi and Taitinger Champagne (donated as usual by my amazing wife Sarah)

I expect most people will have got bored and stopped reading by now so I best sign off

Best from a rather hot and sweaty Scarlet

Ross

ARC 2016 Day 4: North South Divide Its beginning to warm up a fair bit down here, so at least the rain is warm! Speaking of rain we have already had a few biblical downpours! The temps are still a little cool to shower in these clouds, so they are quite an inconvenience, especially as they play havoc with what little wind we actually have... The Southern route on this crossing seldom proves fastest, I am sure that is the case this time too, but it is the safer option in some cases. We have somehow got a long way south with minimum penalty so far in terms of placings, infact we are currently leading our class! This is despite driving over 420miles to the south of others in our class in less favourable winds too! Even from this far South our routing keeps trying to send us North into the stronger winds, the problem is the forecast wind is rather too strong up ahead on the north route with potentially very strong head winds. These at best would be very uncomfortable, and rather slow going under storm canvass! If we want a route without 30knots on the nose, then it seems we may be well placed, it wont be a fast crossing however! I expect most of those in the North will want to avoid such conditions also, so I expect to see them make their way South quite soon, this looks a tricky job under sail alone as the wind is light and variable in the middle, it will be interesting to see how it all plays out! An interesting thing about the routing software is that it gives no concession to comfort or even saftey, purely seeking out the theoretical fastest route. Looking at the routing North for us I see it expects us to average 13knots at times, as the polar plot we are using shows 13knots when broad reaching (and surfing) in 35knots of wind, the reality is we can match our polars when driving the boat as hard as is possible, but 1000miles from land in pitch dark, no one in their right mind would ever do so! Also upwind it would expect us to make 8.5knots into 30knots (albeit not quite full upwind), the polars don't really take sea state into account, or that you would likely break something if you tried to sail that hard into the likely waves! The computer would also assume we have all 10 crew on the rail hiking, I have checked with the team, they are not sure about sleeping on the rail for 12days! Anyway enough about weather models and computer software! Things onboard are getting more settled into a routine, food has been great (Thanks to my amazing wife who flew to Las Palmas to precook all our evening meals). The first pig leg has been almost devoured, Ill keep the other one back till halfway. It is pretty hot already downstairs when we have to close all hatches in rain, we are hoping that this is not going to be a constant feature. Today (Friday) is one of our crews birthdays, I have not yet broken it to Ben that he needs to make a cake for Cristian, could be tricky with no flour, having watched a few episodes of the Great British Bake Off I feel qualified to critique any creation that is presented however! Looks like another cloud coming to 'rain on our parade' so best get kitted up to help the troops on deck. All for now from a warm and reasonably comfy Scarlet Oyster!

ARC 2016 blog 1: North or south? Morning All, Thought maybe about time to write something! Takes a while to settle into the rhythm of life onboard, so first day or two is sometimes a bit disjointed! We had a reasonable start to the race, rather crowded at the upwind committee vessel end, as boats all wanted clear air after the start, the big faster boats had the luxury of choosing a slightly more spacious spot. There was drama just 3 mins before the start with a collision between Hot Stuff and Il Cavaliere 3, very sad to see two boats races effectively over before the start signal, starboard tack Hot Stuff suffering a hole, and I guess possible structural damage from being T boned by the port tack boat, and hence forced to retire. The other boat is likely to retire, or face disqualification from the race. Fortunately it appeared that no one was injured in the collision. Our start was a little late with leeward vessels not wanting to head for the line too early, there were quite a few ahead, some a little too far ahead, with 2 boats over early. The clear air once we passed the start vessel was a bonus though and our big blue spinnaker proved the weapon of choice, allowing us to quickly establish a lead in division C, and in fact all the boats in div B on the water. The first decision to make was whether to taker the shortest route to the west or sail further South and stay in consistent wind as there was a large hole in the wind showing south of the islands, we elected to take the less risky option, as South of Tenerife looked very tricky. We have had a very close battle wit Quokka so far (these two boats seem to be attached with an invisible bungee on many races!) For the first 30hrs we were never more than 1.4miles apart! As the wind went light yesterday evening, our big blue kites flatter shape proved slightly quicker than the running kite they had and we drew ahead, we now have aboat 5 miles between us, but the gap is very stable now it seems as they use their Code zero, and we use our Asymmetric to power westwards. Now we have nice stable wind (for now!) the next big choice (in fact the decision that will define the race) is whether to head South towards the trade winds, or attempt a more direct Northerly route. The issue is that the trades are not as well defined as sometimes, and there is a good breeze showing North at first. However the North route will be less comfortable, with upwind sailing, and leaves us exposed to low pressures later on. Getting South later could also prove difficult. For the faster boats (Rambler etc.) the north option is a no brainer, they don't like sailing dead downwind anyway, it is far less clear for the likes of us! Normally this may not be such a conundrum, but in this case there is a week low pressure sucking out all the wind in the middle of the course, so once committed one way or other we will need to live with the consequences. Every weather prediction is giving a very different answer right now, if the trades do establish (as per normal) normal service will be resumed and South will pay. Philippe (Quokkas skipper) and I have more or less decided to go the same way as each other to make a race of it, it seems a lot of our class are planning to go south also. If all head South then it is an easy decision to do the same and then we are all in the same boat so to speak, a Northern passage could prove faster, but poorly executed it could prove very costly! Best look more closely at the latest weather and see what the computer thinks also. Answers to where various boats are heading will become soon clear! Bye for now from a happy ship team Scarlet!

Caribbean 600 - class winners in IRC2 and CSA2! Photo credit: Tim Wright and scarlet team

C600 Sprint to the Finish

Our final leg to the finish line off English Harbour started as we rounded Redonda Island 35 miles SW of Antigua. Redonda was named by Columbus in 1493, it is the remnant of an extinct volcano a mile long and 970 feet high. The crew need no telling that the watch system is over and everyone sits out on the rail for the six hour sprint to the finish. We are beating into a 20 knot wind and the waves are high enough so that the lead crew on the rail are thoroughly soaked at regular intervals. Never mind, crisps, biscuits and water are passed up and down the line to keep morale high.

Scarlet smashes her way through the waves and gradually the island of Antigua changes from a smudgy grey-blue line on the horizon, to a shape with edges, nearer and we begin to see green colours emerging, then pick out the boxy shape of a town, and finally identify Jolly Harbour. Near Jolly Harbour we, tack, tack and tack again closing the shore to find calmer water. Up ahead we see local hero Bernie Evans Wong on Taz driving for the finish.

As we tack round the coast of Antigua, we arrive at English Harbour, the finish line in sight, a large cruise ship is on the lay line. No stopping Ross, we cut right underneath the towering stern of the cruise ship to the delight of all the passengers on board who wave excitedly from the rear sun deck. Over the line at 17:11:12 in an elapsed time of 3 days 6 hours and 11 minutes, a very fast time as the wind never let up all the way round and we managed a swift passage through the much-feared wind shadow behind the island of Guadeloupe. Those on board who had done the Fastnet 2015 felt that the C600 2016 this year was the harder race as there was no let up in the wind all the way round.

All aches, pains, bruises, sunburn, lack of sleep, are soon forgotten as we take 1st in IRC 2 and 1st in the Caribbean Sailing Association Class 2. A night’s sleep for some, parties for others, close out Thursday. Friday night is prize-giving at the Antigua Yacht Club, and more partying with friends from other boats and swapping stories about blown spinnakers and broken or loose steering cables.

From the crew huge thanks to Ross and Mark for providing a lifetime experience in one of the most exciting yachting venues in the world. It is unforgettable!

Crew of Scarlet: Ben, David, James, Jess, Mark B, Mark E, Pedro, Ross, Simon M, Simon R, Tomas.

Scarlet RORC 600 first 450miles

Apologies for not writing anything till now, been a little busy!

Pretty tired right now after just 3 hrs sleep since start, but all is well!

Class 2 has been somewhat competitive this year, with at least 8 teams that have looked at some stage like they could prevail.

The start worked out well for us, getting away cleanly near the heavily biased ODM (Outer distance mark). My confidence was perhaps a little too high as instead of making a short tack across Quokka when we could we got a bit slow in the bay by sunken rock and had to tack out dipping Quokka.

Anyway many of the class had a go at leading on the water and handicap through the 1st day and night, with Quokka, Ballytrim, Arthur, Southern Child, Jua Kali, Team Vancouver, and of course EH01 all demonstrating they could well be the boat to beat.

I ‘cleverly’ decided to ditch the spinnaker pole to reduce our IRC rating by 12 points, however legs 2,3,4 and 6 would have all been a lot more straightforward with a pole…

We rounded Saba after leg 4 lying 8th on the water! However the good news was that no one was more than 2 miles ahead, with the starboard rail loaded with crew after a tight rounding of Saba we went on a bit of a charge, a night hiking on the rail was rewarded when we rounded St Barth’s 2nd on the water behind Quokka, there we stayed until the leg South when we were overtaken by EH01 and Ballytrim. Quokka went a little too far West, dropping her to 4th on the water.

The wind shadow of Guadaloupe this year seemed to be less slow for most, however the morning shut down of previous years did seem to affect our part of the fleet more than others, we came out just behind EH01 and with Ballytrim.

We managed to dive inside our two rivals at the saints as we turned upwind for the island of Desirade, and had a great beat North finally getting ahead on the water!

A kite hoist after the turn to the North saw us going very fast (up to 16knots) in slightly the wrong direction, after a few near wipeouts we elected to go to our trusty Jib Top and Staysail combo, bit slower but right way and somewhat more relaxed, hence I can write this!

Anyway after 60hrs with only 3 hrs sleep I am off to bed!

All the best from Ross, Mark B, Pedro, David, Simon M, Jess, Mark E, Simon R, Tom, Ben and James, not to mention our trusty stead Scarlet Oyster!

Scarlet on the run south.

Tuesday 23rd February We are now en route round St Martin’s heading east down the Anguilla Channel towards Tintamarre where we turn south for the long leg past the active volcano on Montserrat towards Guadeloupe. We have been in close company with Quokka, EH01 and Arthur Logic in our class ever since the start, so the racing is very tight.

ON Monday Ross judged the start perfectly and we hit the line at full tilt. A helicopter flew overhead filming the start. It wasn’t long before the 100 foot hyper-modern Comanche came blasting past followed by the trimaran Phaedo flying one and sometimes two hulls, with spray everywhere.

Ross decided not to use a spinnaker pole for the race and we are just using asymmetric sails. With the wind directly behind us and no pole Ross has been goose-winging Scarlet with the mainsail out one side and the asymmetric sail out the other side which makes for exciting work for the trimmers.

Last night there was a full moon so bright that none of us needed our head torches. Today is blues skies, blue water and white cumulus.

Currently we are leading our IRC 2 class and fourth in IRC overall but we still have a long way to go yet.

Simon M

Scarlet Oyster's Caribbean 600 is underway with all crew on board. After long negotiations with customs and the hiring of a low loader and a mobile crane we finally managed to get our trailer with all our sails moved from St John's to English Harbour. Last night was the Antigua Yacht Club party where one of our crew managed to exchange a Scarlet shirt for a Girls For Sail shirt. The previous night we were very kindly invited by Philip Ran to a party at the Boom Bar with excellent food and wine. Two practice sails in light winds testing various headsails and asymmetric spinnakers. Today ( Sunday) is a rest day then we start the race tomorrow at 11am, 3pm UK time. Ten boats in our class IRC2 including many old friends from last year, it will be a close race! Simon Moffat

Scarlet Enterprise Captains log Day 10 ARC 2015

Sat in front of the computer, thought I could write something to occupy myself!

It was brought to my attention a while back that our sail number 1702T is remarkably close to the registration number of the ‘Starship Enterprise allegedly '1701T’, I’ve never managed to find out if this is infact true, but if it is it may suggest we have 'warp speed’ at our disposal. I have spent 25years sailing on Scarlet, there are a couple of switches for which I have yet to find their purpose, perhaps that’s what they are for?! This warp speed would appear to be our only hope if we are to stand a chance of beating the mighty VO65 Brunel on IRC corrected time!

100’ supermaxi 'Leopard’s’ record last year rose the bar very significantly from previously, so to better that in a 'production’ 65’ racing boat is mighty impressive! It was pretty clear from the get go that they were going for it, our lead off the start line lasted under a minute, when you consider we were 30seconds ahead of them off the line, it was plain to see their speed was over double ours! Had they been able to sail across without the need to gybe back and forth (or zig zag I think is the tech term), their time could have been much much faster still.

This years ARC has enjoyed generally reliable typical trade winds, great for boats such as Scarlet, the downside for the modern planning machines is that it ensures that they can never point straight at the mark, so have to sail a lot of distance, getting up and planning does more than compensate for this however, and it seems a VO65 is more than fast enough to make up for this!

Another benefit is that it gives navigators a much larger canvas on which they can work, as they can sail their unusual VMG angle yet still get to one side or other of the course very quickly, potentially avoiding light winds and even awkward cloud systems without further distance being added to their track. Our initial routing said Starboard gybe for November and Port Gybe for december, the computer put the gybe at 2345 UT on the 30th of November, the actual has been a bit more complicated, and we have lost count of gybes now, can only tell that it is an even number as we started on port and are on port again now!

Anyway back to our warp button! All we need to do now is sail a comparatively (compared to Brunel) conservative 13kn average and the 1st overall IRC is ours for the taking, our routing is suggesting 100% polars will give us a little over 8knots (without warp), so as long as the warp speed almost doubles that pace we should be fine, any information anyone has on this would be appreciated!

It would appear we have as always to focus on our class, we appear to have a healthy lead in IRC b, to win that would be a great achievement for our team, who have all worked tirelessly over the last 10days to keep Scarlet charging forward at full (non warp) pace.

It has been quite astonishing to see the increase in skill level from the beginning to now, we now have a team of drivers trimmers and sailors that can sail the boat in total darkness in squalls with a large spinnaker without needing me to be involved! Any feedback from me now is more trying to help with subtle tricks to gain increasingly smaller increments of speed (and control!).

The downside is that I am now pretty well redundant! Mark as always does a great job running the boat, so not much to do there either, I have got better at playing Scrabble on the I pad though!

We are now 945mile from the finish line, so we are ahead of any previous passage times for Scarlet on the ARC (2011,2012,2013,2014).

Just 10 mins to the 4 hourly position report is out, at around 2 mins to the sched those off watch start to gather around the nav area to get a first glimpse of the outcome of the previous 4hrs graft, hopefully it will say we have averaged 13knots, or our target will get faster still!

Best go look for that warp button!

All for now from the happy ship team Scarlet!

Ross

Scarlet Day 10 ARC 2015

TUMBLING DICE, SHE TRIED TO TAKE ME UPSTAIRS FOR A RIDE Jach Spratt ate lots of fat And Jill ate lots of sweeties Jack's just had a heart attack and Jill has diabetes. We are passing through an active weather area which in practice meant a night in a tumbling bunk. Now I know how a cat feels which falls asleep in a tumble drier which is then switched on. The white fluffy clouds have become large cloud lines harbouring towering angry squalls which throw out savage unstable wind and projecting breaking waves which rock the wind out of the spinnaker so that we plunge and gyrate and have to work constantly on trim. At night the squalls have a thick black base and if they pass over drop a skip load of rain. A squall can shred a spinnaker so we spend hours on watch, dropping the spinnaker as necessary. Half the crew then take soapy showers in the ensuing rain. The other half, bleary eyed and sweaty, rock and roll below. They gather the spinnaker into long bundles parcelled up with laboriously tied wool. Then play a game of hunt the bag. In the dark. Stuff the kite in the bag. Just so. Then hoist again. And of we go. Singing and laughing, joking and grinding, wet and dry, then go below. It is very hot now by day. Towards sunset we are heading into the setting sun and surf a dazzling silver spangled sea. We need wind instruments and compass to steer a fast safe course and must squint furiously to read these against the sun's bright glare. Before leaving Ross sent a brief list of kit. Basically 4 shirts, 4 shorts and a lightweight waterproof top. A fleece and sailing shoes. To this at night we add a life jacket. Must go now, lunch is on the table. Al

Scarlet Day 9

MONDAY MONDAY. North versus South

I sprang to the stirrup and Joris and he, I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three.

The trade winds lie South of the Canaries at this time of the year so traditional sailing ships dived deep down South until they hit the Trade Winds proper and then sailed West pretty much dead down wind which they were good at. Many yachts in the ARC choose this course because it is generally safe and comfortable.

The disadvantage is that it is a longer distance to sail and the Great Circle route which we have broadly followed is the shortest distance. It is not without its risks including potentially difficult weather and becalming.

A modern sailing yacht like Scarlet Oyster is pretty good in most wind conditions and arguably more difficult conditions give us a better chance to beat our rivals.

After passing Tenerife we sailed slightly below and then above the direct line for a few days and have now dived down South in lighter wind conditions looking for a steady breeze to take us pretty much due West to St Lucia. Yesterday we passed the half distance mark. This is not necessarily half way on total time we will take. To celebrate this milestone we all gathered in the Cockpit for sparkling wine, music and canapes.

Our watches are still on Gran Canaria Time, ie GMT. As a result we are having breakfast as the sun rises, and supper three hours before the moon finally rises at night. Were we to carry on this way to say Indonesia via the Panama Canal we would be having lunch at midnight, breakfast at supper time etc. However we plan to stop at St Lucia wearing our red Scarlet Oyster shirts and flying a smart new headsail.

Mario writes : Scarlet Oyster is really doing great; she keeps going and even in very moderate conditions we reach more than acceptable speed. The atmosphere and spirit amongst the crew is great, due to the excellent skipper Ross and co-skipper Mark. Mark is providing the food; we are not going to loose weight!

Every four hourly race update on Yellow Brick is followed by the whole crew. Now we are doing very well but like crew-member Al said: it is not a sprint, it is a marathon! And we are going for it!.

Al concludes : We are all having so much fun that it would be painful to contemplate our journey’s end but for the knowledge a great party awaits.

Best Wishes to all our readers. Al

Scarlet Day 8 Of Mice and Men !

It must be Sunday.

For we have slipped the surly bonds of earth and dance the waves on laughter silvered wings

A 50 per cent increase in our readers, thank you Elsie Maynard of 4 Railway Cottages, Fawncett, Norfolk Aged 82, who asked “Can you tell me the difference between a jibe and a gybe, Al ? Must you jybe ? It sounds most unsavoury’.

Yes Millicent we must. A jibe pokes fun at something or some one, a barbed comment.

A jybe is how we turn corners when racing downwind, requiring teamwork to perform a myriad tasks. Ross and Sarah can do this on their own but Sarah, sadly is not here so it takes most of us and we did eleventeen last night, some better perfomed than others as Neptune sent some unruly sprite our efforts to undo.

Justin is called from his bed at rude hours to perfom mysteries at the bow with lazy guy, Michael opens the pole end, Dinko and Vitaliy release the working guy from winch, under control, and the rest of us haul sheets etc.

The penultimate gybe was hard on a messy cloud which threatened to halt us in the small hours of the morning. Since then we have had less wind in nasty rolling seas and work hard to soak West while getting South hopefully into better winds ahead.

Clouds are a frequent nuisance, causing local windshifts, unstable heavy downdraughts, compression of gradient winds ( strong gusts ) poor viz at night, angry waves and rain of course.

Our Prime Ministers office unofficially wrote

”Keep up the good work, it is always nice to hear of Grammar School boys from disadvantaged backgrounds benefiting from our free and open society.“

ARC 2015 Day 7 All fizzling and bubbling !

A big thank you to our readers who sent their comments.

Firstly an EU representative wrote ( unofficially, no names, Stefan ) “ It is great to see a cosmopolitan yacht doing so well, we are all cheering you on. A bit of good news diverts attention from the mess Finland is in with the Euro and your jobs, boys and girls are all being given to refugees, sorry, asylum seekers. Just a slight carp you are needing to work harder on your gender and ethnic mix which is not EU compliant, mandatory by next 1st April 2016.’

Our second reader Dave asked for a more technical blog ” Who wants to know what that skinny little rat Al is doing re parties and fireworks ?“

Well, we were first over our start line right alongside a warship. Doing 8 knots. A few seconds later Volvo 65 ‘Team Brunel’ with 20 crew passed through at about 20 knots. Looking mighty fine Guys. But a bit hair raising for the spectator yacht you just squeezed by!

The tactics. First do not enter the Gran Canaria wind shadow and park up. Next a judicious crossing through the 100 mile deep Tenerife wind shadow. Cut the corners if you dare ! The rhumb line on the race tracker is roughly the shortest ( Great Circle ) route. Try and identify wind holes and nasty weather further down the line and sail as fast as you can. We took it easy, dead down wind with a poled out headsail ( Goosewing ) which gave us all the chance to learn to drive, we work a minimum of three on deck through strong breeze, overcast, brilliant sun and fluctuating wind. The waves are our enemy, rolling in from our quarter, roll, pitch, plunge, screw, slam, roll, pitch, corkscrew, flip.

Day 7 and Ross actually has slept. Now our humungous spinnakers are pressing us West in light airs with a brilliant blue sky and white fluffy clouds. At nightfall we are first blinded by the setting sun and then it is pitch black, the wind howls, we ride a carpet of bubbling foam, only Ross can hope to cope on the helm. Finally after what feels like hours swooping through the pitch black a near full moon rises behind us and we can see again.

Yaw, heave ” Grind, grind, GRINNDD “ Rattle rattle, slide, swerve, rock and roll. Tell a joke, eat chocolate, split apples with our bare hands. Go below. Thank goodness. Flop into a bunk. Snore loudly. Some of us. Croatia has applied to the Olympic Organising Ctee for snoring to be an Olympic sport. Wake up. Laugh, we’re having such fun. . ” Hello Guys , fancy seeing you here.“

Repeat endlessly. Sorry, Dave, that wasn’t very technical was it ?

Yours, Al

Day 5 Scarlet ARC 2015, Rhumb line to the Rum!

Friday. Mid Atlantic.

And its a big welcome to all our readers. Its been a bit full on for me since flying out to Las Palmas so here goes with my first blog. This is the thirtieth ARC as every winter ship loads of Yachties head south to blue skies, Parties, fireworks and Trade Winds.

Normally by now Jack Frost has rapped his icy knuckles on the window panes and snow mantles the Highlands. As a result of global warming this has been the hottest November in living memory. Property spivs are marketing small vineyards for development in the Antartic.

We are a cosmopolitan crew. A big crew. Plenty of time in a deck chair for little old me. Reading a book. Meanwhile Vitaly, our Russo Canadian singlehandledly sends sails flying up the mast pulled in equally powerfully by our Croatian, Dinko. Mario from Venlo is a tower of strength. Another big friendly giant he misses his wife and daughters but his fellow countryman Michael is brilliant company particularly during those long night watches.

Mark is very cool, with his own “ Team Burton, Sailing Legend ” tee shirt. He also has a pet dinosaur, Dino who wowed the crowds in Las Palmas and watches our every move on deck. He cooks up a regular storm in the galley, so because we are not having to work very hard, we have all put on weight.

Apart from Ross, of course, who is a very svelte 16 stones. Sometimes Ross can be a bit hyperactive. But we just took his batteries out and he accepted a bet he could chill out for the whole race.

Our Bowman, Justin is also British, when its raining and waves are breaking over the fordeck, we are rocking and rolling, he looks very debonair. As waves pour down his neck he shoots me a wry smile !

Tijs is a busy Belgian, he loves all the jobs. We have some seriously large kites on board and Tijs would like to fly them 2 at a time. I have to fight him and Michael and Dinko for quality time on the helm but always manage to hand over to him just when things get tricky. Well apart from my broach which soaked everyone, of course.

Leaving the best til last there is Charlotte. She throws herself into everything with high energy and skill. She is super compoany and pretends not to notice when we step out of line. Ross of course is famous for the good natured cameraderie he encourages on board and we are having a ball.

Day 4 Scarlet ARC 2015, Rhumb line to the Rum!

Finally found time to get some words down! Been a mixture of reasons for this poor display of blogging, one of course is that Simon is not onboard this race we miss him, but I am pleased to report he has plans to sail with us again soon! Another reason is it has been slightly busy settling into routine at sea, I have found time to sleep a lot tho! The main reason is I mislaid the piece of paper with the email address to send this too so it ends up on the site as a Scarlet blog, having found it I can confirm it is exactly the same address as last year (and probably the 3 before that too!).

Anyways all is well on the good ship Scarlet, the start seems a month ago already, but as I recall we started 2 seconds off the line, several lengths clear ahead! Start as you mean to go on I suppose! We had an exciting sail under A7 spinnaker down to the wind acceleration SW of Gran Canaria zone, surfing along at 17knots at times! Once in the acceleration zone we got the spinnaker down before anything terrible happened to it (I’m learning it seams!) Several gybes under poled out no.3 kept us busy but significantly inshore of the fleet so as the wind bent around the island we sailed less distance, after flirting with the wind shadow we were off on our merry way, still poled out as the wind was gusting to 30kn at times, our plan to get a little South paid of as the effect of the big wind shadow of Tenerife barely slowed us.

Since then it has been a bit repetitive with kite hoists followed by drops for clouds and 30plus squalls, one spinnaker has been sacrificed to Neptune (environmentalists will be pleased to hear we fished it all out the ocean, regular crew will be pleased to hear it was one that nobody liked!), our remaining 4 kites are being preserved as much as possible till the wind and sea stabilises!

The 4 hr position updates ensures we use plenty of Sat credit, but not to worry these things are not as expensive as they used to be to run! This really brings the race to life for us, and I know many following at home! Also enables us to manage our routing taking into account the whole of our class, there is quite a spread of the 18 boats so this is getting harder to cover every move!

We were very saddened to hear that little ‘Duffy’ was dismasted this morning, relieved to hear all are ok, I know only too well what that must feel like, 'gutted’ does not come close…. 'Duffy’ took part and completed this years challenging 'Rolex Middle Seas Race’, they are clearly a tough crew, notably they received an award on that event for standing by another competitor in difficulties in challenging weather, they should have been entitled to better luck. I wish them a safe passage under motor back to the Cannaries, we are still tracking their progress that is now updated hourly on yellow brick, 'Marlene F’ diverted to give them 180l of fuel, nice touch guys.

All for now

I’ll try and write something again soon

Night night from Scarlet Oyster!

Ross

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