Skip to main content

Halfway!

A massive milestone was conquered today! We have passed our halfway point
between the Canaries and Bermuda; as of 1700 GMT today we have sailed 1438
miles since the start line off the canaries, and have 1342 still to go!

A calm and muggy day today. Red watch made themselves useful by scrubbing
the decks of salt, crumbs, marshmallows and hot chocolate left over from
many night watches, onwhich much sugar is consumed.

We are continuing to drop, check and hoist spinnakers every 12 hours as
chafe of ropes has become our nemesis. Mother watch now have spinnaker
wooling added in amongst their preparation of breakfast and dinner, today
some excellent pancakes were made by Minna, despite having a wet sail to
deal with being passed through the galley. The main has been up for 8 days
solid and strong! No more climbing the rigging for now.

Happy hour today was a double whammy of halfway celebrations, us being half
way across the Atlantic, and Roz reaching half way to 50 years old! After an
excitement of birthday cake (Roz almost managed to blow out the 25 candles
before the wind got there first) and cans of coke almost cool from the aft
cabin bilges, the moment was chosen to crack out the mystery box. A treasure
trove of sugar disguised in various forms, including much anticipated lemon
curd. Also intriguingly a 'magic sponge', which Toby the mascot is now
guarding, and a children's colouring book.

We are currently ahead of Vahine and Spaniel on handicap, and will ensure to
keep it that way! Now that Bermuda is within reach, we have set up wagers
for our arrival time; after battling to get bets in by the hour, some became
more optimistic than others, we hoping to get there for Bermuda Day on the
26th.

Thought for the day: Humans are 90% water - we are basically cucumbers with
anxiety (albeit sea cucumbers).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

You can't escape the dentist, even mid-Atlantic...

An interesting start to New Year's day aboard Rona II. The dawn light
enabled a field dental practice to open for a short time on the aft deck.
Watch Officer George Hopkins, after walking head first into a spinnaker pole
last night came off with a chipped tooth. After a night of discomfort his
Watch Leader and newly qualified dentist Sam Wareing took to the tooth with
an emery file to curb the sharp edge. At the other end of the hierarchy the
Mongol deputy Director of Renewable Resources has been suddenly fired from
his post on allowing a tin can to fall into the bilge, the height of
incompetence in his line of work and the last straw adding to a string of
minor offences.

The effects of a post Christmas comedown hasn't affected the standing of
Rona II in the race, holding first in class and sixth in the fleet overall.
With the Mayans back on mother watch; breakfast was churned out and squared
away within the hour leaving time for Mate, Andy Wright, to present a short
lecture o…
Post a Comment
Read more

Rona II blog 23rd Aug 2017

> Disaster strikes! After arriving in the visitor marina of Le Havre at
> 0430,
> Rona II drove over a stray rope which had been left in the water.
> This tangled around the propeller, causing the Skipper to call for the
> anchor to be dropped a mere 10 metres from our intended mooring position.
> The crew then had to inflate the rubber dinghy and set world class rower
> Theo Darlow to take a line to shore where himself and Dr Sam Wareing
> pulled
> the boat in.
>
> In the morning, the afterguard set off to find a commercial diver to cut
> the
> rope free from the propeller. They located a man named Patrick, who
> arrived
> to the scene of the incident at about 1500 donning full scuba gear; he
> quickly got into the water and began working away at the stern of Rona II.
> After roughly 45 minutes of fishing bits of rope from the marina water,
> the
> crew saw Patrick emerge victorious. Angus Elliman used his bilingual
> …
Post a Comment
Read more

Blog Post - 2017-04-10

The day started in Dieppe with the first #runtheatlantic run of the trip - nobody was persuaded  to join him, so the mate did 6k on his own. While he did his run, a shore party picked up some croissants and pains-au-chocolate.

A chap approached Rona II, and then someone called Charlie to come up on deck, assuming it was a dockmaster. Charlie said 'bonjour monsieur, Ca Va' etc. etc. [essentially being envious of Harry's french skills which he used last night to call the harbour over the VHF]. The guy turned out to be the english skipper of the next door yacht and said 'you are really getting into the speaking french thing!' and then asked about Rona, so we explained to him about the project and the tall ships race.

The crew got in the 3 S's - to be clear - Showers, Shopping and Sightseeing, while the afterguard went for a quick coffee ashore, along with Toby the ship's mascot. For readers less versed in the terms we use - 'Afterguard' means basi…
Post a Comment
Read more