Well, yesterday we did not get far. At 9:15am this morning we were at 17’39.96′ N, 42’12.451’W.
We made up some ground in stronger winds during the night. The GPS puts us 1096nm before we site land.
Just dumb luck, as most things in life are.
The weather forecasted more steady north easterly winds to push us south westerly. Instead the winds died, only making a feeble attempt at a south easterly wind. We folded the head sails over each other on the starboard (right) side and attempted to sail south with the wind on the stern quarter. The winds finally freshened and turned back to north easterly just before midnight.
I should warn anyone doing this crossing to have ‘back up’ running rigging. We used up most of our ‘spare’ lines for forward and stern preventers in setting up the ‘poor man’s’ twin headsail arrangement. Last night, when doing our usual inspection of rigging, we found that one of the blocks had been wearing on the furling line. We did not have a replacement line of the right diameter free. So instead we have stolen the base line for the cruising shot for now. We also replaced the damaged block. You can not have enough spares of those either.
I asked my Uncle Steve to look into my ‘special status’ as a dog crossing the Atlantic in a personal sail boat. I thought ‘lots if people cross the Atlantic in there own boat, look at how many subscribe to the ARC, but how many dogs do it?’
What he came up with but the whole Atlantic crossing thing back into perspective.
Here is what he sent me:
Its seems that taking a dog across the Atlantic is far more common place than not.
Other transatlantic records.
In 1969, Briton John Fairfax became the first person to row across the Atlantic single-handed.
In 1952, Frenchman Alain Bombard made the first crossing in a rubber dingy
In 1988, another Frenchman, Remy Bricka, took 64 days to “ski” across the Atlantic on polyester floats.
Guy Delage also holds the record for the first transatlantic crossing in a microlight, in 1991.
In August, three North American “artists” accompanied by their three dogs successfully sailed across the Atlantic in a 50ft boat constructed entirely from junk.
On Tuesday, British windsurfer Jason Gilbert completed a 2,200-mile, three-man journey from Newfoundland to Dorset. “The first thing I want to do now is go for a pint,” he said.
First thing I will want to do is go for a run…..then the pub!
- SOA Day 12
