Milanto is nearly at Elba on her way to Viareggio for the big party.
"Save The Nerd" is reaching Viareggio: come and welcome the crew!
11 June at 17:30 in UTC+02
Porto Nuovo, Viale Europa, 1, 55049 Viareggio
You were invited by Selvaggia Mannelli
You can update Milanto's position via the live map on marinetraffic.com/en
Speed: 6.7 knots @ 254.87° Speed: 6.7 knots @ 250.54°
Position at: 02 Dec 2013 08:00 UTC Position at: 02 Dec 2013 16:00 UTC
DTF: 1723.4 NM DTF: 1670.5 NM
Lat/Lon: 23° 53.04 N, 032° 50.77 W Lat/Lon: 23° 38.44 N, 033° 46.21 W
4th in Racing B 4th in Racing B
Sailing towards the sunset
With the weather improving, time to do the washing!
As the sea finally started to calm down and the winds dropped to around 20 knots late Day 7, we secured an extra birthday gift for Vale by way of catching a monster fish. Another Dorado, it was huge. John E expertly landed it into the safe hands of John 'the buthcher/fishmonger/don't look under the new patio' Lobek, who clinically attended to it before passing it on to Gianni to work his culinary genius.
We enjoyed an excellent meal, relieved at last that Day 8 would be calmer. Indeed that night was uneventful; no major squalls, a mere smattering of rain, no high seas, and a decent nights sleep around the watch rota. This morning was bright and sunny and we have taken advantage of the relatively flat sea to attend to those duties impossible during the gale. Cleaning the cabin, washing floors and, most importantly, washing clothes. The sea is rich with plankton which may be good news for whales, but, get it on your clothes, which you cant avoid when several hundred gallons have poured over the deck in the last week,and you end up smelling like a well matured Gorgonzola. This afternoon we threw the spinnaker up and with winds dropping down to +/- 15 knots, we are keen to maintain our 7/8 knot speed through the night. So it will be a tiring one but at least in less dramatic circumstances than before. News from ARC control suggests we have moved up the running order and with our nose pointing directly to St Lucia,we are focused on a strong finish.
Speed: 7.3 knots @ 248.97°
Position at: 01 Dec 2013 20:00 UTC
Lat/Lon: 24° 15.21 N, 031° 22.55 W
DTF: 1809.0 NM
4th in Racing B
Looks like they are finally out and on the other side, speeding along with the wind on their side
Please read the update on Day 7 -a three day blog rolled into one due to the weather
Will hopefully update Day 8 tomorrow!
for a comment re the weather here is a link to the ARC Rally website
Still not that warm.............
...........but no shortage of fresh fish. A lovely dorade for supper.
For regular readers of this column, apologies for the tardy posting of updates, but frankly it has difficult to sit down and write. we have now experienced 3 days and 3 nights of Gale force conditions. Gusts of up to 25 knots turned into wind speeds consistently in the mid 30's and gusts up to 40 knots The sea produced waves up to 4m high, and numerous back to back squalls threw bucket loads of rain down on us. Below deck is like being in a tumble drier - where nothing dries. As the boat pitches through 90 degrees getting into bed is a challenge, let alone staying in it or getting any sleep. On deck is like being in a washing machine, water constantly being thrown in your face after every spin, and in between, multiple sail changes working against the strong winds sapping energy.But its not all bad! We caught a fine fish day 5, a dorado, and today, day 7, Vale's birthday, we ate it, washed down with a fine bottle of , er, Cava.It made a fine luncheon for 6. Another triumph for Gianni's kitchen.
This morning we tacked and are now on direct route to St Lucia. We are hoping this run of very bad weather will be behind us by this evening and we will get the chance to do some housekeeping and sleeping......when we finally dry out.But spirits are high. Milanto takes everything thrown at her in her stride, carving her way through a tempestuous ocean, and we are in excellent hands with Vale as our skipper. Clearly he is a seasoned sea dog, with another year under his belt today.
John gets the big one!
Speed: 6.6 knots @ 283.22°
Position at: 30 Nov 2013 16:00 UTC
Lat/Lon: 24° 21.72 N, 028° 39.91 W
DTF: 1949.5 NM
Speed: 6.9 knots @ 259.81°
Position at: 29 Nov 2013 16:00 UTC
Lat/Lon: 24° 0.95 N, 025° 52.19 W
DTF: 2099.0 NM
25 kn of wind, rain and lots of clouds -so everyone is down below watching the movie Snatch and having a good time! Luckily a small modification means that the oven can be used so lasagne is back on the menu.
Later that night: in the centre of a squall - everyone on board wide awake.Now that some stars are out one of the crew confess that he is no longer a squall virgin -something to be proud of !? The waves are going down a bit, but the wind is still on the nose -where have the trade winds gone to is what I want to know? We're heading north west in the hope of coming out of the other side of the depression . All on board with a glass of wine in hand and another movie of the screen.
