Martinique arrivals
The friendly spirit of the Atlantic Odyssey showed itself again today as the first boats to finish, Mahe 3 and The Larrikin, decided to cross the finish line together at 09:00 local (13:00 UTC).
Om
Anita:
Yet another sticky hot day at sea… more salt water showers! As Tosca’s saying goes; “I feel so sticky and gross!!”.
During the night, we had a nice blow of wind, pushing us at about 6.5 knots with Parasailor, but later we were forced to take it in, as wind changed direction, so up came the gennaker.
More clouds today, but we view them as a happy relief… days with much sun and little wind makes the air stick to you like glue. Our little “verandah” is fully open, hoping to invite in the little breeze to our working cooks in the kitchen (looks like chocolate cake again today).
We began the day with an adrenaline rush, when after breakfast we noticed that the fishing line was pulling…
Everyone rushed on deck, eyes popping, finally! Our fish had arrived! We still don’t know what kind it is, looks very much like a snapper only grey/green in color, about 30cm long. Not exactly a 1000 tuna, but if you looked at our grins, you would think that that was exactly what we caught!
After the fish was gutted and put in the fridge for tonight, engines started up, and somewhere amongst this joy and confusion… the fishing line got caught in the propeller.
Well, all I can say is that we are all safe, and Christian only got away with a red rash around his torso from the rope he was tied onto. Luckily, we are in the calmest kind of weather, with only about half a meter swells, and our hero, Christian (aka, BIG MAMA), freed the line.
In the mean time, we had passed the 50 degree line of longitude… time to deploy our drifter buoy!!
We should be arriving in Martinique in approximately 4 days. This thought provokes all kinds of emotion throughout the crew, as it also marks the end of our beautiful adventure. I think we would all like to just keep sailing… but just because this adventure is over, doesn’t mean that we can’t begin a new one! First, we all have to go back to our lives; families and friends… and then well, we shall see. 🙂
In the mean time… we all look on to the horizon, waiting to see what will come.
Gazel Rebel
Les tâches à bord
La nuit s’est écoulée sans encombres, bonne VMG malgré le pilote automatique que nous avons licencié…
Du coup nous nous répartissons différemment les fonctions de notre bateau que nous gérons comme une petite entreprise.
Chairman of the Board and Managing Director: Damien Chambolle. Also a member of the Board of Ethics and Hygiene. For fun: Cokemaker in a steel company.
Member and administrator of the Nautical Club Miramas. His favourite line: “spi in the morning spi in the afternoon spi at night”.
Member of the board and COO, Antoine Cassard-Lafon is also Cooking Specialist, Food Control Supervisor and probably a mole from the FDA. Leading a research program about “Low fat and vitamin diet for 50 year old males”. Preparing a book on flying fish sushis. Real job: specialist of single, two, and multi-parental family in Paris (France). Motto: “no sport”.
Pierre Mondain-Monval is Member of the Board, Head of IT Department, Chief of the Dish Washing Research Group. Currently, he is applying for the title of “the man who runs everywhere on an 8.50 meter long boat”. His favourite words: “no fail no gain”. In real life, he tells others how to do what he never does himself (obviously Consultant).
Stay tuned!!
Papy Jovial
Coming in
The spinnaker (actually a gennaker) was successfully set up yesterday at 5:20 p.m. UT. Since then JP, Arthur and myself took turns at the helm. Arthur [autopilot] needs constant adjustment with the wind changing constantly in direction and force. This morning we are 669 n.m. from the finish line. The weather is nice with few clouds, hot sun but still enough swell to make us roll heavily. We can still, if the wind picks up, arrive on the 8th, more probably on the 9th.
Yesterday JP redid the gas connections and made the stove work properly. He cooked a rib
of 2,2 pounds which was delicious. As for drinks before meals, we ran out of Ricard, Cassis (for the kir) rum went a long time ago except for one shot that we kept for the first one to see land. But we still have enough wine, red and white, to take us to the finish.
You can see the position of the boats on the tracking map. The weather forecast is here
