Date: 28/11/2009 12:40:30

Latitude: 21.55
Longitude: -34.09

Daily Log Number 6, ARC 2009, Saturday 28th November. 1240 UTC

Everything ends up changing: grass gets longer, leaves fall off the trees, I get older. Some things don't: in this case the breeze. Wow, we have been so lucky, it's just unimaginable that here we are finishing day six in essentially exactly the same winds as when we started back in Las Palmas. Winds from the north east at 15 - 20 knots, sometimes a few knots lighter, sometimes a few knots more, up to 25. What does this mean to those of you who perhaps have never sailed a boat in your lives? Perfection! Simple. If God had sat me down on the dock in Las Palmas and said, 'Julian, Old Man (well, being God and kind he might have said Young Man) what can I do for you regarding winds in the next week?' I could only have replied 'God, that's really kind of you, north east 15 - 20 will do just fine'. You get the idea. Which also leads me to the inevitable conclusion about the existence of God. Religious scholars can stand aside, I've solved it, existence has been proved.
 
Now where was I? Oh Yes, on board Northern Child heading westward across the Atlantic. You can probably tell from the above that conditions have been extraordinary yet again and we have just had the most amazing continuing daily runs towards St Lucia. I am not sure we are going to break any records because there is still a huge way to go, but we have been consistently reeling off 8 knots over the ground really since we departed Las Palmas. We had a spot of light, pretend rain for 10 minutes during the night, but apart from that the rain has stayed away completely.
 
Back to reality and our featured character for today, pilot Steve. Character is the right way to describe Steve - if only half the stories are true then he's led a fairly full life! Steve is a young 54, doesn't actually believe that he's 54 at all, married to Anne with two children, John and Rebecca and is a corporate private pilot. Currently flying a sparkling new Global 5000 with evidently a great team that he respects and enjoys being with, Steve is based in the Mediterranean. Living the life of the rich and famous, Steve considers he's just doing a driving job with good food... A Hobie cat sailor in the Gulf, Steve counts himself as a novice sailor and says his house is covered in pictures of boats, not planes! Having flown over the Atlantic too many times to mention and seen the sailboats below, Steve was chatting with Al in the plane who knew of his sailing ambitions, and who suggested doing the ARC with Northern Child. Reason's given were  so that he could experience big seas and the potential solitude of ocean sailing. Steve's other great passions  are fly fishing and biking, he owns an R6 and a Fireblade, and both of these activities would inevitably point him towards solo sailing sometime in the future. 'Every day that goes by', says Steve, 'I just love it more and more.' 
 
 
Pilot Steve
The chart table is by the main hatch leading on deck and I just had a lovely exchange with our Finnish crew member, Juha. 'Hi, how are you doing Juha?' Juha replies: 'Good, Very good! Couldn't be better!' That's what we like to hear. 
 
Today the moon has to have an honourable mention in the log. Take a look outside the window tonight, wherever you are, and if it's a clear night take a long look at it; now imagine us sailing along, all alone in the middle of the Atlantic, but sailing over a magic sea, every wave illuminated by the rays of the almost full moon, almost light enough to read by.  You look at it, we look at it, connection. Distance has been reduced to nothing, to infinity, we're under the same moon. Life's good.
 
We stormed through the 1,000 miles sailed barrier Friday evening, and now have our sights firmly set on the half way mark, or 1,350 miles from Las Palmas. If the winds stay up and progress continues like this we should reach half way by Sunday evening where, upon reaching this goal, we will deserve a little celebration! The only slight blip on the horizon is an emerging trough ahead of us, and I will be keeping a close eye on how this will affect our progress over the next few days. Normally we would expect decreasing winds and a change in direction, but let's see. 
 
We have sailed another 193 miles towards St Lucia in the last 24 hours, yet another solid, consistent run. Just short of the 200 mile mark, it is nevertheless noteworthy because it is yet another day's run at 8 knots over the ground towards St Lucia. We have our small Finnish spinnaker up at the moment (white and light blue) and we are rocking and rolling our way through the waves and swells towards Spinnaker's Bar.
All's well on board, a bientot, Julian, Northern Child