Date: 05/12/2009 14:09:23

Latitude: 15.23
Longitude: -54.32

Daily Log Number 13, ARC 2009, Saturday 5th December. 1240 UTC
Position: 15.23N 54.32W

This morning's log marks a very sad occasion for me, the last owner and current skipper of Northern Child. Last night I lost an old and trusted friend; I know it's inevitable, life passes and life goes on in his absence. One can only hope that the big American spinnaker is floating around somewhere, together with the blue and yellow spinnaker, in spinnaker heaven! What are you going on about, skipper? I am sorry to report the demise of the trusty Big American spinnaker. In the darkest part of the night, a nameless watch had what is commonly called in the trade a clusterf..k. The result of said incident, after 20 minutes of retrieving bits of sail from the ocean, is that the American is no more. No longer shall his bright red, blue and white colours lead us forward, dancing over the ocean waves. No longer will he guide us along our moon-path to St Lucia. The American special relationship with Northern Child is at an end. Farewell friend. Rest in Peace

A fitting send off for a trusted friend, don't you think? There is always good news as well, and the good news is that no one was injured, we are still heading for St Lucia, the sun is out and it is 29 degrees centigrade at the chart table already at 0830. Of the three spinnakers we are carrying, two have fallen by the wayside in the last couple of days and so we were nervous about flying another one last night. The consequence of having a comfortable, stress free night is that we have lost some miles on the opposition. I have to get back from current, preserving the boat mode, to pushing hard mode and at the moment it's not happening; instead we're enjoying breakfast on deck in the sunshine watching the waves rushing by. I'm sure that if I smoked cigars, it would be one of those sit back, chill out cigar moments. I don't, so breakfast it is instead. 

As I write this the sun has been up for an hour and we have just crossed the 400 mile to St Lucia mark. With a couple more good days runs, we should be able to nail this on Monday - pretty good really. My personal objective is just to try and get the crew across the finish line in the light if possible, as it so much nicer to approach the Island during the day. To us, having sailed 2,300 miles to get here, the remaining 400 miles don't seem that far, but the reality is that it is still five times the cross channel distance from the Hamble to Cherbourg. The winds look set good for the remainder of the trip, and in fact what we on Northern Child are now looking for is good, strong winds to have a really strong run in to the finish. There is the prospect of increasing winds in the next 24 hours, so fingers crossed.

Having finished the brief resume's of the rest of the motley crew, it's time for me. I'm 39 years old again (not likely, someone's muttering, plus 7 is more like it...) and married to Magali with two boys, Pierre and Max; without a doubt the best thing I've ever done. I went to Sandhurst Military Academy as a youngster, served in the British Army for six years and have been sailing professionally for the last 22. In 2001, my French wife, Magali and myself decided to buy Northern Child and have run her around the Atlantic circuit every year since: winter in the Caribbean, early summer in the UK and late summer in the Mediterranean. This is my 13th ARC Rally from Las Palmas to Barbados and more recently St Lucia. A year ago we sold Northern Child to Christian and Lucy and I am continuing the boat handover with them, whilst Magali looks after the bookings of clients from our home office in France.

Wheels and pilot Steve have an unlikely story, but I shall repeat it anyway.... bear in mind whilst reading this that Steve is a pilot. During one of their  night watches they saw what they first of all considered to be a falling star in the infinity of space, but as it changed colour from white to orange to red, they realised it was a meteorite and it was  going to splash down pretty close to the boat. The object disintegrated as it neared the surface of the sea and they estimated the splash down within a mile of the boat.  Of course my first question to them was ‘what happened to the little green men....’

I am delighted to be able to report that we have had a big improvement with Steve’s eye this morning, which obviously is a huge relief to both Steve and myself. Doctor Julian will continue the treatment for another 24 hours, and we will review the situation again tomorrow morning.

Despite our trials and tribulations we have covered 179 miles in the last 24 hours towards St Lucia and now have 380 miles left to run.  If everything goes okay from now on, a big if (!), we could arrive in daylight on Monday. A bientot, Julian, Northern Child.