The Atlantic crossing on Emily Morgan was an amazing trip. With a crew of eight we set off from Las Palmas on 22 Novermber, to much celebration and a real party atmosphere. We pushed off about 11am, to an overcast and windy day and crossed the start line about 1.05pm. The watch system started that evening at 6pm, with 3 hours on and 6 hours off.
The first few days saw some heavy weather and we made good progress in some heavy seas, with large swells. We managed to catch three dorado (mahi mahi) over three days, which provided two tasty meals. We had one minor drama, when coming on watch at 6am on 25th November: Andy and Matt had noticed a green flashing light in the water. We executed the man overboard drill and managed to reach the object, which turned out to be a dan buoy with fishing buoys attached, a rather odd sight so far out, but a great relief to see it was not a person.
The wind began to drop on 27th and 28th when we finally managed to put the spinnaker up.
Later in the morning on the 28th we received a call for assistance from Seabee. They were having rudder problems and needed some expoxy and fibreglass to repair it. We came alongside and transferred the equipment they needed in a dry bag. When it was returned it was full of ice cold beer, so our dry boat enjoyed a rare treat that lunch time.
The wind died completely Saturday evening, so we put the engine on and motored for a while, until the winds returned on 1st December. Thereon in we had good E/ESE winds and continued to make good progress with the spinnaker and the large genoa.
On 3rd December, as dinner was being served, an egret arrived on our starboard side, exhausted. It didn't move from its spot until the following morning when we had to shake out a reef in the main. Having been disturbed, it took off, but landed on the aft deck and remained with us for a further 5 days, slowly regaining its strength, drinking water, eating what fish we had and generally being extremely inquisitive. Our 9th crew memeber left us sometime overnight on 8/9th December.
On 7th December, we finally caught a much longed for tuna, which we enjoyed the following night.
We finally crossed the finishing line on Thursday 10th December at 6.34am, just after daylight. Great to be back on dock. A great welcome from the ARC team and St Lucia Tourist board, rum punches, fruit basket and a bottle of Chairman's Reserve St Lucia Rum, and a lovely bottle of fizz from Thomas on Lilleth.