Position           37:34.69N 075:18.58W

Date                2359 Saturday 17 September 2011

The excitement of watching the degrees of latitude increase as we travelled north is being replayed back to front as we head south.  Sunny south it was not as the day became increasingly grey and cold, but the wind returned firstly allowing us to motor sail and then at noon to set all plain sail and reach away.  I was at last able to prove to Sid that this was a proper sailing boat.  The smile says it all:

On the wild life front we had a brief visit from porpoise and then a thump on the cockpit roof announced big foot arriving – incoming seagull decided that we were a good perch, even of we were doing 6 knots with 12 knots of wind up the stern:

And, yes, it did do what seagulls do best, after the photo and before the bucket of water.

The wind was very much up the stern for most of the evening but we were able to gybe onto a port tack with the hope that the wind would continue to veer to give us a faster reach to the finish.  Oh and it stopped raining.

We have got to get in tomorrow as I have run out of bolognaise and ideas!  Come back Mate all is forgiven.