23:25 Friday 28^th May 2010

Report on behalf of Roger – details gathered in a SatPhone call at 18:43 this evening.

First of all he wanted to express his most sincere thanks to everyone that arrived at the start to support him and see him off.  He was amazed to see so many of you there, in his own words, “thank them for turning out.”  In fact there were 22 in the contingent, having travelled variously from Moscow, Dublin, Cambs, Yorks, Berks, Beds, Hants and Somerset. 

He was particularly pleased that those of you on the spectator boat noticed his deliberate error as he was leaving the marina and “advised” him with huge shouts of “You’re going the wrong way!!”  (Actually, he did know which way the sea was...!)

And so to the voyage to date.. (In his own words)

I’m sure you all saw the excitement at the start, I had an enjoyable tussle with John (Fluffy) – though it was all getting a bit “close quarters.” 

I discovered fairly quickly that I had an unwelcome stowaway onboard Ella Trout 3, in the shape of a virulent cold virus.  It has been a little debilitating and so some priorities have had to be established.  These are (i) keep the boat going, (ii) navigate, (iii) eat and (iv) sleep; everything else, including non-essential communications, has had to take a lower priority.

From the start it was relatively quiet and I had the gennaker flying until 20:00 on Monday evening.   My focus on Monday and Tuesday was just to keep ET3 going and get some rest (and sleep).

Thursday 27^th brought zero wind, ET3 was becalmed so we drifted and I got four hours sleep. 

Lulls before storms of course!  What followed was a Force 7 with 40 knot winds; but by early Friday evening it had dropped to a Force 5 or 6.

When I have time and feel a bit better, there are three or four stories I will write up, the most noteworthy of which was almost being run down by a fisherman!

ENDS.