59:59.91N 01:07.67W

Wednesday 16 june

            Left Bergen in sun and in shorts ! …..220 days of rain a year ..so we need to make the most of the sun

            A 3 hour motor to the starting area between two lighthouses

            A bit of practice, a quick lunch and we start at 1pm – a clean start on the line – but its only 5 knts of wind - upwind

            The X41 Wolfpack is fast and so are several other smaller boats – this is not ideal conditions for us

            We get the first big shift right – but the X is already 1 mile ahead !

            The forecast is for the wind to increase – tomorrow morning

            We have to bear away 800m behind a seismic survey ship that is towing survey gear 4Km behind the ship

            BUT – it has taken us to the right side of the course for the next shift

            Which happens when im asleep – we are having 1 hr on 1 hr off – and that’s working well

Thursday 17 june

            The wind increases through the day – and we are on a long port beat

            So its hard work with all on the rail all day

            Jan is checking the fleet tracking at 2 hr intervals via the sat phone – good moral building news

            We have moved up the fleet on overall from 11 th up to the top 5 – but wolfpack is away 1 hour ahead

            Approaching the Shetlands we get a big left hand shift and tack onto starboard – and fetch into the final approach

            With winds blowing 25 knts we finish at 10pm …..1 hr behind wolfpack – the next boat behind has 3 hrs to go

            There is a BIG party going on in the tent next to us ….time for a drink – just as the bar closes at 11pm

            BUT the bar in the lerwick boat club closes at 1pm ……..time for a few drinks

            Well done to all the crew !

Friday 18 june

            A late start after a deep sleep – its blowing 30knts and now most boats have come in

            Time for a look around lerwick – the shetland festival, the museum

            We get the results 4 th overall and 2 nd in class – also it show lots of the faster boats have been DNF – out of time limit

            And we realise that we only finished 13 mins inside our time limit – lucky

            Next ……..time for another England match in the local pub – the local scots take great pleasure in the poor England performance

            Time for some more drinks and a spot of dancing in both the Shetland festival tent and the packed boat club

And another late night