Date               Place                 Notes

21/11/10       27 02N15 41W     Sunday The day we had been waiting for was here, a year of aiming for this day and now we all awoke knowing we were finally going, scarily we all felt pretty well prepared and all we could think to do was buy a spare fan belt and a light bulb for the saloon before slipping lines and saying a sad farewell to Jennifer, Ashley’s wife. As we queued to leave the harbour we all felt an amazing sense of excitement, the crowd cheering us all on from the harbour wall, boats all heading out towards the start line and the morning rain passing to give us a sunny start. We opted for an uncharacteristic ‘sensible’ approach to the start, no spinnaker just reaching on ‘white’ sails at around 6-7knots and getting the final gun, (well feeble voice on the radio) just as we approached the line, perfect. We were off!

                                                  Competition got the better of us and we hoisted the spinnaker after an hour and sailed up through the fleet pursuing Sulana, our friends on an Oyster 56 who flew full spinnaker and staysail and were hard to catch. Spinnaker down for cocktails and a goose-winged set up with the pole for the night coming around onto 220 degrees. Fantastic Chicken pie for dinner, Phaedra had made earlier and Jody prepared and served. Excellent, followed by ‘Back to the Future’ and our first round of night watches, under a bright full moon and clear skies. What a beautiful afternoon and evening sail, let’s hope it will all be like this.