Dear All,

I’m so sorry for the delay in writing this update. Since Niall and James stopped moving very soon after I posted the last update, I spent most of last week emailing people trying to find out what was going on so I could give a more informed update. However, it wasn’t until the end of the week that I had some firm information by which point I ran out of time to update the blog before I had to go away for the weekend!

However, there is now good news at last!

Niall and James were stopped in their tracks for 78 hours last week due to a big storm and then bad (slow) weather system – a glass mill pond as Mission Atlantic put it, with no wind and no waves to help push them along, which appeared to have affected them more than the other boats around them, although the other boats were drastically slowed too...the knowledge that other boats weren’t moving very fast certainly helped the worry factor for the Komale supporters as it meant it was more to do with the weather than a personal problem with Komale. That doesn’t mean that we weren’t considerably worried however, especially as the other boats seemed to be moving a bit...and I can’t imagine what Niall and James’ parents have been through while being out in Antigua waiting for them – so close, yet not there! It has been a very stressful week. To make matters worse, Woodvale seemed impossible to get hold of, even though many of us tried emailing and phoning. Without the satellite phone nor the laptop, the boys were impossible to get hold of. In fact it was only due to Niall and James being able to radio to a passing ship that they were ok that we were able to find out anything – or rather Anna and Rory McCann were able to find this out!

Many thanks to Lorraine Hefford, one of the Mission Atlantic wives, for getting in contact with both myself and I think Stacey, James sister, to confirm the storm that Mission Atlantic had experienced. Apparently Mission Atlantic had tried to call Komale as they went past but as their phone wasn’t working, and I presume they were out of range for use of the VHS radio, they had no luck – but thank you for trying! To the support crew of Mission Atlantic - I hope you all had a safe trip out to Antigua at the weekend, and are now getting suitably excited and ready to welcome your crew in tomorrow!

Given all this, Komale started moving again at a rate of considerable knots Friday afternoon in time for a 18nm distance clocked between 12pm and 6pm on Friday. Since then they have continued this speed and from 250nm to go from Tuesday to Friday morning, they now are down to 2 figures and should be finished on Tuesday!! They are quickly catching Mission Atlantic again after being up to 34nm behind them during the difficult period last week to only 10 nm behind them this morning. They are also very close to catching up the distance between themselves and Pendovey Swift (who finished yesterday morning – well done!!) to under 48 hours which would bring them in 5^th place for the mens pairs...of course they do not know this, so will just have to hope they can keep up their current speed for the next day or so...otherwise 6^th place is extremely good considering their late start and bad weather!

Well, with their finish looming so close, this is actually starting to feel that bit more believable – surely nothing can stop them from getting there this time can it??! We can start to feel a bit more relaxed, and think about those drinks we are all going to buy them on that Just Giving page for those that haven’t already done so..and for those that have, thank you so much, the total is increasing daily at the moment! Let’s aim for that £1000 mark!

That link again:  www.justgiving.com/rachelbrixey_drink

Please keep the drinks flowing...!After all the setbacks they’ve had on this journey, I think they deserve it all the more!

Hopefully the next update can now be from Niall and James themselves, though will probably be a day or two after the finish as they’ll need their well earned rest, especially after all those drinks!!

Unless anything urgent comes up, this should be it from me, but it’s been a pleasure!

Rachel