Wednesday 9^th June

Trevor was back up and about today which was good to see and a tribute to doing the right thing. Too many others rush to take the immodium style pills at the first sign of a dodgy tummy and it all takes forever to sort out, mind you we had a 110 mile sail to do tonight and you did not want to be poorly for that!

Another of the long days sort of waiting for the off and although we got a few jobs done it was almost with an air of relief that we were able to get under way around 3.00 pm. Poor Three Rivers, who have made a dogs dinner of every arrival and departure since joining the rally in a boat they only bought second hand a matter of weeks before the start, had another disaster as they motored across the marina dragging their stern anchor all the way until it finally and inevitably snagged on the anchor of a motor boat on the far quay. This was our opportunity to set off in comparative safety and once we had recovered our stern anchor, which was a lot more involved than we had first imagined, we headed out to sea in a reasonable rising breeze heading for Beirut and Jounieh Marina, in Lebanon.

We were soon sailing and within around 6.00 pm we heard the fishing reel screaming again and sure enough we had caught ourselves another 6 kg tuna. Using some of the lessons learnt the other day this one was brought aboard, bled, gutted, cut into steaks, bagged and into the fridge in near record time. We decided against trying again as it would be dark before too long and the wind was still rising.

As the night fell, so the wind kept up, but infuriatingly pretty much directly from the direction we were headed, so we found ourselves back motor sailing in order to stay on track for a 11.00 am arrival the next morning.