The Guns of Brixham

I'm sitting at the Nav table, eating liquorice alsorts with everything clean and organised around me; 24 hrs ago things were very different! With 25 kts blowing on the nose and a leaky deck the boat was more like a the inside of a broken washing machine - one that goes BOOM every minute or so as we fell off a wave. I spent the day yesterday trimming, steering, navigating more than I had to (to get below out of the elements!), and having multiple cups of tea.

The race was a fetch into the wind with just one small tack in at the end. I held a lower course and more speed than most of the fleet but I finished slowly having to tack up. Those last 5 miles were the most stressful part - knowing it was close again and to add to that the wind dying right down to 9kts as we got in close to Berry head. The stress led to a riding turn and some clumsy tacking which might end up costing a place...that is really how close the racing has been this week!

I finished at 0343 this morning and after a deserved beer passed out until lunchtime today.

Given the conditions I'm pretty happy. There was one retirement and the mini transat finished at lunchtime - I helped Crazy Andy tie up: 'How was that?' 'Piece of P*ss'. Heroic stuff - he had no pilot for most of the race and those boats are not made for those conditions...The sailors here are a really brilliant bunch with no exceptions.

Nature Watch last night:
I sailed through a feeding frenzy of white water boiling over with jumping fish. Very disconcerting!
There were HUGE shooting stars last night
I haven't seen any hot bunnies yet...

Tomorrow is downwind 50miles to Weymouth. I should post again before the start at 7am.