Stay Calm - Trade winds train ride hits the buffers

Trade winds train ride hits the buffers 3.00am, full moon behind the cloud, A5 hanging limp from the masthead, jib half way up, main slamming from side to side. No wind.Not the most elegant of handover’s to the other watch but they were up to the task.Having had the kite up since Sunday last this was our first taste of anything other than champagne sailing in this race and boy did it taste bad. At night the clouds round here, quite literally, suck. Last night we were swallowed up and spat out by a system that we christened “the curtain of certain doom”. It lived up to its nick name and we were becalmed for over two hours.So after 11 days of racing it’s going to be down to the last 350 miles. The fat lady hasn’t sung yet, in fact she’s still gargling in her. read more...

Stay Calm - It's the journey not the destination

It’s the journey not the destinationIt’s all over, after a final exhilarating sleigh ride over the last 48hrs of the race we crossed the finish line at 7.00 am Dec 4th,. The final 24 hour run was our best of the race at 272 miles .We finished third across the line, the two boats in front of us were a Volvo 60 , TheBig One and Bagheer a,  Wally 80 which, remarkably, was on its first “shake down” cruise having just been delivered to its owner the week before the race started.The South paid in the last few days and we watched our lead slowly but surely eaten up, and at the finish line there was only two hours between the first three boats after 11 days of racing.A “classic” transat , the most we saw on the dial was 28 knots of true ,and  we had the jib up for only. read more...