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George - The sight of land is imminent



As the last full night approaches we are starting to see other boats on the AIS and appearing on the horizon we must now start to 'up the pace' I think everyone on board is looking forward to making land fall. It has been a long slow trip, but we are now getting regular speeds of 10 knots and over. On the domestic front Mick has been caught hiding Snicker bars and crisps in a secret compartment in his cabin....this was a big shock to the crew... but now we have a surplus of Chocolate and Crisps for the last 24 hours.... I thought he was a bit quiet, it's always the quiet ones you need to watch....!

Good morning from SY George and we are hopefully less than 40 hours away from the finish in fair winds and sunny skies. We saw some fantastic exploding shooting stars last night which literally lit up the sails with light, quite spectacular. My other highlight of yesterday was getting an email from home, the first one since the winds returned. Amongst the comments was one from my young 12 yr old son Jack, who is a decent Topper sailor, in it he says "...A little tip Dad, if you cannot see any boats from where you are then it probably means they can't see you and I strongly advise you consider pumping in the light winds"....He's a quick learner that one! No shortage of wind here now tho, 20-30 kts consistently and we are going lime the clappers! George continues to sail proudly on in a competitive manner and at the moment is lying 3rd in class and it's pedal down time. We have had our most serious gear failure so far, one of cockpit speakers has given up, severely efeecting our focus and morale. Captain Tim is on the case but it does not look good. What we do know is that this has been a very long ARC, due to the massive wind holes and lack or trades, and we wish our friends aboard Adina, Millport II and Kaola all the very best and fair winds as they continue towards St. Lucia, hopefully we will see you at the finish soon guys, take care...MK 14N 56W

I think the watch system is getting to some of us. I came down from on deck to be greeted by one member of the crew who was half way through his long rest period. You have to bear in mind we were hacking along at about 8knts in some good swells and had been for previous three days. He said 'What's happened why have we stopped'. I was tempted to reply 'yes we have just put the handbreak on!!' But I just reassured the half asleep person there was no problem and we had not stopped. MN

22:30 GMT Friday 13th. 200 Miles to go. We have averaged 178 miles a day for the last two days and at this pace should be crossing the finish line around midnight (or shortly after) on Saturday night. However a recent turn of events means it could be sooner. We have known we are running 3rd in class for some time and that the second place boat was too far ahead to catch so have been happily 'cruising',pacing ourselves to protect the boat and its rig by not over-stressing anything unnecessarily. We were aware that the fourth place boat was in striking distance (last reported some 20 miles behind us) but felt that 7.5 kts would be sufficient to keep her at bay (due to the handicap system we need to finish 28 minutes ahead of her for third place). A sail was spotted coming up fast behind us earlier today, and after a quick VHF conversation it was confirmed - the opposition had us in their sights. A quick conference on deck and all are agreed, let's go for it, the rig will take it. So as I write this 12 tonnes of yacht, crew and Snickers bars are hurtling through the darkness of the night at between 9 and 10 knots yawing left and right like a go-kart exiting a chicane. We have lost sight of the sail, and more importantly, they must have lost sight of us. The last 24 hours is going to be anything but dull. Game on... SN

In the next 24hrs Poirot would gather the usual suspects on deck to go through all the evidence and ridicule any alibis, who layed the log, where did the twenty pence piece come from, who planted the snickers, where did Hastings stash his supply of rum, why did the night watchman only spot the fifty meter trawler lit up like a christmas tree at the last minute, but more importantly why did cookie/part time navigator not share out some of his three hundred ear plugs to the rest of the crew who had none. Poirot needed a grandstand, Rodney Bay would be the venue. 'George' would be there, at last. JDR
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