Having signed up for the full circumnavigation I was gutted to have to get off the yacht in Qingdao.

Travelling around SE Asia for 6 weeks I was weighing up the pro's and cons of rejoining the race.

I decided to rejoin in Santa Cruz for 3 main reasons:

1) To traverse the Panama canal,
2) To ensure my back was 100% okay, and
3) I had a lot of personal 'stuff' onboard (including EPIRB, GPS, binoculars, rig cutters, other electrical equipment, not to say my personal gear).

The leg to Jamaica was good but a couple of days before we arrived I decided to call it a day on the Clipper race.

Had I sailed all the way to Jamaica (and not missed the Pacific crossing) there's no way I'd have got off but, that not being the case, and all that's left was another Atlantic crossing, I made the decision to depart.

I really enjoyed the vast majority the race, learnt a lot from it, saw some fantastic sights and places, met some brilliant people but, in the end, enough was enough.

I'd achieved all I really could in the time I was there and didn't feel that staying till the end would be what I really wanted.

Next chapter begins...

A Le Mans start sees the start to the race to Jamaica.

This leg is a little under 500 miles so will take under three days, a short leg in comparison.

We get a fairly good start and are hopeful of improving over the next couple of days.

During the race we can see at least 6/7 of the other boats and as we approach the waypoint off of the east coast of Jamaica we are in 4th place with Hull & Humber, New York and Glasgow in front of us. Glasgow, less than half-a-mile away.

Closing on us are Uniquely Singapore and Qingdao. Just behind are Durban so a tight finish beckons.

Rounding the Morant Lighthouse the wind drops off and Singapore and Qingdao squeeze in front of us.

Singapore decide to take the inshore route and we manage - just - to beat them over the finish line but, unfortunately, we don't manage to close on any of the other yachts and finish 5th.

Well done to all for an exciting race, especially to Hull & Humber, New York and Glasgow who take podium positions.

The last of the Clipper yachts to go through the Panama Canal we traverse with Jamaica, Qingdao and Nova Scotia.

Won't write much about it here (hooray) but if you want to know more, click on this link to the Wikipedia website: (Wikepedia - Panama Canal).

A pretty grey miserable day to start with (hey, that's life! )

Once the pilot boarded, we moved off towards the canal:

...and through the locks:

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... to the Caribbean.

It's an amazing feat of engineering and I'm pleased to have travelled it. (Corinth canal was better though )

Arrive at the Flamingo Marina in Panama and greeted with the usual beers and a bottle of rum.

Waiting to transit the canal now, we just have to await our slot and then race up to Jamaica once we are through the canal.

Into the bar and onto, what turns out to be (for me), a very messy night. Haven't been this bad for a long time - knew it wasn't good when Gordon and Paul (off of Glasgow) got me onto the Sangria at around 2 pm. Ouch!

Stop to refuel in Costa Rica and they kindly provision us with fresh fruit, veg, coca cola and a few beers each. Durban and WA are in before us and once on our way, motor down to Panama with them.

Motoring to Panama, it is clear from the outset that we do not have enough fuel and will need to pick some up 'somewhere'.

Clipper manage to arrange a fuel stop at Banana Bay marina in Costa Rica. About 1000 nm away.

As we're no longer racing, we split into 4 watches and go into a 3-on, 9-hour off routine.

To help break up the routine, someone (Will, I think) decides to invent an on-board Murder, Mystery 'Cluedo-type' game where crew names, 'murder' weapons, and places on the boat are put into separate bags and you draw one from each. You then have to have that person, in that place, holding said item to 'kill' them.

It turns out to be great fun and I manage to dispose of Tiina, Doris and Jacqui before I myself am killed by Dave Purchase.

As it currently stands (in Panama), only Will, Mikey and Gus remain alive and it needs to be concluded before race start...game on!

Race day and looking into some of the tactics for the race we decide that we're going to get quite a way offshore and will hopefully get stronger winds and later on in the race a better (and faster) point-of-sail.

We don't get a particularly good start and with the Yankee 2 up find ourselves under-powered. A cock-up in the sail change (my fault!!) sees us fall a further few boat lengths behind the rest of the fleet and it's around the windward mark and next stop (hopefully) Panama.

The rest of the fleet initially go for the inshore route and we are the only boat heading out (Liverpool doing their own thing again :-). The problem with this sort of tactic is that for the followers of the race at home, they see us in 10th place ALL THE WAY.

It can be quite demoralising on board for some of the new leggers but the round-the-worlders know how little stock is placed in the positions and distance-to-finish. We know we are in 10th place but it has to be read in conjunction with weather files, overall tactics of other boats and 'other' items of information.

As we race down towards Mexico, we're still in 10th place but we know this is not going to last. Unfortunately for us, due to light winds ahead, Clipper call the race short and we have 48 hours in which to make up ground. We still decide to do our own thing and right up to the last day we are still in 10th place.

We cross the line on the 7th May in 6th!

Disappointing for us but (and it has been said before) our tactics were just starting to come into fruition. We had closed on the fleet, were in a really good, southerly, position but unfortunately, the race was called off with 1200 nm still to go. That's life.

Rejoin the boat today and it feels good to be back. There is quite a crew change this time with Andy Perry, Andy Christie, Paul Onions and Emilio getting off and Doris, Sue, Joan, Jacquie, Janet, Stephen, Brian and myself getting on.

Unfortunately Brian has to pull out at the eleventh hour due to an injury and we all feel for him as he is only doing this leg of the race and this is his only chance to be able to race. Hope the recovery is swift Brian.

We go out for an afternoon sail training and get back into the swing of things quickly.

[As you know] Gutted to be missing Legs 7 & 8 but I kept an eye on how how the race was progressing and summarise:

Hull & Humber came first, New York came second, and Glasgow came third. Well done to Danny, Duggie, Hannah and respective crews for those results.

Liverpool'08 came in 7th, so well doen to all on board, I'm sure there are some stories to tell there. Hopefully hear them in April. That puts us in 5th place overall and lots still to play for.

Also, 2 yachts, Western Australia and Durban have been dismasted! Fortunately no-one has been injured and all the yachts are now (30th March) in Hawaii.

However, the start of the next leg has been delayed due to the problem of getting replacement parts to Hawaii. Haven't had a reply back from Clipper as to the actual joining date as yet but realistically it's going to be another week at least. Ah well, what to do now...

[For me] Great relief to arrive in Qingdao. Haven't enjoyed this leg (well, the first 3 days were good) and so pleased to have arrived onshore without doing any further injury to myself.

A fantastic reception from the people of Qingdao. Reception boats out to meet us, bands on the harbour walls as we first came in, the customary case of beer :-), the bands playing dockside, the champagne, fireworks, speeches, on a different scale to anything we have seen previously. A great welcoming from the people of Qingdao in the run-up to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games where Qingdao are hosting the sailing element of the games;it will be spectacular.

Pre-race planning and keeping a constant eye on the weather forecasts, we know we are going to be beating to windward for the entire leg. It's going to be lumpy and constant hard work and, as we get further away from the equator, increasingly colder.

In order to get the best speed out of the boat we have to move the unused sails to the windward, high side of the boat after each tack. Unfortunately for me, three days after leaving Singapore, we are moving the Yankee 1 (big, heavy sail) and the boat slams! I am caught in a twisting, lifting position and 'ouch' (to put it mildly!). Guess my lifting days on this trip are over.

As we get further north, the temperature drops, my back stiffens up and then it's down below for me. The memory of the remaining seven days will always remain with me (for the wrong reasons though :-) and all I can say is thank heavens for painkillers.

The conditions on deck are steadily worsening with the cold and the wind (-12 degrees on one night) and the rest of the guys do a fantastic job sailing the boat and getting us to Qingdao.

We don't manage to improve on our position in the fleet and, when the race is called off (due to forecast light winds and our 'must' arrive date in Qingdao looming) finish in 9th place.

Well done to everyone, but especially to Crimewatch who, once I became ineffective, had two less people on their watch than Baywatch).

The 6th leg of the race starts and we're in a fairly good position to the north of the fleet when us, Qingdao and Western Australia, sail into a 'wind hole'!

Stuck for around what seems like days (but is only about an hour or so) we get the wind again and do our best to close the distance to the fleet leaders.

Tacking between land and the traffic separation scheme we manage to 'clear' land around nightfall, still towards the back of the fleet.

Because of the heat and humidity it is fair to say that the majority of people are pleased to be leaving Singapore. Most have had a great time here but it's time to move on and get into what is going to be a difficult, upwind leg to China.

My back has held up well since leaving Australia (I tore a disk in my lower back pre-Fremantle) but it 'traditionally' doesn't handle the cold well. I have a few concerns over what will probably be the hardest leg of the race, but fingers crossed!

Another great turnout to see us off from Keppel Bay.

We leave, confident that we can improve on our second place position in the last leg.

Singapore is hot! Only about 70 miles north of the equator the temperature is mid-30's at least during the day and the humidity especially makes things uncomfortable. I decide to sleep on the boat whilst we are working on her as I'm planning on meeting up with Gary and Julie Morris in Sabah to do some diving in a few days.

Night time is bearable but you find you have to be off the boat by 9.30 am as conditions quickly become ovenlike below decks once the sun is up. Meet up with Kane (Craig's son, one of John Millers mates at Weatherfords) one eveing for a couple of beers and a meal and he tells me where the best place is to shop for things in Singapore. I've wanted an Apple iphone for a while and know I can get one, pay-as-you-go, here in Singpaore. Cheers for that Kane.

Do the usual things in Singapore, bit of shopping, few beers, other touristy things and, of course, Singapore Slings in Raffles Hotel.

Very nice experience but don't feel an urgent need to do it again.

A new marina, Keppel Bay marina, is opening in Singapore on the 18th January and to ensure that it is a cermony worth remembering, the arrival of the Clipper fleet is choreographed to ensure we are all there. This is the reason why we raced to Nongsa point to ensure that we are all present to motor the few miles across the Singapore Strait and to all arrive together.

The three or so days we get in Nongsa are great. Friendly people, lovely climate (though a little hot :-), cool beer - what more can a man ask for :-). I spend one night on the boat and then two nights in the resort: air conditioning, fantastic.

The staff from the hotel take us out one night to a 'local' seafood restaurant. Chilli crab, black pepper crab, garlic shrimps, steamed sea bass, spiced noodles...the list goes on. I think it's the best seafood meal I've ever had: all for about £13 (including beer and transport) - superb!

We depart Nongsa and motor across to the opening of the Keppel Bay marina.

A huge turnout from the people of Singapore and good to see some [old :-)] friendly faces. Patsy's there to see Mikey, Mikey's folks have turned up. Andy Perry is there with Tony and, a great surprise for Will is his parents and granddad have flown out (he thought they were on holiday in Wales :-). Another great welcome, the best so far in my opinion.

We overtake New York and a re a couple of miles in front of them before we make the next gate off the west coast of Borneo. We round the mark, dropping the spinnaker and head up, NE, close-hauled best course towards the next gate. An hour or so later and the wind backs, allowing New York to gain a little ground on us and, come nightfall, we lose sight of them: as it turns out, they overtake us during the night and we don't see them until we arrive in Nongsa a couple of days later.

A great sail from the New York clipper, from a couple of mile sbehind, they manage to finish 30 miles in front of us by the time we arrive in Nongsa point. A great effort from all of the Liverpool crew but we are bitterly disappointed to have come second in a race that we led for most of and feel it was ours for the taking: somehow, we let it slip.Full credit to New York for the way they out-sailed us upwind and hard luck to the Western Australia boat who gave us a close scare towards the end.

Positions at the front remain the same as we exit the Sunda Strait, but New York have closed the gap on us.

As we gybe for position on the next gate, New York overtake us but Nova Scotia seem to be holding course and going for the near gate. I find that strange as race rules state that the committee will try and give 24-hours notice for calling a halt to the race, we're very close to the next gate and there is no way that the race will be called off.

Liverpool and New York gybe for the next mark (to the East) and Nova Scotia carry on on port gybe and continue North for the north part of the gate that is only a short distance away.
(Later that afternoon, Nova Scotia sailed into a 'wind hole', we didn't see them until they arrived in Nongsa, in 8th place - unlucky guys, could happen to anyone).

A few days into the race and we hold first position and sailing towards [what was] tropical cyclone Melanie, but the weather forecast shows that by the time we get there it'll be a good breeze for us.

Unfortunately, this doesn't quite materialise a splanned (does it ever :-) but we are still in the lead as we get a hundred or so miles south east of Christmas Island. Then...

No wind!

Trying hard to progress in veyr light airs, it's on with the constant jobs on the boat, including the cleaning

and everyones favourite:

Once we get the wind again, we find we've dropped into third place with Nova Scotia and New York a few miles in front. Durban are close behind us and the 12 mile lead we had is now in shreds.

We manage to gain ground on New York, overtaking them before we get to the Sunda Strait (between Java and Sumatra. On the previous Clipper Race (05-06) the race was called off here due to no wind. As a result, for this race, the race committee have placed a series of waypoints signifying gates. If the race is called off for any reason, your position in relation to the 'next' or 'last' gate will determine your finishing position. Consequently, though the race is to Nongsa, you have to ensure you have a good position at each gate.

Coming to the first gate (SW end of the Sunda Strait) we find we are 3 miles behind Nova Scotia and only a few miles in front of New York. Rob and his crew are managing to hold us off but we're finding it hard to make mileage on them with so many fishing boats about.

As we progress ever nearer to the equator, the temperature increases and below decks is getting very uncomfortable:

After a 'relaxing' Christmas and New Year in Fremantle it's time to head off again on Leg 4 of the race to Singapore (via Nongsa in Indonesia).

Janaury 1st sees Patsy Mills, Alex, Mat, Sean and Traoloch no longer with us, but joining us we have Richy Pope, Anna off of 'Uniquely Singapore' and Doris; welcome to all three.

A great turning out of friends, family and the general public to see us off in Fremantle harbour as the Clipper fleet line up and parade up the Swan River pre-start.

3 o'clock and the cannon goes for the race start. All 10 yachts bidding for contention as we sail up the Swan River before turning around and racing past the gathered crowd. Durban have the best position but on Liverpool we are to far to leeward and, as we race East into the river, have to tack as we're getting blown onto a moored ship. This see's us lose a couple of places and, as we gybe around the mark, we sail (very slowly due to the loss of wind :-) past the dignatories, bringing up the back of the fleet: not a good start for anyone, but last place for Liverpool'08, unthinkable!

By the time we have rounded the 'last' mark, 8 miles further on we have managed to claw our way back into third place and run with spinnaker north bidding Australia farewell and next stop Indonesia.

When in Rome...

We decide to head down to Cottesloe beach on Christmas Day to engage in the national pastime of barbies.

Managing to find a clear spot on the beach we place our bbq carefully and manage to get it lit without the use of firelighters (which had been forgotten :-) - we couldn't borrow any of of anyone as we were the only one's barbequeing on the beach that day?? Sterling work Chris!

The menu of the day was lobster, shrimps, t-bone steaks, sausages and burgers accompanied, naturally, of course by a few beers.

Apparently the temperature was around 38 degrees on the day and, until the breeze kicked in at around 2 o'clock, was a trifle stifling to say the least (especially sitting near a barbie with red hot coals).

Joined also by Nicole off of Qingdao, Ben, Lisa, Chris and myself had an enjoyable day of eating and drinking too much and generally doing what we do on such a day.

I spoke to my mum and my brother today and apparently it's -2 degrees back in the UK and raining, ah well...!

Unfortunately, we are unable to claw back any decent mileage on the boats in front of us and we get into Fremantle at 0643 on the 17th December.

We are all obviously disappointed with our 9th position but all know that we gave our all and couldn't do more than that.

Congratulations to Durban, Western Australia and Qingdao for finishing 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Well done to everyone on the Liverpool'08 yacht, enjoy your Christmas and New Year in Oz and, once the work is done, have a relaxing break!

Close-hauled for the first 11 days of the race (thought this was meant to be downwind?) we finally manage to get the spinnaker up for a few hours.

Still behind the majority of the fleet, we're finding it hard to make up the ground with all the boats to the south of us putting in 12-hour runs as good, if not better than ours.

With us getting lighter winds up here it's either a case of persevere and hope the high pressure system in front and south of us slows them enough or else lose more miles by trying to get to where the other boats are.

We decide to stay northerly.

Lisa decides to get into the festive spirit of the season by constructing an advent calendar. Ben gets to decide who gets to choose each day, it's great for brightening up spirits:

Such are the highs and lows of ocean racing and the hassles of modern technology, we lose our satellite communications on the Friday afternoon. Unable to obtain any updated weather files we draw our own synoptic charts and head on the 'best' course we can.

Unfortunately, by the time we regain communications after 3 days we find we are 100 miles behind the rest of the fleet (with the exception of New York who had to return to Durban for a medivac.

---
One of the funniest quotes I have heard for a long time has to go to Alex Rogers for his quote on 'fart tennis':

(Whilst helming) "Who would have thought it, here am I, 40 years old playing fart tennis with an 18-year old. Oh yes! 40 - 15, Rogers to serve, new balls please!"

Classic!

The decision is to follow the rhumb line as best we can rather than heading too far south and this works well for the first week.

The most northerly boat of the fleet it looks to be paying off when we move into first position with a quarter of the race gone.

A few hiccups on the way with Kev deciding to headbutt the mast whilst in the riding belt:

...and in the name of good humour and team spirit, we bid to see who will remove the stitches and what tool to use:

A large procession of boats and people came to see us off from Durban, somewhere in the region of 200 I'm told. Great to see crowds such as this.

All lining up for the start, off we go at 1300 hours.

Not sure what the odds are for him:

Flew back to Durban following my dad's funeral (a big thanks to John and Kathy for their help in Jo'burg, both ways) and rejoined the yacht the day before the race.

John Toshack was in the departure lounge at Schiphol Airport. He was flying to Durban for the Fifa conference for the world cup.

Toshack is a footballing legend and played for Cardiff City until 1970 when he signed for Liverpool. Alongside Kevin Keegan they were the best strike force in football.

Following his football career he went into management with [amongst others] Swansea City, Sporting Lisbon and Real Madrid, and is the current manager of the Welsh national team.

Cheerio to Helen, Richard and Neil and hello to Traoloch, Mat and Shaun for the next leg to Fremantle. Race starts tomorrow.

As soon as we are in we are whisked off for a 'traditional' welcome:

and a photo of the crew at the award ceremony:

Still in close proximity, we are still ahead of Glasgow with only a few miles to go. Everyone is on deck and squeezing every inch of speed out of the yacht.

Three miles south of the finish line we gybe shortly after Glasgow and, with only three or four boat lengths separating us, we race for the finish - what an end to the race and what a frantic last few days.

Fortunately we cross the finish line before them and have the added bonus of beating Hull & Humber into 2nd place as a result of their 4-hour time penalty for using their engine during a medivac earlier in the race.

We are met by a few boats from the yacht clubs in Durban who pass over a cool bag with some beers. Ice cold beer, the end of a fantastic race and time to party!

Well done to all the Glasgow crew who gave us such a fantastic race. After 4,500 miles of ocean racing, we came in 1 minute, 17 seconds before them - awesome, well done guys!

Racing neck and neck with Glasgow, downwind at night in a squall, extremely poor visibility, 30 knots of wind, heavyweight spinnaker flying and on an inward gybe (towards land). Moving the spinnaker pole forward the guy slips on the winch and the pole crashes into the forestay, twice, and shatters!

The lazy guy comes off the lazt winch and we have a heavyweight kite - attached only by it's halyard to the top of the mast - flailing around in 30+ knots of wind, pandemonium!

A fantastic effort by all the crew to bring it under control and we manage to drop the kite and pole out the Yankee 2 in record time.

The squall clears and miraculously we see Glasgow half-a-mile behind us!

What a race!

Pretty much neck and neck with Glasgow all the way for the last 200 miles. They overtake us, we catch and overtake them, same again... adrenalin pumping, constant trim, trying to get every advantage over the other boat. What a finish this is turning out to be.

Still in 3rd place we cross into the shallower water of the Agulhas bank.

Durban and Glasgow are around 40 nm behind us and we're approximately 100 miles behind the leaders Hull & Humber and New York.

We need to stay close into shore all the way to Durban as the current is northerly and can flow at up to 6 knots in places: lose the wind and you go backwards!

One day of light winds and we are pretty much neck and neck with Durban and Glasgow!

At watch change, I come on deck and Glasgow are in front on the horizon and Durban are 300 metres off the starboard beam!! Race on!

A few gybes later and fortunately we lose Durban (they went on an outward gybe, lost the wind and the current kicked in - they finished 8th!) and gain on Glasgow, overtaking them in the night.

Moving slowly up through the fleet, we are in 3rd place (behind Hull & Humber and New York who are on similar longitude but are 100 nm north of us.

We headed south to pick up the stronger westerly winds and hope this will make a big difference for the finish.

We get down below 40 degrees south and do pick up some nice winds . Gusts of up to 55 knots on some of the days but generally we find we're downwind in gale force winds for around 9 days - happy days and superb sailing. Awesome seas, strong winds and some speed records are the norm. Eleni hold sthe current speed record of 23.7 knots - fantastic!

Start heading NE to head towards the Southern edge of South Africa and the agulhas bank/

Visited by a couple of ghosts today to mark Halloween. Forthuately they weren't too scarey and came bearing gifts

After a pleasant stay in Salvador we saw Tomo, Peter Nuttall and Chris Pearce depart and Eleni, Helen, Alex, Kev and Richard join us for the next leg to Durban.

A three o'clock start and we're off. Once again, all the boats are in close proximity but quickly split into two distinct groups with us, Hull & Humber and New York heading southerly and the remainder staying on a more northerly course.

Our plan on this leg is to stay away from the Ilse de Trinidade as light winds are forecast in a few days time and to get the benefit of the coastal current to take us south before heading SE towards Tristan de Cunha to pick up the strong westerlies.

10th place for the first week or so, we have moved into 5th by the 2nd December (no panic there )

Brucey has turned up on the yacht Lady Francesca which he is skippering on a circumnavigation and invited us down to the boat for a bbq on the Bank Holiday Monday.

The only provision is that we need to get some food and some beer for the barbie.

Now, the beer is easy as you can pick that up from service stations, the food on the other hand is not quite so easy as all the shops are shut.

Lisa and I are walking past the jetty where they unload the fish and we go over and Lisa starts to enquire about the price of the Red Snapper that they are unloading (and these are big fish).

The prices are starting at $100 US or thereabouts. At this point, Akmed walks over and also starts to engage in the bartering. The price drops to about 20 Reals per pound until the head man sees Akies watch. After a quick look, a try on the wrist, he agrees to swap the fish for the watch.

Walking quickly away Akie tells us the watch he swapped was not the expensive one he bought in La Rochelle but one he bought the other day from a street-vendor's suitcase - for the grand some of 15 Reals around £3.50.

We spent long hours heading SE waiting for the trades to come. The forecast was 24 hours out and the ground we could have made up was lost to us - c'est la vie.

Once the South-easterlies arrived we headed on a direct course for Salvador hoping that the daily skeds (the emails from race office giving us the positions of the other yachts) would show the lead boats slowing and/or tacking out towards us.

It was, unfotunately, not to be and though we gained some excellent ground on the other boats, we could only make 4th place into Salvador coming in some 80 miles (I think) ahead of Hull & Humber.

Well done to all in the race and well done to Durban, Nova Scotia & Glasgow who finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively.

We crossed the equator at 0657 hours today - another milestone on the way to Salvador.

Received another weather (grib) file and decided that we had a cunning plan...

We were in a Southerly wind and the four leading boats had headed SW towards Brazil and looked to be going into slower winds (slower in terms of point of sail, proximity to the coast, etc.).

Our plan was to head SE (yeah I know it's the wrong way) and then pick up the south easterly trade winds which would give us a faster point of sail.

If luck was with us and the lead boats had to tack away from the coast we could make up huge amounts of mileage on them.

I've read quite a few books about yachts sailing through the doldrums and thought I had a fairly good idea of what to expect. Wrong!

Short, sharp squalls, hours of no wind and the resultant frustration at being parked were on the cards, guess again!

Okay, there were a couple of occasions when we didn't go very fast but the squalls were slightly different; especially the 36-hour one! We couldn't get out or through it! It just followed us Had fairly good winds though

We stayed in 5th place through the doldrums and headed down towards the equator.

Once the wind picked up we left the Canaries at the back of the fleet, 10th place and, unusually but not surprisingly, not one happy, smiling face on the Liverpool'08

However, those of us in the know , knew we wouldn't be here for long and we slowly picked up positions over the coming days and the smiles slowly returned.

Heading into the Cape Verdes islands we were in fifth place with Durban, Nova Scotia, Hull & Humber and Glasgow in front of us.

Endless hours looking at the weather forecasts saw us, and the majority of the fleet, heading into the Canaries (believe me, it was showing the strongest wind).

Only three boats stayed out (Durban, Singapore and Jamaica) and the rest of us raced to a standstill!

Bugger-all wind and nothing we can do about it! 36-hours of zilch! As well, make the best of it:

---
Life goes on:

Once we received updated weather information for the Spanish and Portuguese coasts we headed out towards Madeira to hopefully get stronger winds to help take us quickly South.

We couldn't get as near to Madeira as we wanted and, 50 miles East of the islands, with Glasgow and Singapore close beihnd us we lost streerage at 3 am. (Glasgow later told us that they could see our red, green then white navigation lights as we pirouetted gracefully in the Atlantic!)

Once we had worked out that our rudder was jammed there was nothing else to do but go down and sort it out. Strangely enough, there were no volunteers so up steps yours truly, dons snorkelling gear and a safety line and in you go Crowley!

Fortunately, it was a clearish night and I could see that a fishing net had entangled itself in our rudder (no fish tho' ). On with the pony bottle and regs and, with the aid of my trusty knife, 5 minutes later, the rudder was clear.

A pat on the back, a dry towel, a cup of coffee and then race on... Oh yeah, and a medal

(Dave got his 'water boy' medal for fixing the watermaker on board - the bloke is a genius!)

A glorious afternoon in France and we all headed off to the start point outside La Rochelle for the 1400 start.

An exciting start saw us near the front as we headed out into the Bay of Biscay.

As usual, the fleet quickly dispersed and we headed westerly to get over the continental shelf and into deep water before the almost inevitable bad weather hit.

3 am saw us changing down from Yankee 1 to Yankee 2 and then to Yankee 3 and having fun on the foredeck. Being thrown 10 feet into the air as the boat slammed, close-hauled into a Force 8, all 5 of the foredeck crew (myself included )experienced the automatic inflation of our lifekjacket as tons of water crashed over the decks - ah, the pleasures of Biscay!

Just before we exited Biscay and rounded Cape Finisterre we saw one of the other boats who takced and passed passed our stern:

Leaving Liverpool on the 16th was awesome. Big crowds, good weather, wind, everything you could wish for.

Had a few beers with Trev and Lisa who came up to Liverpool to watch the race start and who I saw briefly in the crowd when we left Albert Dock.

About 30 minutes after the start a cold front passed over and then we were in a Force 8 for a couple of hours which was a fantastic start to the whole race.

Won't drone on now but had a fairly good leg with wind on all but the last day. The race was cut short due to there being NO wind whatsoever and we still finished 2nd out of the field.

Hull & Humber took line honours and Glasgow came in a few miles behind us for third position.

Next leg starts tomorrow at 1600 hours (local time) and will take, weather depending of course, around 3 - 3.5 weeks.

Arriving mid-morning on Saturday we proceeded into and berthed at the Albert Dock Liverpool.

Great to see all the people cheering us in (there's a few locals on board so we probably got the biggest cheer from friends and family ) and quite a few came on board, looked around and had a chat.

Of course there is quite a big media interest in this and it was dodge the cameras for a while

However, still work to be done on the yacht so (taken on the Sunday morning)...

Before travelling in style to the yacht club - another pint you owe me Lisa!! - for lunch and the Beatles tribute band.