28 Nov

Hi all,

Well, our intrepid adventure has started with something of a damp squib! We should have kicked off at 11am Sunday, but in fact the start has been delayed until Wednesday due to the small matter of Hurricane Delta sitting just off the Canary Islands. Trust us to try to cross the Atlantic in the craziest hurricane season on record.

Given the fact that we worked hard to get our boat ready for starting on Sunday, we now have a bit of thumb-twiddling to do. Woodvale organised a mini-regatta on Sunday though, in order to give us something to do, and the spectators who had come out to the start something to watch. The course was a 5.2nm (that's nautical mile, not nanometre) triangle, so we had a following wind to start, followed by a cross wind (horrid) and then a head wind.

We made good time, and averaged about 4 knots to come in at 1hr 15min 36sec. We weren't quite first - the Danish crew beat us by 13 seconds, and the All Relative four beat us by 17 seconds. But we were distinctly ahead of most people, which bodes well, and 17 seconds over an hour and a quarter isn't very much. We're pretty happy. The Irish guys didn't race, which is a shame, but presumably they feel they have to conserve their energy to try to keep up with us! All will become clear in a few days time I guess. Until then we just wait out the storm - speak to you all again soon

Rich