On a mudbank in Whitehaven

It was worth trying to get out of whitehaven on a lowish tide. Even if we ended up grounded, we would be able to move as soon as there was enough tide. We knew we were unlikely to succeed, but we had a go anyway.

What is a great feeling in running this leg is being able to get up and down the mountain on the same tide. Madame wen had managed that this year: great effort lads. This was going to be more difficult for us as we did not make it into the lock right at the start of the tide. It was really pretty inevitable that we were going to ground on a mubank. We glided gracefully into it. It wasn't the same heart wrenching feeling when we had done is with Andy rankin in 2008.

Geoff had a really good go at trying to get us off the mudbank. We had the sails up and were all leaning out to the side to try to reduce the draught of the boat. This was pretty hard work after the run, clutching some halyards on the deck of the boat and heaving as hard as we could. This did help, but progress through the mud was really slow and every minute we were stuck there the tide was going out. I think we tried to move for about 40 minutes and then succumbed to the inevitable.

Dinner was served as we were sat on the mudbank. Atfter about an hour sat there, we could feel Tactix momentarily float and we started the game again. This time, tide and time were on our side. We cleared the mudbank reasonably quickly and then grounded quite hard on the sandbank at the mouth of the harbour entrance. We bounced forward on this, gaining a few inches on every wave as the wave lifted the keel a bit, only to crunch back down onto the sand. Eventually we did make it off and we had a lead over the other boats in the marina of about 30 minutes. We could hear the other crews pleading with the lock master to let them out. I think they would not have liked hitting the sandbar.

By the time we were in the open sea, we had a good fresh wind and were soon tanking along. Gary had a fairly extreme headsail change to do as the waves were crashing around. It looked quite wet and cold. I went below for a sleep!

Gary on the deck lashing things down. It was a lot bumpier than it looks in the photo. Gary and Piers got drenched on deck.

The sailors sailed all night, doing shifts. The wind got up quite a bit and we had to change sails again in the dark: several times as the wind inceased and abated. We passed the mull of Galloway at dawn. We thought that this would be the first of several passings of the mull as we were going against the tide. There has been a good little wind since and we are now sailing quite nicely to portpatrick and on up the coast in the sunshine. Gary has been steering for about 6 hours since piers and Geoff went to bad. I am now in sailor mode and will probably be like this up until we get to the sound of Luing. I suspect that I will turn into a rower at some stage too.

It is nearly time to make bacon butties. Gary is yawning and looks like going to bed would do him some good. It has been a long night for him. We will get the bacon buttes down in time for the shift change. I am the chef. It is time for breakfast!