Sailing with the fleet

We feel we are really sailing with the main body of the race fleet at the moment. The top 3 boats are already in and we are some way down the fleet. We think the source of our demise was not getting to caernarfon an hour earlier than we did. After that we have missed tidal gates and have been sat in post when the wind has been good. That small difference on the first leg has been magnified by the course. We would still not be in the top 3 so is doesn't matter.

We sailed nicely up the galloway coast and then found a particularly windless spot in the firth of clyde. We had a big rowing session across that in the sunshine until we found some wind again near ailsa craig. Other boats seemed to have faired better offshore and about 5 boats passed us at the mull of kintyre. When the wind died we rowed past them in the dark.

Gary helming up the Galloway coast in the early hours of the morning. "You see that lighthouse over there? It used to be over there".

The wind has been off and on in the sound of jura. Currently it is on and we are sailing nicely past the sound of luing. The one drama we have had today was trying to start the engine to charge the batteries. Geoff spent half an hour taking bits of the engine apart to get it going. It was really interesting watching him as i need to be good at that for my boat. He seems to know his way around his boat pretty well!
The thing iain and i need to think about is the last run up the ben. The fastest time we know of yet is 3h38m so we have our sights set on something a bit quicker than that. We have a plan! It would be nice to finish off with a good run.