And in the words of a scrutineer, Black Gold is a well-found boat which we took as a compliment.
The scrutineers were strict, though, and picked us up on three minor things which we have now addressed. What struck us was how long this close scrutineering process might take for the whole fleet - many of which are arriving late and looking a bit unprepared!
A job for this Friday was to have one final check of our gear oil, as recommended by Dave Crawford.
So scrutineering done, Roger and I set off for Lymington to see whether we could get the boat looked at today, Thursday. The Solent was in a pretty choppy state and we were both pleased that the race wasn't starting then. The Plymouth leg would have been very very tough for us in the F6 gusting F7.
Jobs done including having the radar reflector fitted by Graham Jelley in person to our big rear number foils (which addressed one of the points raised in the scrutineering).
Our run down the Solent was interesting with the wind against tide. We dipped the nose in once - educational and very wet. As a sailor, I am impressed at how these Scorpion hulls cope with big seas. When yachts nearby are reefed down, scarcely managing 4 knots, and their occupants heavy with waterproofs, we are in tee-shirts and denims feeling a little disappointed to be going so slowly at 35 knots!
As an endurance race, the fleet is very mixed. Some amazing big racing ribs have arrived from Scandinavia. They look very well prepared.
On the other hand, some local entrants still seem to having engineering work underway, even at this late stage. In many cases this is due to teething problems with brand new engine installations.
But it's a bit worrying when we all have so far to go.
Next update should be after we get to Plymouth. The new tracker screen on our site shows you real time how we are doing - and there are all the weather pages there, too, so you can see what the conditions are like for each leg.
- Gavin June 19th
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