Lowestoft to Portsmouth

On each leg of the race you learn something. On the way to Edinburgh, we stood too far out to sea resulting in a painful (in every respect) run into the Firth of Forth, allowing some others to get in ahead by running along the beach.

From then on, we benefited from using the lee of the land, despite adding quite a lot to our overall mileage.

Ahead of each leg, Roger would plot the closest routes possible round the bays and we would make the call under way about whether we would straight-line the bays or go in.

With the prospect of a run into the wind up the English Channel, we put some weight into the bow in order to keep it level while pushing hard upwind. Its downside is that we took circa three knots off the speed coming down the East Coast. However, once round the corner, it started to pay and we were able to reel in the boats ahead.

Everything is relative, of course. While it feels that a head sea churned up by a F4-F5 breeze slows us considerably, the ability to race upwind at 36 to 40 knots in these conditions says a great deal for the design of modern ribs.

As usual, air bubbles filled the Optimax oil tank, triggering the alarm. We had to stop to bleed the system off Beachy Head. It allowed a boat we had worked hard to pass zoom by.

The run to the finish was uneventful, really. But there is a certain significance to me of leaving Portsmouth and turning West and then coming back nine days later from the East. I remember well feeling the same in Plymouth when we sailed round Britain. Not, though, in anything like nine days.

- Gavin race finish +1