After a warm Thursday evening getting acquainted with creme de la creme, an Oceanis 37, we spent the Friday practicing in the Solent, as the wind started to increase. Sadly we split a spinnaker (the only thing not insured!)
Saturday morning we joined the thousands of boats at Cowes for the start, skippered by John Gregson. It was quite a jostle at the starting line, with boats on both tacks, and increasing seas with wind over tide. As we headed down to the needles the sea got very choppy, making exciting sailing.
Once through the needles we had the wind behind, and whilst the swells continued, the sea was less choppy. We saw several capsizes, but had no problems ourselves.
We finished after 8 hours and 53 minutes across a difficult finishing line, crossing other boats, and were glad to be home!
Sunday saw fog on the solent, and we had a quiet sail testing our fog navigational skills!
Here is a time lapse video - makes me a bit woozy but shows some of the challenges
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