Good morning patient, persistent, persevering and proud PSP Logistics supporters.
Greetings from a glorious sunny morning in the middle of the Atlantic. We are north of Glasgow, north even of 'Yellowknife' Dave's cabin on the wild shore of the Great Slave Lake, and nearly south of Iceland. Last night it never really got dark, as the stars and the last sliver of the moon fought with the stripe of grey that never left the northern horizon. The ocean is still so full of wildlife. Pilot whales, humpback whales, fulmars, kittiwakes and too many dolphins to count. A time to really savour, to remember why we came here, and to acknowledge that we are among only a few people that nowadays do.
The wind finally started winding again earlier yesterday evening, after a punishing 36 hours in a spectacular, but nerve shredding (Bekezela is now hot on our heels, on the horizon, having caught up over 100 miles!) wind hole. We allowed ourselves to be sucked too far eastwards while we had wind, in the hope of cutting the corner on hometown hero Old Mcdonald (eieio!) and Dare To Lead to the north, but ended up enveloped by the huge high-pressure system.
That is in the past now, and we are cruising over a flat sea, spinnaker up, Lorenzo's latin music playing gently on the deck speaker, prepping for the Ocean Sprint which starts in 100 or so miles. We are hoping to do well as are crossing quite far north, where the distance is shorter, and the wind forecast looks promising. But there are four of us up here, so we will have to work hard to get a precious race point.
It still looks like a few more days, and a few more wind holes, between here and Oban, although the excitement is building. I am sure I have seen several crewmates practice their highland dancing steps on deck, although, of course, that might be them just keeping their balance on the rolling sea. Viv is teaching us Gaelic words, and Justin and Di are adding some Australian ones in just in case we struggle to be understood! We are also trying to Google where we can go to see a haggis farm, but the internet seems to be playing up at the moment.
Anyway, we are looking forward to seeing many of you on the quayside when we arrive. Not long now.
On on!!
Mike, Lottie and the dusting off our extraordinary collection of hats in preparation for our arrival crew of PSP Logistics