Like painted ships on a painted ocean, we sit on a glass like sea, the sails hanging limply, and the sky above a mass of greys, dark greys and lighter greys, like the imagination of a very brooding watercolourist, who missed their breakfast. Patches of drizzle surround us, occasionally drifting over us, depositing enough water to mist glasses and make the tough screen chart plotter unusable. We are crossing over the channel between Scotland and Northern Ireland, which is famous for its tides. These tides are, at the moment, flowing southwards, so we are currently pointing the boat north westwards (where we want to go) but actually travelling towards Wales, which, although beautiful, is not exactly on the race route. We have just been overtaken by a very curious seal, who swam past with his head held high like a dog, presumably wondering why we were going the wrong way. On the bright side, we have just overtaken a jellyfish that is lolloping in the crystal clear water. And the tide will turn soon, and whoosh us towards Iceland, and back on the rhumb line between Oban and our next turning mark at the top left hand corner of Ireland.
How different from yesterday, which was, to my mind, one of the best days of the Clipper Race so far. It started, as you would expect, and, while we are on the subject, with a massive full Scottish breakfast in one of Oban's many cafes. Complete with haggis, potato scones and black pudding - they are well worth the calories! An incredible bag pipe parade through the streets, an amazing sail parade dodging ferries and spectator boats of all kinds, with coloured smoke billowing from every bow. A fantastic start. We started away from most of the fleet, at the downwind end of the line, timed our pre-start tack perfectly and were soon surging up the firth, close hauled under Yankee 2 and full main. A very slick headsail change as the wind eased, but we still maintained our spot towards the front of the fleet and we tacked back and forth towards the open sea, and myriad wind shifts favoured first one boat and then another. Incredible scenery, and epic sail racing.
For those interested in the catering, it has also been a story of two halves. Breakfast this morning, bereft of marmalade, was a bit of a low point, but the world was put right by a cup of tea and memories of a smashing dinner last night of steak and peppercorn sauce with asparagus, courtesy of Justin and Viv, ably instructed by victualler extraordinaire Lisa. Lots more amazingness expected as we head southwards.
And hopefully a bit more fastness. The wind is due to pick up in the afternoon. We are still well placed in the fleet, but we need to concentrate like mad to make sure we capitalise on any wind we have now, get to the new wind first and accelerate away.
On, on
Lottie, Mike and the excited to be out racing again crew of PSP Logistics