Cork to Ijmuiden Holland

I suppose one benefit of sprinting across the Atlantic was that we are able to spend more time in Kinsale
and savour the delights of this wonderful place, the downside of course, is that we have all spent a
fortune on the fine food and accomodation!!
For me, I had the opportunity to fly back to the UK to attend Hazels funeral - an event that I thought I
might miss. At very short notice I managed to get a flight and met Anna at Stansted airport and drove to
the service. I was really pleased that I was able to do this and support Phil at this very sad time in his
life.
Having got back to Kinsale Anna and friends arrived and to my surprise both Tommy & Jack turned up - which
was great, Charlie of course, was somewhere in South America but he was missed.
The presentation in Cork was great as Team Finland collected the coveted winners pennant in front of 1000's
of people.
And so we move on to the next race from Cork to Ijmuiden in Holland, race day brought rain but this didn't
seem to dampen the spirits of the Irish as we departed Cork, there is a real feeling now that we nearing
the end of this adventure and return to our normal lifes - whatever they are!!
The start was at Weavers point and the wind was gusting up to 25 knots and the rain as usual meant that
everything and everybody was soaked through before the race had started.
At the gun, we crossed the line in 6th place but by the first mark we were slightly ahead and making great
speeds just ahead of Hull & Humber and Australia, disaster struck as one of the Yankee sheets broke and the
huge head sail flogged heavily in the huge swell and growing winds - we had no option but to tack away from
the fleet and surrender our 1st place whilst we made the appropriate repairs.
The very rough conditions continue as 6 crew go down with seasickness and we push on the retrieve lost
ground on the fleet.
Numerous headsail changes are required and for those of us on the bow we are forever under water as huge
waves crash over the bow and activate our life jackets.
Day 2 saw a shift in the weather as the wind calmed and we sent up the medium weight spinnaker to take
advantage of the down wind conditions. Great sailing conditions until disaster struck again when we
destroyed the spinnaker and moved back into 7th position.
AS we move past the Lizard point we can see most of the fleet (ahead of us) and we decide to make a move,
amazingly we move from 7th to 1st in the space of 2 hours!! There is now a real feeling that maybe we could
do the double and win this one as well, we start shedding water from the on board water tanks to reduce
weight as we try to increase boat speed and keep ahead.
Day 3 seea the fleet compress as we all hit light wind conditions and there is a constant change in race
order as all boats try to keep the boats moving forward in the light wind conditions but also have to
contend with the tide that races down the Straits of Dover.
A really busy night as we fight with Australia for the lead, both boats are trying to keep the light weight
spinnakers flying but both kites keep collapsing in the non exsistant winds. Somehow we manage to wriggle
out of the wind hole and put some miles between us and the rest of the fleet, surely this is the decisive
moment in this race as we dodge super tankers, ferries and all shape and sizes of boats in the busy
shipping lanes of the English Channel.
Day 4
We push on and failing some sort of disaster we now feel that we have this one in the bag and cross the
finish line in Holland only 10 mins ahead of Hull & Humber to take another 10 points in our bid for the
overall 2nd place. Australia come in 5th and claim the overall prize, worthy winners given the conditions
but what might have been had we not lost our mast???
Our three Dutch on board are very happy as they enter their "home port" first to make up for the
disappointment for the Dutch losing in the World Cup Final.
Now we are looking for the hat trick on the last race across the North Sea home as we are now the boat that
has the most wins in this series of races - bring it on !!