Phil's Round Britain Challenge

[roland_trim]

I gave them a wave as they passed the mouth of the Tyne this afternoon. I was at work in the centre of Newcastle and they were about 3 miles off shore at the time, but at least the thought was there. 

FYI - Neil I have just stood up from my desk  and saluted you

[Neil C.]

Why thank you kind sir. 

[Clive Everest]

Looking like they will be back for Weymouth.

[phil_kirk]

Hi Sarah here, not Phil! I do have a log in & I'm sure I wrote it down at some point, somewhere!

Thank you those of you who are following Hafren's progress.

I love your comment Graham about him getting out of childcare duties. You can't begin to imagine the number of brownie points he has to earn back! Especially as I've had a torrid time with Alex not sleeping.

But hey ho they are on the home straight now having rounded the last corner that was Kent. As you can see from the website are thrashing the previous record this has been hugely due to the wind which has provided them with great sailing. Who would believe you could go sailing for over a month & get to fly a spinney for such a huge proportion of the time? It is also the time they have spent sailing at night which has made progress so good and the great work of their on shore navigators and weather gurus. The Hafren team have achieved something quite impressive so if you have a little cash to spare please take a moment to donate to their charities the RNLI and PAPPA fund through the xtreme dinghy cruising website that way the team's efforts will have achieved some good too. Thank you. 

See you at the Cherub Nationals though unfortunately not from a boat but from the shore as I'll be 7 months pregnant Dave and Phil will be out again (watch out they'll have had no further practise at their manoeuvres!).

[Torchy]

Hi Sarah...make he has a shower at Castle Cove before you even think of going near him   

Stunning progress...just off Bognor Regis

[Clive Everest]

I will raise a glass as they go past this evening.

[roland_trim]

They obviously heard you Clive, but it takes about a day to turn a that boat and they appear to have stopped in the Lymington channel at 23.45. Hope that wasn't the ultra viscous ferry.

[dave_ching]

Their efforts so far,
Hafren; 9 out of 10 definitely the boat for the job.
Phil full marks for persuasion convincing Sarah and work that it was a good idea and the overnight sailing thing was very impressive. Getting most of the way around Britain with only down wind legs is a skill I hope he brings to the nationals.
For me in the game of impressive feats though Sarah makes Phil's effort look like just popping down the shops for a bottle of milk.
Looking after a little boy who isn't sleeping while expecting and on your own, now that's impressive.

[phil_kirk]

Agree to all the above.
Alex is enjoying having me back.

Thanks for anyone who was following our progress.

When we arrived at Lymmington we were escorted in by 5 boats of which 1 was Pete Barton in his Blaze.

The trip taught us a few things.  good boat prep meant that nothing significant broke. In fact the boat was good for another rounding. Good nav prep saved time for sailing afloat and made it quicker to make decisions.
Detailed weather info is always desireable but not always available due to phone reception etc. XC weather and weather online etc. were pretty accurate except when it went really light and when local geography affected the wind.

We were very lucky with the weather passing through Scotland during their heat wave (it was less cold).
Some parts of the country are vey remote which affected how hard we sailed the boat.  (most of the time we were not pushing to the limit to avoid breaking something or having to concentrate hard on helming.

There were several occasions when we both fell asleep at the helm.   (Jeremy a few more than me).
Everyone we met was really helpful.


Cape Wrath -Scrabster was a memorable down wind leg, surfing waves all the way and there were some quite big waves. Only 1 other ship sighted just after cape wrath so no chance of rescue for a while if the worst happened. The VHF and mobile reception was also limited.
As you would have seen we were able to cut pretty much all of the corners around the UK and only sailed greater distance when we were beating or affected by strong tides or very light winds.
By the middle of the trip we were prepared to sail in stronger conditions at night but this was partly helped by the increased amount of
light up north. So in hindsight we could have cut a few more days off the time but not many.

North of Kyle of loch Alsh and Abberdeen we had 24 hour light/day light.

[phil_kirk]

our round Britain challenge has been shortlisted in Yachts and yachting's annual awards.
An amazing honour.
If you can please vote for us. 

www.yachtsandyachting.co.uk/awards2015