As our bottle of apple flavoured Tesco's washing up liquid nears its end, so is a voyage that commenced for one last year, for others mid May and for the remainder late June.
Grey Power crossed the finish line of the Trans-Atlantic Race due South of the Lizard at 10 hours, 11 minutes, 07 seconds GMT. This is an elapsed time for the race of ten days, 15 hours, 41, minutes and 7 seconds (We think!)
After a wee dram of Irish whisky (well why not?), we continued to sail flat out for the coastal race from the Lizard to Cowes. One of our crew remarked that despite all the various conditions which we had encountered, we had managed not to miss a single happy hour in ten days of racing - an achievement in itself and worthy of a prize in itself. (A bonus happy hour?)
Today we have continued to sail towards home - Cowes, the Royal Yacht Squadron and Grey Power's home in Gosport. The day was largely punctuated by drizzle and greyness (maybe in honour of Grey Power) but all in all we are in excellent spirits, looking back on the journey with fondness and looking forward to a stable loo (or throne to us Brits) and a hot shower.
Robin has now signed the application form for David (Commodore of the Royal Coastal Racing Club) such that he can become a full member of the Royal Ocean Racing Club having now completed hid first crossing of an ocean. We need someone else qualified to second the application - any suggestions?
During happy hour this evening, we have started to plan life ashore. The first order of the day was the watches for loading and unloading the washing machine and dryer as from Monday PM for the next 24 hours.
The second order of the day was deciding whether to shower before or after breakfast at the RYS although I think we all now the answer to that one!!!
The third one was to book a beard trim on Tuesday for all the crew, as too much grey will otherwise be visible to our adoring fans!
A final pot mess was consumed tonight - the trip started with one so we felt that it was only right that we finished with one. We will aim to publish one final shore based blog tomorrow with photos to sum up this epic journey but in the meantime, thanks to all of you for taking the time to read our stuff - we hope it provided some insight in how high calibre elite athletes live life on the high seas - looking after their bodies and souls when away from land! Also special thanks to the folks in New Zealand for being with us from down under and a very special thank you to Mandar for sending out our blogs to all those on the address list. Thanks!
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