Message from Virginia

So here we are in Barmouth ready to roll; or sail or row or run up a mountain or fly that spinnaker or wait for wind or eat or sleep or.....who knows...I have been busy today shopping, cooking and cleaning the boat, and we have meals aplenty for the light winds that are predicted. Our menu is not spartan like that in some boats, we have fish pie, chilli con carne and chicken curry all ready for eating, and a boat stuffed with goodies to suit all palates. Our team are big eaters, and there are no rules except if you eat anything you must offer it round.....and jelly babies on the hour through the night. It was good to send the rest of the crew ashore for a few hours today and get the boat shipshape and ready for action tomorrow afternoon. Kate did the race last year and completed it, and she has been teaching David and I how to fly the spinnaker as we came down from Scotland last week. Patrick and Andrew joined us at Holyhead and have been quickly learning the ropes too. Patrick and Kate are in charge above decks and David and I below decks. Andrew hasn't quite decided on his area of expertise, but as Devon Yawl National Champion he will probably be good on sail trim. Andrew was the ladies Team coach when I was sailing at Oxford a few years ago, where Patrick was the men's captain, and Kate was the Ladies Captain when I went to Bristol a couple of years later. So we have known one another for a long time, although have not been in touch much recently until we conceived this crew about this time last year. David is still wondering why he isn't up Everest as he usually is at this time of year, and his greatest challenge will be the night watches. He and I are Crip 1 and Crip 2 having sustained various injuries recently; we decided to get a carbon fibre spinnaker pole for him after he strained a rib when we did the Scottish Islands Three Peaks Race in May.
Anyway, I had better be off for now...here's hoping we finish this year!

Last Minute (.com!)

While the crew work away with final fettling of the boat, B(ST) (That's me: Bill - Support Team) has been checking out the IT. Communications will be difficult, as Cellphones really don't work too well in the middle of the Irish Sea, and anyway, despite our best efforts, the batteries will probably be flat anyway! And as I've never blogged or wirelessed (err.. is that a real word?)before anything might happen, or more likely nothing..

Anyway, back to the team in action:

The Rowing Rig is a thing of technical beauty. Claimed to be more comfortable than the rowing machine in the gym, and excellent exercise to ease tired muscles after running, it will provided many minutes of pleasure when the wind drops. Then it will be hours of shear agony unless the crew sees sense and puts the kettle on to wait for the wind's return instead. Andrew tested it out while on the mooring and completely syked out the other boats watching. Good start! And probably the best use the rowing gear will ever be put too.

Of course the crew includes our resident mountaineer, David. Preferring the Himalayas to the Welsh Mountains, David sensibly volunteered to stay on the ground and to hoist Patrick to the top of the mast to enjoy the view and sort the electrics. The actual quality of the view depended on whether Patrick was looking down or not, but his photo sure scares the living daylights out of me!

Finally, David was left with sticking on our race number, 23. This is now proudly displayed on both sides of the hull. There is no boat numbered 32, so if it's spotted that way up something will have gone badly wrong.

Plans for tonight? An early supper, followed by some serious football supporting, and celebrations late into the night if England win. True dedication to the cause!

(Update by Bill - Support Team)

Preparation for the mountains

The race involves running/cycling up mountains as well as sailing. As we have a Tillman entry 4 members of the crew will run up at least 1 mountain so most of us will be running as well well as sailing. Patrick and Virginia are experienced runners who have done lots of off road races and endurance events. David has been up Everest 7 times and so is very happy going up or down any slope and Andrew has only just returned to running having had a life of luxury and managed a very flat London marathon in April. We have managed a bit of practice on Dartmoor and David, Patrick and Virginia did the Scottish Three Peaks race 3 weeks ago. As usual we have not trained as much as we would have liked or intended! Bill leads the back up team and will provide us with encouragement food and drink on route. So hopefully all will be well when we set off for Snowdon on the early hours of Sunday morning! We shall see! Andrew

Delivery crew reach Holyhead

4pm on Wednesday the delivery crew tied up in Holyhead marina.
Sea Fever has sailed beautifully and we have had some superb spinnaker runs South from Scotland. The first day we arrived at Crinan at 5pm, loaded on the stores and kit and locked out of the Crinan canal by 7pm. Virginia and David had bought provisions and prepared a fantastic fish pie. We sailed down to Lowlandmans bay and anchored for the night in sight of the Paps of Jura. 6 am we weighed anchor and set off South. The tide at the Mull of Kintyre was still favourable so we squeaked past and climbed up into the Firth of Clyde to keep out of the adverse current. Evening saw us hoisting the spinnaker at Black Head and running past Portpatrick down the Rhins of Galloway. We anchored just east of the Mull in East Tarbert Bay and had a quiet night after an 85 mile trip (Chilli with rice!)
The next day was an easy 35 mile run across to The Isle of Man, a brief gasp of excitement in Calf Sound against the tide and another quiet evening in Port St Mary. Virginia went for a run on Man while the rest of the crew loafed. (Pasta with sausages!)
The boat now has its name on the transom and various jobs have been done to prepare. The jelly babies have had to be put on ration as the quarter master is worried about the supplies lasting.
Wednesdays run was 54 miles down to Holyhead and again we put up the spinnaker and had a very pleasant run until the wind died. Motoring into some severe tide we arrived at Holyhead on time to buy spare bulbs and sail ties and organise David and Chris into a bed and breakfast. The boat leaves at 2am so they wisely opted for beds that would stay put.
Patrick has just joined ship at 6.45pm and Andrew is on a slow train that gets in at 9pm. We will have a feast for supper thanks to our excellent cooks and get some sleep before departing at 2am to catch the high water at Barmouth harbour entrance tomorrow. The boat is in excellent order the crew are cheerful and bonding well and we are looking forward to catching up with Bill and Bridget in Kithros 2 who arrived in Barmouth today.
The other teams in Holyhead include Maracusa, Celtic Warrior the Isreli charter boat and another two we haven't met. They seem more laid back about departing for Barmouth but maybe they haven't tried the harbour entrance before.
Signing off to go and eat another feast from our cooks. Virginia says she doesnt like sailing or running in the dark but she is happy to cook for us. A price worth paying in my view!

Medical Kit

Today I sorted out sea sick pills and patches, painkillers and a wonderful gadget that looks like a watch and is in fact a device that gives a mild electric shock into the acupressure point on your wrist and treats nausea. This does in fact work on sea sick patients probably by surprising them out of their symptoms. Actually after a couple of days at sea most people settle down fine and don't need any pills. I have also packed some injection equipment as one of our team has a swollen elbow and we may have to do some surgery at sea. Being the team medic is quite a responsibility especially when the runners are dehydrated and exhausted. Last year I had to threaten Paul with rectal fluids to make him drink more electrolyte solution! It looks as though it is going to be another light airs race so sun cream and hydration will be important.

Preparations

Patrick has fitted the rowing equipment to Sea Fever and taken it off to try out in the Scottish Islands Peak race. This was a light airs event and it worked well.

First picture is the SIPR team. They all ascended Goat Fell on Arran.

Second is David testing out the rowing equipment (Sliding seats on the sidedecks with long sweeps to reach the water).

Lastly Patrick goes up the mast to untangle the spinnaker halyard in Salen

Andrew P and V have been running together and seems to have enjoyed Dartmoor on a cold day. Virginia has fallen and injured herself since but seems to be recovering quickly. Kate and Andrew have been doing some offshore training and managed a third place in the Stagecoach Race from Exe to Dartmouth (beaten by Neal Ricketts as usual, but ahead of Bill for once!). Andrew enjoyed the long (five hour) race but admitted that as 3PYR is twenty times longer it was just a taster.

Back up team

Good news that Andrew's brother Bill will be joined by David's partner Claire to provide shore support during the Race. They will no doubt be coached in their duties by Bridget Ricketts of Kithros 2 now in her seventh year of backing the Topsham team.
The delivery crew is organised too. Thanks to Kate's crew Chris and David for agreeing to fly up to Scotland to help bring Sea Fever down to Wales. It is a great advantage to spend a few days on the boat before the start getting used to her little ways. (Helps with Kate's tendency to seasickness too!)
This was reinforced in last years race by the unlucky RAF crew whose boat was in fact late arriving at Barmouth as the delivery crew couldn't get across the Irish Sea in time for the start. The race crew therefore had to jump aboard and set off immediately which probably contributed to their early resignation from the race in the Menai Straits.