At last our 2 teams are home, safe and sound, back from their epic 14 days at sea.
Smiles and cheering all round when they crossed the finish line at Cowes yesterday. A stiff south easterly breeze saw both yachts scamper home in double quick time as soon as they turned into the Eastern Solent.
First home was Playing Around with Peter Robson nearly giving all supporters a mini-heart attack when he called to say they were going really slowly, had missed a tidal gate and probably would be 3-4 hours before finishing, This was at 10am. At 11.30 he called again to say they were now doing 11 knots under spinnaker and would be home in 90 minutes! At this stage, the support rib was broken down in Southampton Water and was unable to see them finish – gutted! However, Elaine, Mairead and Sally were waiting in Cowes to greet the team in, and hijacked a waiting water taxi and actually followed them over the line. The owner of the taxi has never had such a fun time on a Sunday – many thanks to him for helping out!
Playing Around’s crew were jubilant, if a little hairy(!), and absolutely delighted to have finished the race, and in such style. They were 3rd in class and just narrowly missed being second and beating British Soldier by just 15 small little minutes – that is how close it really was…..amazing after 14 days at sea. After a dock party of champagne, beer and plenty of hugs, Playing Around set back across the Solent and up the Hamble River to home at Universal Marina.
Meanwhile, Visit Malta Puma were hard on their heels having clawed back am amazing 20 miles over the last day to get within 30 miles of Playing Around. They extended their lead of Cheeki Rafiki, with whom they were having a great tussle with over the Irish Sea, and after having to beat for the final 5 days of the race, were able to pop the spinnaker at the back of the Isle of Wight and come home in style. A posse of Mum’s, girlfriends, wives, and friends, were waiting in Cowes, on the actual finish line to cheer them home. Just as the sun was setting, the big, white kite of Puma became visible rounding the last headland as she tramped over the line screaming along at over 11 knots. A fantastic sight, and an amazing one After all that the team has been through over the last fortnight they can be extremely proud of themselves for hanging on in there, for staying the course and for completing their task, when most other teams would have thrown in the towel and admitted defeat. We will never know quite what happened to the alternator, but if that hadn’t have happened, we would not have had the most amazing comeback we have witnessed.
To put it into perspective, when they turned back into the race, after stopping for 8 hours to effect repairs, they were 20 hours and more than 180 miles behind where they were when they stopped racing.
When they finished they had overtaken Cheeki Rafiki, clawing back over 90 miles that they were ahead at that point plus another 40 over the last 3 days – pretty damn good stuff. Encore and British Soldier’s deficit was reduced to 70 miles, and as mentioned they finished just a few hours behind Playing Around. A very tired and emotional crew tied up at Cowes Yacht Haven, to be welcomes to a treat of champagne, beer and fresh food. Even a cigar was found to top it all off!!
We still don’t know this morning if Puma has managed to take the overall season’s points championships in Class 1, we will let you know when we do!
Allie
