Thursday 27th August

WHAT A DAY!!! It was 5.15 on Wednesday morning, and hurricane Bill had arrived! The gale force winds were howling and rain was pounding as the boat rocked in supposedly bomb-proof Loch Ryan. Captain Col posted a blog, which you all read before we did…soooo, you all knew what was going on before we even got up…ie, instead of leaving at 6am, we postponed our departure until Bill had died. A lie-in was greatly appreciated, and brunch was served at around 11.30. Deciding that we would need perking up during the next few days, we went to Tesco to buy some ingredients for 2 cakes! 8 girls in multicoloured wellies, trying to buy a packet of marshmallows, some milk and some chocolate digestives through the self-service check out, paying in 20ps, got some strange looks. The cakes were a great success, although teammate Lizzie insisted her cake wasn’t burning until teammate Kate, in disbelief, found the cake was burnt to a cinder in the oven…luckily, expert buttercream-maker Kate made some to cover up the burnt bits. By 4 o’clock BILL WAS DEAD, so we set sail for our 24 hour epic adventure (define adventure, said Captain Col). Port watch started on their 4 hour watch, whilst Starboard attempted to fall asleep in the very large swell that Bill had left behind. At around 7.30, the chilli expertly made by teammate Lizzie the day before was warmed up and the whole crew gathered for their evening meal on deck. This was a slightly tricky experience, and included teammate Laura throwing orange juice all over teammate George’s trousers, and the basking sharks being provided with a tasty supper. At 8pm, Port watch journeyed downstairs. They were told by Captain Col that they should remove their waterproofs and get into bed quickly to prevent sea sickness. This lead to the quickest removal of waterproofs ever seen on Tenacity, which was made especially difficult by teammate Kate’s 18 layers of clothes! The team also had to put up strange fabric shields on their beds to prevent rolling onto the floor in the middle of the night. Meanwhile up on deck, Starboard watch watched the sunset, and had a first experience of a night sail. Teammate George spotted some amazing phosphorescent plankton in the wake of the boat, which was absolutely mesmorising. At one point teammate Cat journeyed down to the toilet, only to fall asleep whilst putting her lifejacket back on, due to the excessive amounts of kwells she had consumed…then SOME IDIOT put her in charge of steering! Teammate George questioned, “why are we suddenly veering off to the right??!!” . At midnight, Starboard crew headed down for a well earned rest (for some people anyway!), whilst Port headed back up to deck for the accurately named “graveyard watch”…12am-4am. The first 2 hours were great, having also discovered the plankton, and seeing the perfect night sky with a full view of the milky way. They entertained themselves by playing Charades, which was difficult due to the lack of light, and teammate Phil’s attempts at “Encyclopedia Britannica”..which teammate Beth still claims she got half of. The second 2 hours were spent freezing (even by teammate Kate, who experienced being “dead and morbidly obese at the same time” thanks to her 18 layers) and much more quietly, as the crew ended up like Sardines on deck. At 4, Starboard crew got back up to see glorious shooting stars, and take the boat through the sunrise to 8 o’clock. Teammate Cat was as good company as last time!!! Teammates Amy, Lizzie and Laura spent time impersonating the Scottish coastguard, and various other accents including a scouser in McDonalds (Laura, Laura, do chicken mcnuggets and a mcflurry in your accent!) and our fave welsh physicist (eg, I’ve got an ideeea…it’s called SHUTUP)! The team tried to snooze a bit, but were relieved at 8am when they could go downstairs for a sleep. Port watch headed back up, and were thrilled to see a pod of dolphins (Starboard watch were very jealous). Everyone was relieved to reach Peel Island 2 hours before schedule, allowing a yummy breakfast of frosties and eggy bread. At 11.45, we left to reach Glasson. We spotted seals and Blackpool tower in the distance. The excitement of sailing petered out, as we travelled just 1.4 nautical miles in an hour in an attempt to get into Glasson at the correct time. A quick game of family fortunes proved hilarious, and we arrived, relieved and exicted at 5.45. (however, teammate Laura was distressed that the lock keeper had been preoccupied with attending to the giant green Irish cargo boat rather than preparing our lock). After a mammoth sail of 120 miles in 25 hours, we arrived!!!! We are now off for a well earned pub tea! 1 more blog tomorrow See you then teammates! xoxo