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Coming on watch at Midnight on the last night at sea. No Wind, sails shaking in the swell, drifting nowhere. I am a light wind expert, so I set to get the yacht moving again. We had been given instruction to join ships anchored off the shore. Getting the watch to sit on one side of the boat and holding the clew of the Genoa over the side, helped form a shape which gathered the wind. We gathered way slowly less than a not. Slowly gaining steerage way creeping past yachts further inshore.
The current was in our favour, however as our watch came to and end we started to be swept backwards.
In the morning on our next watch we began to see the coast off Plymouth and there were still yachts to catch. We settled down once again trimming the sails. Making small alterations to the settings, one at a time and started to gain half a knot here and there until we were close hauled at 9 knots, our best speed for the whole race on this point of sail.
We had to make a couple tacks to lay the finish line but there was not time to catch one of our rivals a mile ahead.
We finished in Good style just over 5 days after starting sailing nearly 900 miles to compete the 608 mile course. We had conquered the Fastnet
David Ogden Trimmer and Helm
2019 Fastnet Finisher - Troubadour
