Hi everybody, the race is  well and truly over and life seems a bit flat now, the weeks before seem to be full of things to do to get Paget's Lady ready for the race, then to get her down to the start at Barmouth, for some reason the weather seems to know we are off down there, so does its best to prevent it.

Plan was to leave on Monday before the race, but then gales from the SW were forecast for Sunday and Monday, so I left on Friday fortunately getting to Caernarfon Friday evening after a brisk sail over to the Menai through the Swellies and into Victoria dock.

The Gale arrived on Saturday and blew all day Sunday thankfully we were very comfortable in the marina.

Monday dawned sunny windless and surprisingly calm, after such a blow I expected the Caernarfon Bar to be very rough but it was very calm, I motored all the way to Bardsey Sound, possible cutting it a bit close into the sound, so suffered the washing machine effect for a few moments getting round the west end of the sound but once into the sound with a fair tide it was calm again, I sailed for a while on my way down to Pwhelli arriving the early evening. I decided to have a day off here as it was rather early to get to Barmouth so spent Tuesday lazing around, little did I know that Wednesday, Thursday & indeed Friday were to bring strong winds from the SW, making Barmouth Bar very dangerous so by Friday 6 or 7 boats were desperate to get to Barmouth by 1600 hrs, ( all boats have to be in Barmouth 24 hrs before the start time or suffer penalties) in the end I had a great sail over to Barmouth, surfed in over the Bar and moored second boat in the Trot, a line off mooring put down just for the race, a bow line is attached then a stern line which forms the bow line for the next boat, this way a lot of boats can be moored in a very small narrow channel, with strong currents running in and out, the boats are prevented from swinging.