The caravan proves a match for Knee Deep.

The morning greeted us with a 10-12knot North Easterly clear skies and a forecast of 28 degrees. Winds said to lighten further then tend SE to 10-15 knots. Pleasant cruising conditions. Bit more would have been good for racing, but cruising it was for the eagerly anticipated match up with Knee Deep. The start line was almost as long as the first leg (measured at 600m) so it was always going to spread the fleet. Nav and tactician called pin end start early on. Nailed the start and a short run before tacking to port clear of the fleet and first to top mark.

Kite to West windmill with Knee Deep having slightly more downwind boat speed than the caravan and managed to pass us. However just as we were approaching the mark the wind died and knee Deep stopped as we glided past to be first around windmill.

Someone also said there were two other martin 49s in the race but we didn’t see them after they gybed early into oblivion and never recovered. Fickle winds lead to imaginary wind lines being spotted from all directions. Personally I think there was more wind from the crews behinds at this stage as we drifted around at speeds of up to 0.8 knots. It did what no one expected and turned into a very light SW sea breeze reaching the smaller end of the fleet first and playing right into the hands of Jaffa who did very well and kept up with the front end of the fleet (that’s us). We managed to keep a cover on Knee Deep from there on coasting along with them on our tail for the rest of the race. Wind didn’t recover over 7 knots till the end so gently does it for the rest of the race. The downwind legs were interrupted by football on the TV with Hot pies in the microwave being preferred by some. Just lacked beer , but we lose the plot with a few beers so just as well. We finished with line honours a minute or two in front of Knee Deep but we don’t think we were far enough in front of Jaffa to give us the 38 or so minutes we needed on corrected time. Great race great day and a few drinks on the bus home. Only one stop for drinks and one toilet stop this week. Till next time, the roving reporter logging off.