A frustratingly windless night

It's been a quiet night abord EADS Innovation Works. There has been little wind and at times it has been like a mill pond out there. These conditions are really frustrating. It feels like you're not getting anywhere, mainly because you really aren't getting anywhere.

The wind comes in shifts. At times we have some wind and we're moving while the other yachts are stationary: we feel like we've got the conditions mastered. Then the wind dies and we see ripples by the other yachts as they shoot off and we grind to a halt: the frustration sets in. It has been like that all night.

The sailors have kept focussed during these difficult conditions. It is amazing to see them coaxing that extra 0.1 knots out of a boat that is doing 1 knot, tweaking this, fiddling with that. Geoff knows his boat really well and he seems to know exactly what to do as the conditions change. He spends a lot of time looking at sail shape to get the most drive out of whatever wind we have. I only really know how Geoff coaxes EADS Innovation Works: I tend to share my watches with him. John and Gary coax the same while I sleep. We've been keeping up with boat maintenance as we've been going along and have a well ordered ship.

We had a long stint of rowing yesterday evening. Gary and John were on for about 4 hours, then Geoff and the Martins had stints on and off. When the sailing speed dropped below 1 knot, we'd get the oars out and manage about a knot under oars. It would be a relief when the anenometer at last showed the wind picking up allowing us to stow the oars and let the sails do the work.

We're now approaching St Bees Head. There's a yacht on our port side. We've been told that three yachts have either made it to Whitehaven already or are very close. They will have got there after the start of the first tide and it is unlikely that they'll make it before the end of this tide. As long as we get up and down Scafell Pike before the start of the next tide, we should be in the leading pack on the sail to Scotland. We know what we have to do and we have a plan to achieve that (classified information!). In a couple of hours time, we'll be on dry land again and we'll just go for it and do our best.

As I write this, there has been another lull in the wind, boat speed has dropped from 6 knots to 1 knot when we are frustratingly close to St Bees Head. John and Gary are rowing again. It's been like that all night.

Another ten minutes go by. The wind is back. We're heeling over doing 7 knots. I can hear the rudder humming as EADS Innovation Works powers towards Whitehaven again....