A game of three halves

We'd been getting nowhere in Bardsey Sound, finding it impossible to get through a tide race at the northern tip of the Lleyn peninsula. We thus gambled on going around the west side of Bardsey - along with a few other boats. This gamble didn't work. Once we'd rounded the island, there were maybe 15 stern lights ahead of us. Maybe they'd caught a gust of wind at just the right time to push them round...

And so we raced up the north side of the Lleyn peninsula in the dark with our light spinnaker up, slowly reeling in the rest of the fleet. The Martins slept, ready for what would almost certainly be a fast Snowdon leg. We docked at 7:30, "jumped" off the boat, got kit checked and then set off.

I make a plan at the start of all these Three Peaks runs. The classic plan for Snowdon is: an hour to Snowdon Ranger, an hour up, 40 minutes down and an hour back. This would give us a time of 3h40m which should be pretty hard to beat.

I'm not a road runner. I don't claim to either be particularly good at it or to particularly enjoy it (the Chippenham to Stanton run excepting). There's 8 miles of road to the Snowdon Ranger path. My GPS counted the miles down for me: I ran. 58 minutes to Snowdon Ranger: ahead of schedule - good job. A surprising thing about the run in was that we overtook no-one: showing just how much time we'd lost at Bardsey.

I never navigate with GPS: it just counts down the miles for me. We navigated up Snowdon by map alone in generally good visibility. The navigation was spot on (for the first time in the Three Peaks Yacht Race for us): it was like a work of art. 1h58m at the summit: ahead of schedule.

If the navigation on the way up was like a work of art, nav on the way down was a dream. It's down the Llanberis path so you can't get lost, but the devil's in the detail and we had the detail right. We had recced running down the railway, but the organisers were really not up for this, so we were on the main path all the way. Running down the railway is pointless: the path's quicker. 2h36 to Llanberis: right on time.

The 8 mile road run back to Caernarfon was purgatory. Martin was dragging me along as the GPS counted down the miles. Despite some unpleasant clearing at Llanberis, the weather settled into a perfect refreshing incessant drizzle. We couldn't have asked for better. We were tired when we got back to Caernarfon quay (to see EADS Innovation Works gliding along to pick us up). Our time of 3h35m was ahead of schedule and much faster than I'd managed in previous years. We couldn't have asked for more from ourselves.

We're now sailing slowly up the Menai Straits at low water. There is a vicious tide against us and we are almost stationary. The sailors look wet on deck. I'll be making bacon butties in a minute. There are 9 boats ahead of us, but they're all in the Straits, stopped by the tide. This is good for us. In essence, the race restarts in an hour's time when the tide turns.

Our run seems to have kept us in the overall race. We've learnt that the GFT runners beat us by 6 minutes in 3h29m: an excellent effort. We are not despondent though: we show good courage. If we'd done last year's time of 4h06m, we'd be out of the running for the King of the Mountains. As it is, we're right in there. I still think we've got a good chance. Our best mountain is to come. If we have some luck with the weather, and we can play to our strengths, I still think we can pull something out of the bag on Scafell Pike.

We're committed to it, the sailors are committed to it. We've got a race on our hands. We lost the first leg, but it's a game of three halves and there's everything still to play for. Bring it on!