Tactically anchored

We're currently anchored in Luce Bay near some rocky islets ominously called The Scares. This is a tactical anchorage though. There is almost no wind at the moment and we have a strong tide against us. We had been going backwards with the tide. Given that we are in reasonably shallow water, we've been able to drop anchor. This hasn't been possible for some of the competition who are out in much deeper water with the same strong tide. On board EADS Innovation Works, we are watching them slowly drop backwards. It is something of a revelation to me that you can race by standing still. If only life were always like that!

It's nice sunbathing weather out here. Martin has been sitting on the stern, dangling his feet in the cool water. This is a great opportunity to admire the Galloway coast. Our old friends from OMMs of yore, the Galloway Hills lie to our north east, the greywackie cliffs off the Galloway coast are due east and the Mull of Galloway lighthouse is tantalisingly due west of us. The Lake District hills (and our old friend, Scafell Pike) lie in the distance astern and the Isle of Man is clearly visible to the south of us.

The sailors have been up all night. Gary is still on deck chilling out. The last time he slept was 30 hours ago. John sleeps below after 24 hours awake. Geoff has just got up and has prepared the sails for when the tide turns and we get underway (this is strictly a lie: Geoff has supervised Gary getting the sails ready from the cockpit). There was too much maintenance work and shopping to be done for the sailors to get any sleep when we were in Whitehaven.

One thing that is slightly frustrating for us is that we don't really have web access on board. We're able to update the blog via email but can't log in to sleepmonsters to check on our position. We get sporadic updates from friends. Last year's sailor, Ken Fitzpatrick has been especially helpful. We have really appreciated the messages of support that we've received from the sleepmonsters website and that were printed out for us in Whitehaven. It was nice for me to know that my nieces were watching us sailing in Bardsey Sound at midnight on Saturday night.

The tide has now turned. We'e got the spinnaker up. The anchor has been hauled aboard which was a real fight and took three of us hauling. We're sailing slowly in very light winds. We have our running kit (supplied by Oceanworld: it' very snazzy with the Three Peaks Yacht race logo and our race number resplendent on the front) drying on the boom ready for the next run. This might be along time coming at this rate.

It's nearly bacon buttie o'clock. The sailors never refuse!