Katie Millers news in Shetland Round Britain & Ireland Race

The lead up to the start of the fourth leg had been pretty intense... high winds causing damage to moored yachts (luckily only cosmetic sticker damage to bluQube) and causing some concern in the race office as to the safety of the skippers who were due to leave in the 35-40knot breeze.

Conditions like these however, are the optimum conditions for yachts like bluQube. A wide transom and twin rudders give maximum control while surfing at high speeds down wind. In fact, we were pretty excited to get over the start line and start chasing down our opponents in front of us.

With some nerve and youthful spirit on our side, we were the only yacht (we have heard) to cross the start line under spinnaker... something to do with the narrow dead downwind channel we had to overcome, with jagged rocks on either side of us. Pretty intense sailing, and only pleasurable because we managed to pull it off! As we rounded Bard Head, in 35 knots of breeze, we were soon up to boat speeds of 15knots. The highest boat speed we physically saw on the GPS was 20 knots, but we think we probably experienced higher!

After ten hours of fast, and occasionally nail biting sailing, we had knocked off in excess of 120 miles, before disaster struck! On the crossover of watches we wrapped the spinnaker around the forestay an infinite number of times. With wind speeds still in excess of 30 knots, and still maintaining boat speeds of 10-12knots, the decision was made to leave the wrap until both skippers had gotten some sleep, and the wind had died off a little. Once the wind had dropped to 20 knots Matt leapt into action on the foredeck, unclipping the sheets and physically unwrapping the spinnaker in a manoeuvre similar to a Maypole dance, except on a bucking deck. An hour and a half later, the spinnaker was still amazingly intact, but with a shredded halyard and dodgy looking forestay bottlescrew, it was time for a quick rest and check of the boat before the spinnaker was re-launched and we got back on racing form.

After a further 24 hours of downwind sailing, dodging gas platforms and pilot whales, and with the wind slowly dropping off to eventually nothing, it was time to unleash the secret weapons!! Two twelve foot sculling oars, designed specifically for offshore rowing, had found their way onto bluQube just hours before the start of the race in Plymouth, generously loaned to us by the Mayflower Offshore Rowing Club. Now was time for their utilisation, as each oar was lashed to a stanchion before rowing ensued. There are some arguments as to exactly how effective rowing is onboard sailing yachts. However, it was with some excitement that we managed to maintain the speed over the ground continue at 1.5knots. After an hour of rowing we had pulled ourselves into the next breeze, and it was time to sail on again!

Before long, we were approaching the Norfolk coast in a steady F4 to F5, beating but with the tide on our side. Over the final few miles passing Great Yarmouth we found we were making up to eight knots over the ground, amazing speed for this point of sail! We made Lowestoft with little more than an hour of fair tide, with the breeze just failing at the same time....Very lucky for us, very unlucky for the boats behind!

So, on to the last leg to Plymouth, It’s currently looking like it will be mostly light wind and therefore a very slow race in which anything could happen, so there is still a lot to play for.