Well, a year after starting the planning, here we are at the start line. There have been a lot of raised eyebrows over that time at the idea of a Hallberg-Rassy doing the Fastnet. Nick, Mike, John, Chris and Beets aim to show that a windscreen, side plates and wine glasses are part of the sensible approach to the race.
After champagne sailing to Le Havre, on our first qualifier, the hours of kedging and spinnaker hoists on the Eddystone Race may well have set us up well for the first few days of this race. Hopefully, those muscles trained in dragging 80 metres of warp out of the sea on every other tide change will be ready to go. Now, a cold shower in a muddy puddle, courtesy of Cowes Yacht Haven, followed by an excellent bacon baguette have built on last nights beer and curry to set us up for the start. We have lots of water, plus spare water and spare, spare water in addition to all the food - there are 608 miles to go, it isn't dark, but we are wearing sunglasses.
Hopefully, we will get further than John and Nick did last time