The wind whistles through the masts in the marina, and the sky is heavy and grey. Not a good day to set off on a world record attempt, but for Alan Priddy and the rest of the crew of the Spirit of Cardiff, it's THE day, whatever the weather.

With smashed windscreens repaired, broken autopilot replaced, and everything prepared for the first leg of the voyage, we set off from Sheppards Marina, and make our way to the harbour entrance. Waiting there is Gibraltar's Customs launch, with official timer Wayne Warwick, along with a pilot vessel for the media.

We pass the harbour entrance at just a few seconds past midday local time (1000 GMT), starting off on an epic voyage which will hopefully see us arriving back in Gibraltar in substantially less than the 74 days 20 hours 58 minutes taken by the Cable and Wireless Adventurer in 1998.

Two hours later and we're in the thick of a storm, reduced to 7 knots. Worse still is the fact that the replacement autopilot has blown, so once again we're back to driving the boat manually. We can do it, but it demands a lot more concentration.

Suddenly a cargo ship appears from behind us. He's supposed to have given us a wide berth, but he cuts us up as he comes past. At least we decide to put him to some good use as he's heading roughly in the direction of Algiers. We trail him east for a while before deciding he's actually heading further north than we'd like.

The one consolation we have is that we know that the worst of the weather experienced by Cable and Wireless Adventurer was in the Mediterranean. It'll be calm seas and sunshine after we get to Suez, and boy, are we looking forward to it.

Clive Tully

Copyright Clive Tully ©2002
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