Diary of a world record

Wednesday 30th May
I decide to stay awake at the end of my early morning watch. The sun comes up, and the light on Lizard Point comes into view. We arrive at around 5.30 am, fuel warning lights blinking madly, and after a slight difficulty getting our message across, Falmouth Coastguard records our time of arrival. We've crossed the Atlantic in 248 hours 47 minutes. Not the fastest crossing ever, but the first since the finishing post was changed from Bishop's Rock to Lizard Point, and definitely the fastest ever for a boat under 50 feet. Not bad considering we had over 28 hours of stops! We discover subsequently that even our passage from New York to Horta has generated a record. We didn't beat the Cable and Wireless Adventurer, but we have set a new record, again for a boat under 50 feet.

        The next few days sees us biding our time, lying low in Falmouth, and getting reaccustomed to being on dry land again. Just when you feel you've got it cracked, everything swims around you dizzyingly, and that's before going to the pub! On the Friday we set off around Land's End and head up to Milford Haven to give ourselves a relatively short run in to Cardiff on Saturday. It's just as well. The sea conditions in the Bristol Channel are horrible, as usual.
 

The record breakers safely home in Cardiff

Homecoming
Our arrival in Cardiff on June 2nd has a wonderful party atmosphere about it. We're escorted in by Cardiff's pilot boat, and Swansea's impressive new pilot cutter, and as we enter lock number one in the barrage, hundreds of faces peer down at us, and we can hear the sounds of a jazz band somewhere up above. As we pass through the inner gate, there's a deafening display of daylight fireworks. That's what I call a welcome.

        Of course, we could rest on our laurels, but there's far too much to do. We've got a historic world circumnavigation to get out of the way first, and that needs a huge amount of work, and yes, lots of money, to make that happen. But we'll do it. Never let it be said the Spirit of Cardiff team doesn't take seriously its motto "Driven by the Challenge"!

[ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 ]