Race Finished

We crossed the finish line at 0545 UTC, to the sound of Queen We Are
The Champions.

A very difficult finish saw us becalmed for several hours last night,
but we have made it to the line, and now can only wait for final race
positions!!

Head for the second waypoint

Blue watch (team bonk) sailing us to the 2nd waypoint, Joe on the
phone Shelly, we are just in mobile range again!

News of current 2nd place (16th July 1100)

The daily results are in and currently we are 2nd in our class which
is excellent news having moved from 4th place in last nights results.

This is blue watch on deck happy to have heard the news and now keen
to keep pushing on for more...

Next results this evening.......

Tall Ships wait for start (#4, 14 July)

The Tall Ships are looking great now the sun is out and head for their
(current) start at 1730 gmt.

Binocular Photo (start #6, 14 July)

The Tall Ships in Class A and B start before us but Ben found a great
way to capture them with binoculars on the end of your camera!

This was the last shot taken on our blog phone, all other start photos
will appear once we can access our other cameras, probably back on
land.

Those shots are worth waiting for, we over took lots of the fleet
before night fall, and right up close to the big tall ships we got
some corkers. Not to mention the sun setting behind one of the biggest
square riggers in the race!

We are off.... (start #5, 14 July)

As we cross the line the boats being tuned for speed by everyone
onboard, there is just time to grab two crew and snap a shot as we
cross, that's the naval ship representing one end of the line. Great
timing by the mate put us over the line moments after our start.

Crew hit the deck (start #3, 14 July)

After being rained on for so long everyone headed on deck to celebrate
the sunshine.

Keep tracking our progress at: http://www.tinyurl.com/2010rona

A Big Update (sat phone)

Good morning Rona2 blog readers,
sorry for the delay in sending you all a decent update. We have had a great
couple of days. The journey down the river was long, arriving in an
anchorage
in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

We had a few final jobs to do Wednesday morning before heading to the start
line some 30 miles offshore. One of the jobs was to play man overboard with
a horseshoe lifering!! This suitably earned a crew member the D*#k of the
day
award!
The race start was delayed for two and a half hours due to light and
changeable winds. The class A start was spectacular, seeing 25 tall ships
cross the line within minutes of one another is amazing.
Class B started soon after (older ships with gaff rigged sails), then Rona 2
in Class C, we crossed the line at full pace, with number one genoa, full
main and mizzen.

In the light winds we made great progress on the classes ahead powering our
way through the fleet overtaking many of the square rigged vessels, some
great photos to follow cheering to the Russians on Kruzenshtern.

Soon a vicious rain squall swept across the fleet, which made the deck watch
question reality after a beautiful sunset. Rona2 approached the first way
point in the early hours of Thursday morning. Gybing onto Starboard, polling
out the headsail and launching the mizzen staysail. Flying down wind
touching 13 knots was a fantastic feeling. The stream of phosphorescence
made
Rona2 look like she was sailing on bubbles of light. The myriad of
navigation
lights made us realise how large the fleet was.

In the morning we gybed back onto port and reduced headsail as the wind
increased. The wind kept on increasing and Rona the Rocket was flying. Large
amounts of water across the deck, but truly brilliant sailing. The speed
competition between the watches was well underway. Eventually we had reduced
the sail plan to main with 2 reefs and stay sail, still hitting 13 knots of
boat speed, with a peak gust of 60 knots!!

Seasickness hit a few of the crew but most fought their way through it, in
true RSP spirit.

Friday morning sees Rona2 with 2 reefs in the main, yankee 1 and staysail,
power reaching, surfing down the now moderating sea at 12+ knots. Sun rise
was beautiful, a moment to reflect on how fortunate we are to have this
opportunity. Breakfast is being cleared up, heads and saloon being cleaned
whilst the on watch maintain lookout and drive the boat to her maximum
potential.

Now life is a little more comfortable we hope to update you soon. (Life is
Good)

Gusting 58 knots (sat phone)

Lots of wind and lots of water, over the deck, over the crew, and a little
getting inside. When things dry up we will write a longer report. We have
had great sailing since the start, and look forward to this evening position
report to find out where we stand in the race so far.

Our current position: 54.11.584N 004.18.786E at 1953 on 15 July

You can track us at http://tinyurl.com/2010rona

Crew head on deck

After being rained on for so long everyone headed on deck to celebrate
the sunshine.

Keep tracking our progress at: http://www.tinyurl.com/2010rona

Tall Ships wait for start (#4, 14 July)

The Tall Ships are looking great now the sun is out and head for their
(current) start at 1730 gmt.

Rains gone, suns out for the start (start #2, 14 July)

The Tall Ships are getting ready for their start....

Busy start area (start #1, 14 July)

The lack of wind has delayed the start by two hours, so everyone is in
a holding pattern.

Bit of a busy radar!

Red Wine Couilé

White watch are getting carried away with their cooking, dinner is
looking amazing!

Awaiting Start (Sat Phone)

Now waiting for our start at 16:45utc (17:45uk local). We are waiting for an
awesome roast beef dinner and would like the rain to stop :)

The press are getting wet!!

We just heard on the radio the press boat are all moaning about the rain!!

This is blue watch in the rain and loving it, left to right:
John Bound, (Skipper)
Ben Hedges
Joe Coles
Stuart Woodger (Mr Mate, at helm)
Sam Oldham
Barney MacFie (WO)
Steve Jackson (WL)
Ed Ireson

Busy start area

The lack of wind has delayed the start by two hours, so everyone is in
a holding pattern.

Bit of a busy radar!

A night on anchor

This morning have been woken to the smell of frying bacon. We have
spent the night at anchor, and are now ready to head out to the start
line for later in the day.

Crew moral is high, and the sweep stake has been complete for finishing times.

Feels like we have been together for several weeks, although it's only
the start of day 5.

Best go now, the eggy bread started to be fried, time to get a seat
for breakfast.

Track us:
http://www.tinyurl.com/2010rona

A great dinner from Red Watch

Roast ham, spicy potato wedges, carrots and peas, and followed by an
epic apple crumble and custard!

We missed the parade of sail :(

Sure everyone watching our tracker will have notice the lack of
movement and that the parade of sail is over.

Well we we're on time for the lock along with 15 other boats from the
race. For a reason we are yet to understand the parade all happened,
but we all got left in the lock, and when they finally opened it all
they could say was sorry but it's all finished, just turn right and
leave!!

Great shame for the crew who never got to see it :(