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THE STARTCareful analysis of the weather faxes in the preceding days could not have foreseen thecontrasts of the start. Just off the marina area there was no wind. I think we were movingat 1.5 knots when we crossed the start line. Several hours later when we rounded southof Grande Canaria we were in a SW gale! Right on the nose. We headed south to getaway from it.Life during the race quickly settled down to a routine. We kept the same watch patterns,two on at a time, three hours on at night, five during the day. To help the 4am to 7am and5pm to 10pm team enjoy more daylight we changed our clocks one hour back at middaythree times during the trip. The last change was after we crossed the finish.We were a crew of seven and the younger ones provided the muscle to get the spinnakerup every morning and down before sunset. It was the cry of, "All hands on deck to set thespinnaker" at 1000 each morning. Particularly when we had the strong winds in the middleof the trip, we hand steered during the day. There was never any shortage of volunteersbecause it was so exhilarating; two are in the 16.5 - knot club, the remainder in the 15-knot!After day two and three, our trade winds remained strong until we were three days awayfrom St Lucia when it became rainy, squally and cloudy. The swell from the north during themiddle of the trip was something to see, 200 metres between crests confused by asecondary swell from the East and 25 - 35 knots of ENE wind.Annie Whaley and Mollie King-Smithponder on where to put all the storesNothing stayed put unless it was wedged in place. I recommend all galley lockers have frontand cross fiddles and you should acquire a 6-place bottle carrier such as that used by themilkman. When wedged in position in the galley it saved a lot of grief and spilt liquids.We remained on a starboard tack for the first seven days, then gybed. In all we gybed fourtimes, always in the late afternoon after we had taken down the spinnaker. We used IridiumZap email for communication plus the SSB for overnight weather reports that worked verywell. (Those that chose Kiel Radio had a number of difficulties) We reviewed these everymorning, sent our local weather and position reports and decided on any minor changes incourse. In the evening we received the position reports of other boats by email. Thisinformation is very helpful as it allows you the opportunity to track other similar yachts andmeasure their performance. Our logged mileage was 2954, some hundred miles too many.Perhaps we moved too far south before turning west. Paying more attention to other yachtsfurther north may have helped our course selection.30 www.oystermarine.com