GHOST

Well we got to the boat late morning for a day of preparation, only to be greeted by a miserable chap warning us of the coming weather! First question as we unpacked the car was "are you doing the Fastnet?" ..." then have you seen the weather forecasts?" "They're looking for 50kns in the Irish sea" . This is not what we wanted to hear. All day it has been the topic of conversation, have you seen the weather, will they cancel the race!! Needless to say I think it is abit of hype. For the last to times (2003 and 2005) the Fastnet has been a mill pond with little to no wind. I think many are trying to predict the worst case. We've checked our weather forecasting sources and yes we are expecting some heavy weather but not the 50 to 60 knots that the rumour mongers are perpetuating.

At the moment it looks like a slow start with confused winds coming from any direction blowing about 5kns building into some more dominate westerlies by late afternoon with a strength of 10-15kns. This is not ideal for us, ideally we'd like more. Knock on wood I don't want to wish for anything right now!! The trouble is looking like Tuesday, Wednesday. There is a low tracking and building in the mid Atlantic and rather than buggering off to the north it is forecast to stay low and then merge with a low coming in from the north, up scandi way. Looks a little odd but importantly this could bring 30 to 35plus knot winds late on Tuesday and into Wednesday. These are likely to be coming out of the WSW. So if we can make good time long the south coast, get out the rock and round it ASAP, and then we'll have a chance to run with the heavier winds all the way home, which would have great!

No matter what this is going to be a fast race for the big boats, they'll make great time long the coast being able to hold very close to the rhumb line if the forecast proves correct. Then as normal they miss the heavy weather and run home under kites!