MALCOLM’S BLOG FINAL LEG RBI 24TH JUNE

After all the dramas of leg 4, the final leg has seemed a little tame by comparison. We left Lowestoft at 9pm on Tuesday night hot in pursuit of SunGard – two hours ahead of us, and pursued ourselves by Solo and Phesheya Racing about the same distance behind us. As I write on Thursday afternoon, SunGard are probably about 10 miles ahead of us and Solo have made up some ground.

Sometime tomorrow, Friday, is the likely finish time and it is still anyone’s race to win. We are working Fujifilm as hard as possible to make sure we get every knot of speed from her. This has meant a very punishing schedule with virtually no sleep for the last two days and we hope we have enough reserves left to get us over the finish line. On the plus side, sailing conditions are good with flat seas, a steady 10 to 15 knot breeze and blue skies – we could be in the Med!

Plymouth is now almost in sight, but unfortunately the winds have been directly against us, until tonight when we are expecting a change. For most of this morning we have been sailing south west down the English Channel, now we have turned back towards the coast and are heading north west into Lyme Bay.

Arrival at Plymouth is very difficult to predict: it will depend upon how favourable and for how long we can ride in new winds forecast for tonight. Our most optimistic guess would be around 6am but probably later. It is too close to call who will be first across the line. Rest assured, we are pushing as hard as we can to make it Fujifilm.

Wish us luck, since I think whoever wins will need just a little!