Crew member on 27 Hot Socks

Well we have continued the theme of 'never a dull moment' aboard bluQube.With just a few hours to go before we rounded the Fastnet and for thesecond time in one day we were approached at speed by a motor vessel.Upon closer inspection it turned out to be the RNLI which suprised us alittle as as far as we were concerned we had no requirement for rescue atthat particular moment in time, (had the famous rock been any further awayI think we would have volunteered quite happily to take part in a rescuedrill!) Rather than seeing some freindly faces we were greeted by a sterntelling off for having broadcast on channel 16 all day blocking out anyother users. We were of course blissfully unaware of this and it turnedout to be a gremlin in the on deck vhf which has remained off ever since.We apologized profusely and have since been trying to recall what we mayhave been chatting about that everyone else in the vicinity would havebeen a party too...oops So we eventually rounded the rock and were pleased to still see a few navlights behind us! We celebrated in style with a glass of Babycham each,(pure class), and set to work overhauling the boats that we couldn't catchupwind. By Pantaneous buoy we had already caught 3 yachts and excitedlyhoisted the spinnaker planning a night of overtaking. With spinnakerraised to its full glory it flew for all of 5 minutes before the windsimply vanished - not a sausage. So that was the end of that and the jibwent back up. After several minutes of doing graceful 360 degree drifts asmall breeze line moved in, along with a ship that had clearly given uptrying to figure out which way we were going and had opted for full steamahead. He had just passed when our lovely auto helm decided that itenjoyed seeing the Fastnet rock so much that we should go straight backandsee it again and with that we almost did! Hard to starboard we went andhard to starboard we stayed. The ram attached to the rudder was notplanning on giving up this fight, so once again we had to watch boats sailaway as we fixed the problem. Finally at 3am this morning we launced the kite again and had a greatblast reach past the Scilly Isles which rejuvinated hope that we might getin tonight and have that steak and cold beer we have been longing for. Ifnothing else the pong of damp boat, damp sails and damp girlis quite rifeon board. Hannah even announced this morning that she did not recallhaving removed her boots since Monday whilst Katie wins the sticker fromthe dentist award for having done her teeth twice since the start! (moretimes than Hannah!) So we now find ourselves amongst lots of otherspinnakers trundling along towards the Lizard and thoroughly enjoyingFINALLY sailing downwind!