Crew member on GBR7236R Ran

GBR7236R

We are now 15 miles away from Plymouth and we are back on calm sea and less wet weather. We have crossed the Irish sea for the 170 miles to the rock with increasing wind all the time. We passed the famous Fastnet rock at 8.07pm exactly. In old Norse, it means the "sharp-tooth isle" and it is the most southerly point of Ireland outside of County Cork. It rises about 30 meters above the water with its lighthouse built in 1899 but entered service only in 1904. (The first lighthouse was built in 1854 but was not powerful enough, therefore was replaced with the current one). It produces a white flash light every 5 second. We rounded the rock anti-clockwise with a mark 7 miles away. The rock is about 12 kilometres from the town called Baltimore on the coast of ireland, south west to Cork. This is not far from the treacherous and hazardous coastlines of Ireland. The grey and dark skies were with us rounding this little piece of rock in the middle of the sea! From then on, the wind was still strong and we continued the reaching sailing which we started just before the rock. You have to imagine a surf board flying on the water: the wind peaked as high as between 25 and 30 knots and the boat was speeding between 18 and 22 knots. An amazing (very wet!) ride! It took us therefore little time to get to our next point, 154 miles away -the Scillies or to be precise the isles of Scilly - the southwestern tip of the Cornish peninsula of the country. They are five big islands inhabited and many smaller rock islands around. We passed many of them. It is easy to understand why they are part of the AOBN - area of outstanding natural beauty - conservation areas designated by Irish and British governments. It was quite a spectacular site in the misty dawn. We then had to sail another 50 miles to the Lizard, the point at the southern tip of the Lizard peninsula. It is the most southerly point on mainland of the country. We were a bit too far away from seeing properly its light house. We are now sailing down wind, finally using our spinnakers! The wind is dying on us but hopefully it will keep it up a little more to get us to Plymouth in honourable position! We have approximately 15 miles to reach Plymouth (Mouth of the river Plym - deviation of Plympton "Plum tree town") city of 250 000 people, well-known for its ship building industry and its Royal Citadel from 1666. Also well known from the departure of the Pilgrim Fathers who left on-board the Mayflower for the New World in 1620. This time it will be the Rn sailors disembarking to dry land after a fantastic (quick!) race. Rolex Fastnet race 2011 closing slowly...#end

Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device