Crew member on GBR8146 Vitesse

Hello from Vitesse! We're just about 50 miles away from the Rock and thought

it was about time to send our contribution to the 2011 Fastnet Blog via

Peter's satellite phone.

We're going with a Lucky Sevens theme: seven letters in 'Vitesse's' name;

seven characters in her sail number (I know, tenuous); she last won the

Fastnet in 2005 (add that together you get 7); this is Vitesse's seventh

Fastnet; out of our crew of nine we

are seven Fastnet virgins; seven blokes (two girls); seven members of the

same sailing club (London Corinthians).

Just after Lands End yesterday we have the privilege of seeing the four race

leaders pass us in the other direction. They are quite a sight to behold!

Just so long as they haven't drunk the bar dry in Plymouth and left us some

t-shirts...!

Crew morale on board is good, even after last night's less than fun

experience of the Celtic Sea, when (in my own opinion, from the starboard

pilot berth) it sounded and felt like we were sailing through gravel in a

cement mixer. The sun managed to come out this afternoon, so oilies and

smelly socks are all getting a good chance to air and dry out, we've let

some air through the saloon and had a bit of a tidy up. Often, at watch

changes we have a bit of a sing-a-long, and sitting on the rail we have

various discussions, my favourite so far being that Vitesse's new compass is

actually the Eye of Saren from Lord of the Rings.

Foodwise, we're spoilt rotten. It's like a nautical extended version of

'Come Done With Me' as we've taken turns to prepare home-cooked meals and

cakes and various treats, though we'll wait until Plymouth to do scoring.

Thanks so far to Kim and Alyson for the Shepherds Pie & Lamb Tagine. Tonight

is my Coq au Vin, and I'm hoping it will be well received.

I can't really think of anything else to say, apart from love to all our

families and friends, we contact you when we can and we'll see you soon.

Susie B