Well - where did that weather come from!! It was ceratainly a "blip"
from the usual weather we have had. Forecast was for force 5 -6
gusting 7. After a bumpy Friday night aboard Marjorie listening to
the tyre fenders squeaking away although around 2 am it did quieten
down and the wind the next morning though still in the "wrong"
direction. On board Marjorie we'd heard that Edme had had a very
tough time trying to tie up to her mooring bouy the day before. I
was not to realise just how skillful Andy Harman and her crew must
have been to have even got near the bouy until my return trip to my
home waters aboard her. It was really good to see "Will" and I took
plenty of photos of her though many of her (the best ones) could not
be downloaded from the camera. The start was for us going to be
perfect Robert Deard had got us into a great position but none
aboard heard the gun........ if we had crossed the line it would
have been within 11 seconds. There was a coming together
between "Edme" and "Xylonite" where Edme's shrouds caught one of
Xylonite's davits and for that Edme was given a time penalty of 20
minutes. "May" and "Adieu" crossed the wrong side of the start line
(which as I understand things as differing between different
paperwork). Marjorie having beared away from what could have been a
very fine start put us 5th out of 5. Though the next time I looked
around I could not see Xylonite. It was hard going up to the turning
point and I found that due to my lack of fitness it was best if I
went onto the jib sheets rather than struggling with the leeboards -
phew....... I'd rather get a soaking up the sharp end!! Xylonite was
going great guns (we'd heard that she'd had mizzen trouble) from way
back in the distance. I had to admire some of her turns - worthy of
Olympic yachts!! Her crew very determined not to come in last and we
were being smartly overhauled by her. Our last board before the
turning point for the return leg saw us preparing the large staysail
and boom and passing on the outboard side of the Committee boat we
made a smart turn and saw us gain on Adieu and May. At times were
were ahead of Adieu but her new blue and white striped sail worked
best out of the down - wind. So we ended up coming in last but what
with penalties handed out we thought until almost time for the
silverware to be handed out that we had come in third. (Personal
comment) how the heck did a 20 minute penalty put Edme behind us???
She was waaaaaaaayyyyyyy ahead. So it was that we inherited 2nd and
the Majestic Trophy too (which I think must have been for our smart
turn around the outward marker.

Sunday morning 5am......... time to get up and get things sorted on
Edme. Having no engine it became obvious to me that this was going
to be difficult just to leave the mooring. But we soon left and 2
hours and many boards later we had made it as far as Garrison Point.
The total time from Gravesend to Brightlingsea was 12 hours mainly
over 1.5 - 3 fathoms. The port leeboard having lost it's water
tightness was a bugger to lift compared with the starboard one which
was almost a joy in comparison. A man over board drill to recover a
lost flip flop looked almost embarrassingly easy (he who has done
this many a time for the B.o.T. benefit). It gave us all a break
doing this and was a useful bit of fun. Up until Southend we had
Decima chugging along on her motor for distant company - she never
did gain on us much. So we ended up back home. A quick was down of
the deck and with 2 buckets of water left to call "job done" yours
truly lost the bucket....... Sorry Andy!!