Hannah White's blog

Well what a trip it has been and I still have 670 miles to go! A whole Fastnet race. That puts it into perspective a little. When you are used to talking in terms of thousands of miles a mere few hundred seems like a doddle!!

Evening all!! Well it is 1910 local time and we currently have about 10 knots of wind from the south, so I am sailing just slightly off the wind trying to get distance in south to try and make the most of the gulf stream that sits below me. I haven’t been able to head south until now as the massive area of no wind that I had for the first couple of days was sitting directly over the gulf stream so I have hedged my bets a little and stayed a little further north. Better wind but n so good for the currents.

Well I am off again, Currently 25 miles off Newport, I set off this afternoon bound for the Azores. It was very difficult leaving Newport. Over the last 10 days I have had such a wonderful time greeting other competitors, sharing stories between skippers, laughing at various hilarious stories and scenarios that kept us all going through the hard times, and above all making new friends. All the members and staff at the Newport Yacht Club have been absolutely fantastic, and have made us all welcome.

Can you believe it that after 3000 miles and 3 weeks on the sea I have arrived in Newport with almost the rest of the fleet and its pouring with rain. I woke up this morning and all I wanted to do was curl up under a duvet and go back to sleep. Not a good day to work on the tan!! Thankfully after a wonderful BBQ hosted by John (a friend of the race) the clouds broke and once again the sunshine came out. I finally had a chance to dry out my sails and do a bit more work on the boat. I serviced my winches and did a little bit more work to turn the boat into a cruiser!

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Last one for now, I think "Made it!!" sums this one up rather well...right, off to meet the new arrivals!

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And here's the second, thanks Billy!!

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We now have the photos of the finish through from Billy Black so I hope you enjoy seeing them, and I am sure from the smile on my face you will realise what a truly amazing day it was. Thanks very much to Billy, for coming out so far to meet me, and be the first lovely smiling face I saw when I arrived in America. For now, I must go and celebrate the arrival of Pip and Huib and Christian.
Here's the first one

Wow, what a great few days. The boats have been pouring in, there has been celebration after celebration for all the skippers. But what a wonderful atmosphere there is here. The Newport yacht club have hosted us so well, and put on fabulous BBQ’s each night and the bar seems to be open endlessly! The last few days have been a combination of celebrations, touristy type activities and working on the boat to get her ready for the trip home. The relatively short list is getting increasingly shorter and hopefully by tomorrow we will be almost ready to hit the high seas again.

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As the rest of the OSTAR racers come in, completing their impressive solo voyages, there are at least some things they might spot whilst out there to lift the mood, especially when the going is tough - Dolphins! I've done a bit of an investigating and, although not the clearest of shots (sorry!) these appear to be Common Dolphins, and for those even more interested Delphinus delphis..! Typically found around the off-shore continental shelves though they do venture towards shore occasionally...anything for a free ride on a bow wave!

Well here's your chance to find out! (wait a mo for video to load)