Things are different this time.

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“Twenty seven days, eleven hours and eleven minutes. But I’m here” All that time ago I’d seen Jerry off from Plymouth in the 1984 Ostar and that was the last we heard of him until the call from Newport.

I was fairly new to offshore racing but here I was in Plymouth for the week before the race helping Jerry get Abacus ready for the race. All the great and the good of offshore racing were here: Yvon Fauconnier, Marc Pajot, Eric Tabarly and Jerry Freeman. Also in the race was Jemima Nicholas which I suspect is the same boat as is in this year’s race. Then it finished about 17 hours ahead of Jerry.

Climbing down below on Thursday’s Child left me gobsmacked. The huge boat was empty below save for a pilot’s seat at the central nav station, gimballed stove and bunk and a pile of sail bags.

On 24th May 2009 I saw Jerry off again but before we got home to Norwich he was texting using his Iridium phone. On the tracker I can see his position, heading, what weather he is in, what weather he’s going to be in and the position of all the other boats. All this information he’s waiting for me to send and he’ll reply within minutes.

This time I’ll be watching as he approaches the finish and I suspect there will be a text giving his time.

The photos are British Beagle, Jonathan Snodgrass and Christian Chalandre in Plymouth before the start.

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