100 miles to go: UniCredit is coming home

It's been a good ride in all respects, last night i wrote i was at
the longitute of Land's end, now I've passed Start point and Dartmouth
and am heading for the last stretch across to the Isle of Wight, which
i'll have to leave to my left before entering the Solent from the East
and finish in Portsmouth to complete my 1000 miles solo qualifier on
UniCredit for the Route du Rhum 2010.

Keeping awake has been the hardest part, there was plenty of traffic
around and the visibility was dreadful, the night was absolutely pitch
black and at times i had ships one or two miles away which i could
clearly see on the instruments but were swallowed by the mist and low
cloud making even keeping watch somewhat of an academic exercise.

One large brown bird, not sure what they are called but you see plenty
around, had enough of its wanderings in souch a miserable wet and windy
night that it landed in the cockpit and while i was taking a quick nap
jumped inside through the companion way... needless to say even the bird
was not sure it was a good idea, they are quite large with about 4
feet wingspan, it started clumsily jumping around and of all places it
ended up feet first in the toilet bowl, as it tried to move out it
slipped on the edge and managed to jam itself between the bulkhead and
the toilet, full wingspan open looking incredibly stupid. I had to take
it by hand, which it didnt even resist realising i was the only option,
and put it back in the cockpit... From there it didnt move for the rest
of the night, stood there continuously finding its balance as the boat
rolled, occasionally getting drenched by a wave across the boat and
looking even more distressed than we had began with... It flew off in
the first light, not before shedding its own entire bodyweight in bird
goo all over the cockpit. That's what you get nowadays for being nice to
a stranger.

I'm still on the pace for my steak, now i'll have to push six hours of
tide at Portland which will slow me down but then it should be fast
finish around the south of the isle of Wight and into Portsmouth
sometime tonight just around when it gets dark.

50 06N 003 04W

Ciao,

Marco.