Gale force winds for leg 4 of the Round Britain and Ireland

This morning we woke up to a terrifying howling wind, i was up by six
running left and right trying to fend off the boat rafted up to me, the
bashing was very severe and got some minor damage, other boats were less
lucky and have great areas of the beams with crushed laminate.

The spectacle carried on for hours as the local RNLI tried to tow off
the boats with ribs, but even that proved a hard exercise and in some
instances more damage occurred as the boats were towed off.

The forecast is daunting, force 9 severe gale imminent, we have more
than 30 knots of wind in the marina but at least it is from the north
and we want to go south, that's a start.

Around 10 am the race committee informed us they intended to postpone
the restart process by 24 hours, after some confusion and discussions
the decision was overruled by the race office in Plymouth as in offshore
sailing usually the norm is that it is the responsibility of the skipper
to decide whether to race, continue racing, stop or whatever.

Staying in the marina is currently worse than being at sea, the boat
rafter up to us has been taken but we still have no less than 5 car
tyres as fenders, and the boat is bouncing scarily all the time.

Our re-start is in a few hours, this leg will be about preserving the
boat in one piece, small sails, sail safely.

I'll keep you posted.