SunGard Front Arena in Plymouth ahead of Round Britaind and Ireland Race

We arrived in Plymouth in the early morning of Monday after a non stop passa
ge from Portsmouth. The boat, formerly known as Mowgli, has been renamed SunGard Front Arena after our sponsor for this race.

we delayed the trip till Sunday early afternoon waiting for the blustery win
d to ease off a bit, the delay gave us a chance to sort out a few jobs on the to do list...

The passage was relatively straight forward despite a bumpy start with winds
of 25kt plus in the Solent... once out of the Needles channel and towards P
ortland the wind eased off and kept decreasing throughout the night... by the time we approached Start Point and Salcomb it died off completely and we motored the last few miles into Plymouth sound...

It was an enjoyable passage and with the boat safely in Plymouth I am really
looking forward to the race which starts on Sunday 6th... 1800 miles of off
shore racing, around 60 boats due to take part, a very competitve fleet of 10 Class 40s including ours, all very exciting!

In Plymouth it was good to meet several of the other competitors already the
re, such as Alex Bennett on the instantly recognizeable green Class 40 Fujif
ilm as well as many other friends from the shorthanded uk and Dutch circuit.
It was a year ago when I was there on the same pontoons getting ready to cross the Atlantic single handed in the OSTAR, and it's great to be back on a fast racing boat with a challenging racing program ahead...

Unfortunately I could not stay to join the party atmosphere and left on a tr
ain for London for a few more days in the office.

Less than 5 days to the start! finally ready to race round Britain and Irela
nd!