Will Oxley reports from on board Artemis in the Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race 8/8/06

0800 BST

After a good start last night and a good run around the Isle of Wight we
‘parked up’ for a bit just south of St Katherines point and saw our hard work slip away as Solune slipped past to the south of us. To make matters worse boats also sailed through us to our north! We managed to wriggle our way south and into some better pressure and we have had a great sail since midnight. We passed Portland Bill with favourable tide just before 0200 am and Start Point around 0600 am.

I am pleased to report that we have Solune just a few miles to the south of us now in clear view. Our big concern was that they would get a long way south of us and keep moving while we parked up this morning but if we can close the north south gap over the next hour or so then we can hopefully cover against this. We are sailing a little higher and faster than Solune and overall it is very close.

I think we have a little advantage when the breeze is up. The rest of the day is going to be pretty tricky with the breeze expected to lighten, from the beautiful 15 knots we currently have, to around 5-10 knots. We then move into the Irish sea tomorrow with stronger winds unfortunately hard on the nose at times. The sun is out and we are making the most of the great sailing conditions at the moment.
Update 0900
Solune now on our transom. Good news!

Cheers,