Menai straits

We went through the menai straits without incident. We did a bit of rowing but there was a fair amount of light wind sailing to break up the hard work. One boat was not so lucky and grounded on the swellies. They were trying to get off by taking a line to the shore to heel the boat and thence hopefully get her keel off the rocks. We don't know how successful they were.
After the swellies we navigated carefully between the buoys out into the irish sea. The wind has built and we are now sailing quite nicely towards whitehaven. Anglesey is receding into the distance. The welsh mountains are poking out of the clouds in the distance.
We are going to be out of mobile coverage for a while now and the phone battery is running low. Piers is going to rewire eads innovation works so my phone will be useable in the future. The phone is really useful both for the blog and for communicating with the crew towards the end of a run. We need to wake them up at the end of a run so they will have the boat ready to set off as soon as we get back.
Next stop whitehaven in maybe 12 hours time.

Snowdon climbed

We did 3h40m on snowdon which we thought was pretty good for us. We were the 9th boat to arrive at caernarfon and the 4th to leave after the run. The time we gained is probably not important as all the boats are likely to get caught by the tide at the swellies and the race will effectively restart.
The conditions on the hill were really great. We started along the road just before dawn and started up the hill in the cool of the morning. As we were approaching the summit we saw the sun glinting off the upper slopes of the mountain's east face. On the run down we had a cloud inversion so there were blue skies above us and there was a blanket of fluffy white clouds beneath us. There are really special conditions.
The run back along the road from llanberis was a drag as ever but we showed good courage and stodged out the miles. A disappointment was that our water stash that we had preplaced on the road to caernarfon was no longer there. Our run back was thus quite thirsty.
We are now battling against the tide in the menai straits. This might take some time!

Round bardsey

We are now through bardsey sound and sailing towards caernarfon. We left the tip of the lleyn peninsula about 15m to leeward: quite close. Geoff seems to know how close he can get to land without actually shipwrecking us!
Once round the tip we have been close tacking round little headlands and into sandy bays. It was a thrill to see our fan club in one of the bays: my nieces emma, laura and kate and their mum and dad. We say them waving from the shore (really not that far away) and waved back between flinging the jib across as we tacked.
We are now in about 6th position. The run is about to set into a cloudless horizon and we need to sleep before the run which should start in the small hours of the morning.

The start

The start of the race felt pretty strange. We were pretty close to first over the line which showed a remarkable amount of forward planning for us. Indeed we seemed to have a good 20 minutes to spare before the gun went off.
There was a fair breeze at the start but this soon died off and we came to a stop in the waves created by some motor boats at the start-as did most of the rest of the fleet. We briefly had the oars out and were the first crew to get the spinnaker out but both were soon stowed as we all hit a pretty brisk force 5 northerly.
We've had a wet couple of hours sitting with our legs over the side of the boat to try to keep her upright to balance the force of the sails with the weight of the boat. We are now close to bardsey sound at the western tip of the lleyn peninsula. We are trying to work out whether we want more sail up or less as the wind is changing strength from moment to moment. Our boat seems quite happy to have the full sail up with geoff at the helm so maybe we will stick with that.
We are probably about 4 hours from caernarfon and so will probably climb snowdon in the dark. We think a lot of the boats will get caught in the tides at the swellies after the snowdon run. We are thus not overly worried about not being near the lead on the water at the moment.

The mobile blog

I've worked out how to update the blog from my mobile phone. This means trouble!

Three Peaks Yacht Race preparations

It hardly feels like a year ago that we were last racing in the Three Peaks Yacht Race, but it's that time of year again. We have a new boat this year (one of Geoff's racing fleet!) but are proudly racing as EADS Innovation Works again.

Last year's race was something of an epic event. Sailing and running races can develop into epics when there is either too much wind or no wind at all. The windy epics are white knuckle rides with the runners gingerly watching the sailors control a racing yacht surfing down big waves with a massive spinnaker up: the sailors nervously walking the tightrope between speed and instability. The windless epics turn into cat and mouse games trying to catch little wafts of wind by luck, judgement or by the physical exertion of rowing between the wind patches. Last year's race was essentially windless. I think we won it partly by sheer determination on the rowing.

Is a bigger boat always a better boat? Usually, yes. The critical word is "usually". In light wind conditions in the Three Peaks Yacht Race, smaller boats could have an advantage. When a boat cannot achieve "hull speed", when size matters, lightness matters. Tactix is a light boat. When you have to row, the less boat you have to slug through the water, the faster you'll go. This year we've taken a punt on conditions and have chosen to race in Tactix, a light X-99 type racing yacht. Tactix is 32ft in length and will be one of the smaller yachts in the fleet.

We have been much more fastidious in preparations this year. In May, some of the sailors and runners sailed and ran the Scottish Islands Peaks Race (Mull, Jura and Arran). We got quite a few ideas from this race and ironed out some of the potential problems with both Tactix and the way we live on Tactix (it is important to be able to live well on the boat in order to preserve strength of both body and mind in an endurance race). I fell in love with Tactix on this race. She's an absolutely fantastic racing yacht.

We rowed for long distances on the Scottish Islands Peaks Race, giving us ideas about how to battle against the calm conditions that we're hoping for in order to do well on Tactix. One great idea Geoff had was to enlist Piers Copham into the crew. Piers is a great all rounder, being both a sailor, rower and runner. Piers has been busy applying himself to optimising Tactix's rowing ergonomics. As a national-standard oarsman, Piers needs a tip-top rowing set up on board and has been making visits to Tactix with saws, wood and drills in hand. With a national standard oarsman and an ex-university rower on board, we are hoping to make good rowing progress this year.

The two runners (Martins Beale and Indge) have been competing in the Runfurther UK ultra-running championships and are feeling both confident and nervous at the prospect of the running stages. Snowdon was recce-d the Sunday before the race. Scafell PIke and Ben Nevis have also been climbed recently.

Geoff, Gary and Piers are our primary sailors. Geoff owns Tactix and knows her well. I'm hoping that he has become akin to Tactix's massive new kevlar-reinforced mainsail during the Scottish Islands Peaks Race. It is unlikely that we'll be under-canvassed in this race! Gary and Geoff have been planning tactics for the race and are meeting up on Thursday night in Barmouth to make the final sailing preparations. As past winners in the race, I know they'll be keen to give things a really good shot this time.

A little story from the preparations....

I visited Tactix last week in Barmouth harbour. I needed to go and take some measurements for Piers. It was getting late in the day and the water taxi service was not operating (due to the late hour). I used my own dinghy (from my yacht, Cervisia) to get out there. It was an extremely exciting affair (in a small blow-up dinghy). A spring tide was rushing into the harbour: it looked like a fast flowing river. I aimed well upstream of Tactix and paddled like mad. As I was paddling across, I could see my upstream advantage being rapidly eroded as the tide was rushing up the estuary towards Dolgellau. I landed pretty much spot on top of Tactix, which I was most relieved about: a happy combination of brute paddling force and good judgement. I spent more than an hour on Tactix. This was both to measure up for Piers and to wait for the tide to abate. As the sun was setting, I plucked up the courage to head back to dry land. The tide was still like a maelstrom and I was getting washed towards the Barmouth railway bridge despite my paddling efforts. At the level of the last boat in the harbour, I got out of the tidal stream and felt so relieved as I calmly paddled through the calm water to the slipway and safety. I've never had quite such excitement with a tape measure before!

Pumlumon Challenge

It was third time lucky for me on the Pumlumon Challenge. I got the second fastest time in 2007 (Allen Smalls and Matt Davis crossed the line to beat me) and was second in 2008 too (Mark Hartell beat me: I caught up to within 30 seconds of him at one stage, but he pulled away from me: agghhh!). I was motivated to have a good crack at the race this year: it's a lovely race, the first prize is fantastic (a beautiful framed photo of part of the course) and I'd set myself the goal of giving the Vasque series a good crack in the second half of the year.

It couldn't have been a more beautiful day for the race. There was a cloudless blue sky. As we drove up the A44 from Llangurig, we exited the fog to see the beautiful clear mountains of Pumlumon: what a sight! The event centre is the Forest Commision complex and red kite feeding centre on the A44 and is an idyllic spot for the start of a race.

Once we started, someone went off like a shot: really, really fast. I'd never seen him before and was really concerned that this could end up being a brutally fast chase (until someone blew up). I gave chase (with Martin Indge and some others) and we were doing a stupid pace round the lake: 5m30s / mile! Things calmed down after the first little hill, but then it was full pelt again along a forest track: 5m30s / mile again!

We hit the real open country at Dinas mountain. This allowed us to get into more of a rhythm. My local knowledge was starting to pay off here as I was clearly choosing better lines than the others around me. They seemed to settle into the idea that I knew where I was going and was a good person to follow. I'd have liked to shake them off, but this seemed too early for any of that sort of heroics. I was planning on running the race with team mate Martin Indge too, so I was trying to match pace with him.

There followed a steep hill up onto the Plumlumon plateau. A runner, who I later learnt was called Hugh, set off in hot pursuit up this and he was clearly catching me up. I decided that now was the time to go for a big push. The tactic I decided on was to to run as hard as possible for as long as it took: a do or die approach. I knew my lines across the terrain really well and executed them well. I ran all the hills and ploughed on through the heather and the boggy patches (on my secret little paths that were unfortunately being shared with Hugh about 30 seconds behind me). The one place I seemed to make a real difference was on the forest track near the source of the River Severn, but Hugh was catching up with me as we approached the source itself. He finally caught up with me at the north eastern most point of the course. We'd run flat out for over an hour and about 8 miles: it was pretty tiring stuff, especially as the heat was starting to build up.

Hugh was starting to run away from me a bit along the big wild valley that forms the northern section of the race, but I hung on in there and did my best to catch him up. I seemed to catch him in a particularly boggy patch and from there, we ran together and chatted. I found out that Hugh had done a 17h40m South Wales Traverse which I found pretty impressive and made me wonder what I'd got myself into: trying to race someone who was clearly so capable.

The dreaded Drosgol this year was a pussycat. Although the ascent was gruelling, the descent line that I had this year was great. I managed to avoid the tussocks by picking up some good quad bike tracks. Although my line was significantly longer than the direct tussocky line, I'm sure it was quicker and was definitely less soul destroying.

I noticed that I seemed to have the edge on Hugh once back on the track. I was still chatting to him, but I felt I had something in reserve. We stayed together to near the final manned checkpoint (on the Nant y Moch reservoir road) and then up the next hill, but after that, I just decided that I'd run at what felt like a comfortable pace and see what happened. I seemed to ease away ever so gradually. We were still only 30 seconds apart at the final checkpoint (in the middle of a bog!), but I just sensed that the tide was turning in my favour. I had a great line from the final checkpoint (near a hill called Disgwlfa: a checkpoint that many people had trouble finding) towards a ford and the final big hill. I managed to run on a good little path and avoid the nearby tussock field: those sheep know their way around Wales! This got me a little further ahead. I then ran in well along the tracks to the finish to win by about two minutes: a great feeling after two second places in the previous two years.

It's given me quite a lot of confidence knowing that things aren't over when someone catches you up. If you stick with them (whatever the temporary pain is), it seems like you can still regain the initiative. Or maybe Hugh was just being sociable and running with me along that northern valley and I did the nasty at the end. I hope it wasn't like that.

I really enjoyed the race. It's a highlight of the Vasque series for me. What a wonderful place to hold a race. The remoteness should not deter people.

There's now less than a week to get back in shape for the next race in the Vasque series: it's going to be quite an intense finish for me this year!