Tuesday 10 am

Tuesday 10 am Tough night again. After becalming at Fastnet we dropped loads of places and Diablo was 9 miles ahead. After we got round we seen Diablo had sailed into a hole but unfortunately we followed but it meant we closed the gap to 5 miles.  Again no sleep last night as there was constant sail changes  The mist last night was very heavy we could not see past 10 metres. One time the wind stopped, Fasttraxt the yacht behind us nearly sailed right into us I think they did not see us till 10 feet away. Wind filled in and we got away ahead of them but then a hour later we hit another pocket and they kept clear and sailed right past us. They are now a mile ahead of us.  Even though the wind hole helped us close the gap on the oats ahead it also let the boats behind get closer to us and most of these have a better handicap than us so they leap frog us on the leader board even though they are not ahead of us  This morning we are just passing Haughey's island of Inishvickillane. A great role model for all would be crooks ( not that I know any)  We now have a leg of 122miles to black rock off Balmullet. If we are to do any good in this race this leg will be important to get some gains in the bag. All the boats ahead are using Asymmetrical kites and will have to zig zag up coast. As we have symmetrical we can sail straight to mark at a slower pace but covering less ground.  So we need the wind to stay from south if it goes west the J boats will leave us for dead.  Well lets see what happens.