Day 5 and the final day of competition. Lighter breeze first thing had us try the J3 jib, but within 8 minutes of the start it was back to the trusty J4 as the breeze hovered around 20 knots. A biased line had the pin favoured, so we started there on port tack – nice start! Up the first beat, in and out of the cliffs, and rounded the mark, up went the spinnaker. Oops – tackline disconnected itself. Quick fix and we were speeding down to the next mark. A long upwind followed with the crew hiking hard, led by Donald, and we were in good position for the chicane through the islands and another spinnaker run. The tracer line got caught up in the sheets which required a bit of climbing and a knife to sort, then we made the turn back into the breeze. Finally rounded the first mark of the day again, this time the other way, and a fun spinnaker run back to the finish. Phew – 29 hard and wet miles. A very nice lady in a RIB then handed over a bottle of Veuve – classy way to finish the regatta. This should of course be standard.

Results were another third, making up third overall with a 3-2-3-3-3 (good poker hand). It was a well earned podium result, and good fighting it our with Kuka on the water – the class winner.

Boat all packed up for a delivery to St. Thomas to board a freighter for the journey home to Newport. Next up is the Transatlantic Race (Newport to Cowes).

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