And we're off!

We're now one hour into the race. The winds proved light and variable at the start. We wanted to head up for the line but got squeezed so ended up doing our classic Croix des Gardes tactic of actually starting a few minutes after the line opened.

The turn out was spectacular with everyone on the water to see us off. Even the J-class Endeavour was there.

We had a parade start along the coast and did rather well in the light airs, actually making on some of the larger and faster boats. James proved master tactician at the first mark, and took the wind off three boats in extremely close quarters - Valteam, Gimcrack and Artaius. We took the mark first and are now heading out into the ocean hard on the wind.

We're currently making 4kts with 690nm to run to the Canaries. The faster boats have once more overhauled us but we're about to settle down for some lunch. The children are content, both playing tic-tac-toe and hangman in the doghouse and enjoying the fine conditions. We just hope for a following wind sometime soon...