Nightfall – our Arcona 430

After what seemed like weeks and weeks of waiting, the prizegiving took place last night. Our first place in the racing division was finally confirmed and our phalanx of supporters gave us a great cheer as we received the cup in front of some 800 competitors and their guests.

Rob had to return home before the prizegiving, but the rest of us were all able to take part in a wonderful reception and prizegiving put on by the World Cruising Club.

The picture shows us receiving the cup. If you want to see it for real, it’ll be in the Tally Ho! on New Year’s Eve!

Tom talking on BBC Radio Berkshire about the race:

http://www.sperrey.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/TS-RadioBerkshire.mp3

Inside word is that he may be on Radio 5 at some point also!

Well, we’ve finished and it looks as though we’ve finished first. The race office won’t confirm the results until the 18, but our calculations suggest we’ll be OK.

Ever since we felt we were in with a chance (about half ay across), the tension has been mounting and I’d have to say that the last couple of days on board were pretty stressful for us all. But it’s been worth it!

Your comments from the blog have been terrific motivators for us throughout, and I’d like to say sorry to all those people, particularly in the last couple of days, who didn’t get a reply from us. As I’m sure you’ll understand, ‘busy’ was a bit of an understatement in the final couple of days!

Now we’re in, the formalities have been completed, we’re finding our way around and getting broken bits fixed. And we’re going to a party tonight! So you may not hear so much from us now. But you WILL hear from us when we get the final result.

Special thanks to our supporters at The Tally Ho! and to our younger supporters at Class 6M, The Shrubbery School, as well as our friends, colleagues and fellow sailors. It’s been humbling how many people have been interested in adventure and I hope all of you have gained a little insight into what it’s like on board a racing yacht on an ocean race.

Thanks to you all from all the crew and especially me.

Tom.

Here is Mike Sperrey, skipper’s son & nephew of Rob…. celebrating in Warwickshire….. Karen x

Earlier this evening, the boat crossed the finishing line and was met with a welcome party offering fruit, champagne and rum punch together with a steel band. The crew are all tired and when I spoke to Tom just now, the others had gone for a shower whilst he was sitting at the nav table filling out the immigration forms. Groan… Poor skipper … all work, even now filling in blooming forms…

Doubt if he’ll need much rocking tonight.

Unofficially he is 1st, but that has to be ratified when all hope of Dolfijn arriving to overtake him on handicap has gone….

Love to all supporters,

Karen x

7th Man here – well Chief WAG.

Sitting in the office on a wet, dreary afternoon waiting for my husband to cross the finish line with my half of the boat. (and his) Little did I think when he asked me almost 12 months ago if he could do it on our own boat that I would be sitting here with him about to win. Such an achievement and I am so proud of him and Nightlife. All the signs are that he will do it unless the spinnaker rips again or they meet a stong wind as they enter the last few miles.

We won’t know until either they call us or the leader board updates at gone 6. Such nerves. His mobile isn’t in range yet, the Satphone engaged & Norma Kilty who is probably on the pontoon with Dan’s family isn’t answering her phone.

The met man is quietly confident and the World Cruising Club threatening him with going around St Lucia again for keeping them waiting!

Nightlife has never sailed so far and so fast in all her 26+ years. 1st or 2nd will be a FANTASTIC achievement.

My thanks to you all for your comments. You have kept me busy with the editing but it has been fantastic to know that the crew has been so loved. Yesterday more than 250 people logged on!

My thanks also to Tom Chicken (TC to all who know) our IT guru who has further developed the site on the fly providing easy access to the leaderboard and other information.  (Check out the Webcam link – you may see them cross sometime… something to do rather than biting your nails!!)

The next entry will be from the boat after they have arrived!!!

Karen x

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We quote these words of Wellington, used about the battle of Waterloo, to describe the nail-biting finish going on here aboard “Nightlife”.

This morning finds us 35 miles from the finish line, with 7 hours to go, and an average speed of 7.3 knots. Every member of the crew and the ships cat are on the stern of the yacht to improve the tilt of the bow through the waves. There are storm clouds gathering behind us. This will be another major squall before we get to St Lucia. It may accelerate our progress, or push us right off course. So when Tim E said this morning “I bet Captain Blind are biting their nails” the reply came straight back “you mean more than we are?”

The last night saw us make excellent progress at great speed until 3am when the heavy spinnaker started making an alarming noise, which on investigation by Rob turned out to be a split across the bottom. The kite had already suffered a drenching earlier in the day when the halyard slipped through the jammer, and went in the water. Tom and Rob taped up the split and then Tim D and Dave sat down at 4am to stitch the whole join together. Its about 10 feet long. That kite went up again at first light and seems so far to be holding up ok, but we lost time, maybe an hour or two, and it puts us in a tight situation today. As I write it has just started raining.

Whoooops, and the boat just broached (that means leant right over in the water – ed) and we are all soaked.(1.50pm UTC) But we are up – and we carry on.

Thank you all for the good wishes, now too many to reply to today. We will do our darndest to repeat the emulate Wellington in a small way with another victory over the french ! A prize for the first person in 6M who can tell us who Horatia the cat is named after.

Horatia (Ships cat)