Here's a link to An Ungentlemanly Act, with Spanish subtitles:

youtu.be/kW-OMf3Fjn4?...

Birthday party - tick. Visit old haunts in the Yorkshire Dales - tick. Time to head home now; it's going to take 30 hours door to door. Travelling doesn't get any easier. And the UK is busier, angrier, more bigoted and generally a rather nasty place to be. Still... not my country any more.

This. I always carried a whistle and a strobe light when in blue water. And highly visible reflective outer clothing, NOT the blue or black that seems to be fashionable, coupled with a water-activated life jacket. But the first line of defence must be to use a harness attached to a stout jackstay.

Huge respect to Ingrid Tandrevold. Straight to Julia Simon after finishing, to help her get her skis and boots off. True sporting spirit.

An app called YB Races from the Google playstore.

Don't know for sure but it looks as though a couple of others are also heading to the Cape Verdes; Xenia and Sao Jorge.

That's awful. So sad for the family, the crew and the whole rally.

You're right. My bad.

Be interesting to see if they elect to go north or south of Kerguelen. Looking at the forecast ahead, north might pay off despite the longer distance. I've sailed the Southern Ocean myself; we went south, in fact we stopped at Port Au Francais for two days.

I plead guilty to having opened a can of worms. But it's nice to have a civilised discussion about it.

Agreed but the regulation says "...shall *at all times* maintain a proper lookout by sight and hearing *as well as* by all available means appropriate to the prevailing circumstances...". The question remains; is single-handed sailing illegal? I don't know the answer and AFAIK it hasn't been tested.

You raise a contentious point. There is an opinion (and I don't necessarily subscribe to it) that single-handed sailing is illegal because Regulation 5 of the International ColRegs (keeping a lookout by sight and hearing) cannot be complied with. Not sure how a collision would be treated legally.

Not only were we taught cursive at school (1960s UK), but also italic using a fountain pen.

I think that's a Fairey Barracuda. My late father used to fly them in the latter stages of WW2.

After a slow start Charisma has gained 11 places in the fleet. A long way to go yet, but it's all about the experience, not the placings.

Me too though age is against me. Over 30 years since I made an ocean crossing. No gps in those days, all done by dead reckoning and sun-run-sun.

No. For the moon to be full, the sun would have to be behind the photographer, in which case the sky shouldn't look like that.