Team TorbellinoOverall Torbellino came 12th, or possibly 11th (when one protest is resolved) out of 32 starters. In the Tilman trophy, for those teams that put four runners up at least one mountain each, we were second, by just eight minutes after 120 hours of racing ...<br />
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Of course the real point was to raise money for the James Myatt Trust. After all of the donations and with the profit from our Hoe Down, we have made around £8,000 for the trust. That’s enough to send 40 disadvantaged young people sailing for a week each, during which time they will discover abilities that they didn’t know they had. For at least some of them, it should be a life changing experience.<br />
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We would like to thank all of those that donated, helped, bought tickets and sent encouraging messages of support. It was a team effort.<br />
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Surprisingly, a number of people have asked about what actually happened during the race. This report is the result, though you should bear in mind that almost none of it is true ...<br />
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<b>Saturday June 20th - Day 1- Start 1800</b><br />
<b>By Natasha</b><br />
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All 32 yachts were led out of Barmouth by the life boat as the band played on the breakwater and hundreds of people waved farewell.<br />
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Things soon got serious as the countdown to the start began. The team worked together in a hitherto unseen display of concentration under the expert instructions of the skipper to pass the start line in 7th position.<br />
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The decision was made to pass through Bardsey sound and the correct tack was taken. Team Torbellino observed monastic silence in the cockpit as any conversation apparently lost the skipper one knot in speed. It just goes to show, men can’t multitask….The runners were sent to bed at 10pm anticipating a 4am arrival in Caernarfon.<br />
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At midnight we were rudely awakened by the sound of raised voices on deck and a lot of unnecessarily loud stamping around. Poking my head out in order to tell them that some people were TRYING to sleep, I saw on one side a large cliff (about 2 metres away) and on the other side a row of mast lights which seemed to be going backwards. Our sailors had all gone slightly pale. I was told that getting round Bardsey point against the tide was living up to its reputation and we had apparently already gone round in circles seven times.<br />
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Having established that a cup of tea was not what was required at this point, I retired back to bed. Several hours later, things calmed down a little and we arrived in the Menai Straights. The oars were brought out for the first time which allowed us to enter Harbour just ahead of out nearest rivals ��" the beefy girls of Team Helly Hanson.
SleepMonsters
