I felt a bit guilty this morning. Waiting for the alarm to go off, all warm in my bed, I could hear the rain outside and wondered how the Fastnet fleet had coped with the conditions overnight.I was soon to find out as got the following text over breakfast: "Went for shelter in plymouth: bad night half crew down with seasickness".
Checking the Rolex Fastnet Race web site it became apparent that what seemed like half the fleet had made a similar decision. Ports from Falmouth to Weymouth must be packed with retiring boats.
The two main yachts I was following, Selene (hello A.) and Intuition (hello A. & A.), had both retired. There had even been a couple of dismastings, including the wonderfully named Oz Privateer that used to be owned by an old friend and colleague DK.
If it helps cheer up those recovering in port, this is clearly going to be one of those races that people will remember for years to come.
Graphic from race viewer from http://fastnet.rorc.org/
