7th June: Round the Island Race

I was at NCI Stone Point on Saturday 7th June at 0530hrs to open up the station in case of any radio checks before the first race start at 0730hrs.  During Friday the BBC TV forecasters had been going on about strong winds and rain along the south coast for Saturday.  However both xcweather (which uses NOAA/GFS) and the Met Office were showing more benign conditions, and so it proved.  It was the quietest Round the Island Race I can remember with practically no incidents and very little radio traffic.

Usually it is hard to get good photos of the race because the competitors stay in the central to southern part of the western Solent.  If you try to show how many boats there are then you end up with a line of specs on the horizon!  However, this year the current was still east going when the first fleets started so at least we had some of the yachts coming across to the Lepe side to try to keep out of the current.