17th August: Ocean Race

Unusually, on Sunday 17th August I did two consecutive watches at NCI Stone Point and so did the other Watchkeeper!  The second period was enlivened by the start of the IMOCA Ocean Race Europe.  Having started in Kiel and been in Portsmouth overnight they started from Cowes and some of the yachts came close to Lepe on their way to Porto and Cartagena, both places I’ve visited on Research ships in the past.  The race ends in Boka Bay, Montenegro.

From the start to around Newtown Creek a guy on an Olympic racing type kite-board was keeping pace with the yachts!