Hilary Lister's blog

Unbelievably, we are still in Lymington. The wind has not dropped below a force 5 for less than a tantalising couple of hours. The frustration is immense, not least for Toby, me, Mike and the "Ribbies", but also for the ground crew who are constantly told that we might be leaving and then everything is cancelled at the last minute after they have prepared suitable meals and got everything ready.

After a few hours' sleep, the guys at Berthon Marina kindly lifted the wounded Arty out of the water. Once on dry land we could see what we had dreaded - 3 holes in a line, 2 of which had pierced the carbon. On the plus side Melvin, the Berthmmaster here at Berthon, came round with champagne and wine which lifted everyone's spirits.

After a couple of minor glitches we left Dover at 3.00 PM Monday, from the western entrance. Dover Marina have been so good to us, even laying on the tug "Dauntless" to see us off. I am certainly looking forward to seeing them again, but hopefully not for a few months!

Today we had had to make one of the hardest decisions that any sailor ever has to make – to delay the sail. Toby, Tony and I have all agreed that, for reasons of safety, it would be best to defer the start for one week. It means that we lose a week of summer, but we always knew that we might get held up somewhere, so our schedule has flexibility built into it.