Sam Davies' Diary - Part 1

This girl has her eyes set on glory in the Mini Transat

The Roma x 2 started in light winds, which soon became breezy downwind surfing conditions. Perfect Mini Transat sailing, especially double-handed as we could push harder and hand steer all the time. This ironed out another problem of mine - my new spinnaker pole end strop. It is from Amco - the best French mast and pole suppliers - so I was surprised when it blew up. I fixed it once, and then the next part broke. I fixed it over and over again until the pole end looked like a trussed up chicken; it was great for the rest of the race, but not pretty. The worst part of this exercise was that each time it broke, we wiped out. Slow, but maybe good practice for my boat handling and wipeout recovery techniques for when I am on my own...

We finished the Roma x 2 in second place - and were very pleased! What was really satisfying was that as we were tying the mast on the top of the boat (on the trailer ready to leave about 28 hours after our finish) another Mini came in from finishing.

Even when your boat is out of the water, things still come to test you. Halfway across France the indicators on the car stopped working. These are pretty essential when towing a boat along the motorway, so we had to stop and trouble shoot and finally traced the problem to a blown fuse in the hazard lights.

We eventually arrived in Pornichet and parked Aberdeen on the end of the quay. Then Miranda went home and I am now on my own. Another lesson in Mini sailing - even though it is single-handed, there are SO MANY jobs that need two people. Fortunately, although very competitive when on the water, the Mini sailors are very helpful - we appreciate how hard it is and everyone helps each other (so far I have not been deserted when at the top of my mast).

Today I practised my French on the crane drivers. I was mostly understood and Aberdeen is now happily sitting in the water, with mast in, in the middle of a row of other Minis. Tomorrow I will tidy up, and do some spying on the others. There is so much to learn and everyone has different ideas on how to tackle each system. There should be some good tips to pick up from the top French guys this week.

Then I must tackle the never-ending job list. Job number one - fix pole end! There is also the Navigation preparation to start, weather to analyse and I must make sure that I am all set for the safety check.... maybe it's a good thing that I have four days to the start.