I know I have been useless updating the blog. Here are my last three weeks in pictures.

Sleeping on the boat in the original A2 when I forgot my sleeping bag in the yard office that had closed for the night. Luckily it was warm in Florida. Some long days before the charters arrive for Lauderdale to Key West Race. See http://yachtrace.net/Yeoman08.html

Cooking Coq Au Vin at Steff’s in the middle of the night. It was very tasty but for half the crew they didn’t get to eat it as there was a all hands call on deck just as I was serving up the second lot and so it was never eaten. It was a large effort next time spagetti bolognaise will do the trick just as well!

Start of the Key West Lauderdale Race. The race down was not as eventful as 2007 but we did manage to go the wrong side of one mark and have to unwind ourselves and then had a close call with a coral head. We didn’t get the surfing speeds of last time and there were a lot of gybes as we had electronics so we stayed in shallower water the whole time. Got a little cold at night.

After settling everyone into the crew houses in Key West I flew back to Lauderdale and picked up the van of delivery items and crew gear and did the costco shopping. This is one of 3 cart loads of food it took me 3 hours in Costco. Feeding 15 people for 10 days required wholesale quantities of food. I also did a few supermarket runs on top of this one which as you can see there is a lot of beer.

A screen shot of my excel spreadsheets for the food required during each part of the project in Florida.

Some of the days in Key West were like sailing in the Solent with a cold northerly blowing. We got some good starts and some poor starts. The good ones were depressing as within a few minutes we would be rolled by the TP52’s or the STP65 and that would be that. It was encouraging to see our speed relative to Sjambok has improved the bowsprit has made a large difference to the bow not digging in and getting around the corners is that much easier.

Repair done during race week after we were hit by Sjambok’s bowsprit. Luckily it just punctured the outer carbon and didn’t damage the inner skin. This will last till she gets back to the UK for a proper repair and paint job.

After race week I hoisted out at Robbies and due to her draught they didn’t have stands large enough so they ‘dug’ Yeoman in with a back hoe. Actually really stable and easier for me to get her ready for delivery. The two blue drums are diesal drums for delivery to Antigua as I only have a 10g built in tank. I spent 4 days getting her ready for the delivery south next week.

This is the 4 month old puppy that was living on the houseboat next to Yeoman at Robbies. I looked after her for the day as the owners girlfriend was hit by a hummer when on a scooter and was taken to hospital. Very cute and she enjoyed riding around on the cart at Home Depot much more than Draeger the dog does at home!