Friday 18th June, 2010
Southampton Airport seems an appropriate place to write this blog. As most of the country finish work and prepare to go to the pub and watch the football, I am sitting here, about to jump on a plane bound for Dublin. The last few weeks have been manic, but finally Friday the 18th has arrived and I am about to start one of the major races going on around the world at the moment. Sadly there are 4 races happening at the moment, all of which I would like to do, but they all clash and I cant do them all! The leaders of Round Britain and Ireland have just left Lerwick in a F9 gale – so I am quite glad I am not doing that! It also would have meant missing my bf’s wedding – not even an option! The second race is the Newport Bermuda, which I would be doing on Gracie the 70 ft Mcurdy and Rhodes Amercian boat that I did the Fastnet on last year. And the last is of course Round the Island Race, most people actually think that this is the race that I am doing, and then I have to repeat the race name of Round Ireland with a poor Irish accent!
On Sunday at midday Barry Hurley and I will start the 708 mile Round Ireland race aboard his 35ft JOD 35, Dinah. This is the boat that Barry did the OSTAR in last year against me. He did extremely well winning his class and I am delighted to be doing this race with him it what could be the beginning of a very successful partnership. It could also be the one and only race we do together!
Barry and I have spent a little bit of time training for this race, and along with boat captain Bob, Barry has done a superb job of getting Dinah ready for this race. The forecast so far isn’t looking terribly kind with very little wind forecast for the first few days, and then north easterly cold headwinds! Nice!
Anyway, whatever the weather I am really looking forward to getting back out to sea and this time with someone else! Woohoo!! I shall try and update my blogs regularly throughout the race and as always my twitter and facebook will be update. You can follow our progress at www.roundirelandrace.ie

Hannah