#rorcsrbi – Irish duo Liam Coyne and Brian Flahive continue their two–handed lead in the Round Britain and Ireland Race and send Afloat readers this morning update off the Scilly Isles, giving them under 300 miles to go and an expected finish sometime tomorrow... 'Day 10 (I think), Winds filled in quicker at Mizen head than we expected. Thank god we still have the A5 kite and she was great today. With no electronics on board we don't know speeds , but we were flying. We expected Rare to rocket past us today so we were going fast to hold him off. We are now 10 nm from the Scilly's and we took it down as it was getting to hard to hold. Lucky we decided to as there were two more areas needed sowing. Which our "McGeever" on board Brian duly did. Handy to have such a multitasker on board. We hope when we round the next Mark we might get one more spin out of the A 5. It's literally hanging on by a tread.
On a lighter side the other night we had a show to remember. As anyone who sails knows there is an Algae in the water which when disturbed by the boats wake causes it to light up. On a really frustrating watch where the sky was pure black it was almost impossible to helm.
At night we usually pick a cloud or star to follow. A night with black clouds and little wind is exhausting. I was nearly in tears with frustration when the dolphins showed up. We see them every day but this night I presume it was the black sky but they were lit up white (from the Algae) and not only were they illuminated they left a 20' trail of illuminated water after them.
It looked like the Red Arrows doing synchronized swimming. For 30 minutes I forgot about the Boat went and sat at the mast and watched the show of a lifetime. All day we see them break water but here you could see them underwater darting here and there. Sometimes 3 abreast going left, right left right over and over in perfect harmony leaving the illuminated trails in their wakes. It was an unbelievable sight. Nice of them to cheer a sailor up on a tough night.
