We have arrived!!!!

Wednesday 1st July 2009 11:47 BST Gdynia
Pegasus has arrived in Poland, 3 days after leaving Rendsburg. 3 days at sea; 3 days motoring; 3 days of watches. The last 24 hours have been perfect -- no wind for sailing but this gave us a velvety calm sea and a very easy passage. The late evening watch saw a thunderstorm over the shore on our starboard side so they took down the sails. Better to be cautious, we don't want to damage the boat now in a storm. But the storm stayed over the land and went away. The light during the midnight watch was absolute magic. The sea so calm and the night never really became dark. Plenty of time to reflect, the North Sea now a distant memory.

Gdynia is protected on the north east by a long spit of land. We approached it then went parallel. The Baltic is very deep here, some 70M. Whereas even while going along the open sea, it had been just 40M. We could see beaches along the coast and then the headland and we turned west towards Gdynia. We were early and considered stopping at the interestingly named Hel. However, it did look too great so we gave Hel a miss. It wasn't time to go ...

We crossed the shipping lane and were met by a welcoming motorboat, a very powerful inflatable speedboat, whose job it is to welcome the Tall Ships as they arrive and guide them in. As we were still quite far out, 4 of the lads were given a short and very exiting ride on the boat. They were returned on board and we followed south west towards the port. As we got closer, we could see the masts of Tall Ships behind the harbour wall.

We turned right to go behind the harbour wall. It is being repaired and even the welder stopped to take a look at us. Entering the marina, we could see that we are amongst the first to arrive, being a day early. We have tied up alongside a boat from Guernsey. Just as we did, it began to rain. Welcome to Poland!

We now have to wait for the immigration formalities to be completed. Then it will be time to spruce up the ship (when it stops raining) and go shopping to replenish the provisions.

We are here. Some 900 miles and 11 days from Portsmouth. The race itself starts on Sunday. Now it is time for lunch.