Starting the journey back

The skipper writes:

And so the race is over. Our trophy is safely stowed and the fleet is dispersing back to the corners of the globe from which it assembled and for the first time in a long while the VHF is silent. No more "Sharki", no more "Roald Amundsen", no more "Race Control".

We have a gentle North Easterly and we are undersail, the engine is on tickover because for now at least, the tops'l remains firmly in its bag! We are catching up with our sleep and I hope this will reach you as we skirt the coast of Bornholm on our way west. We might call there but it would be a shame to waste this favourable breeze with so far still to go.

The race forecast of light winds from forward of the beam was always going to suit Pegasus with relation to the others in our class but from the start we established a good lead on corrected time and built on it all through the race.
"Helena", the only boat in our class that actually fininshed before us, is a great big schooner and very able in the light airs but her time correction factor was her downfall. Well done to them and especially to Knut and his crew aboard
"Gratitude". We stayed ahead of them for the whole race but that did well in the light airs. "Gratitude" is a Brixham Trawler in Swedish hands so class B had a Devon 1/2! Very happy.
Thank you Knut too for the lovely celebration in the snug crew cabin aboard, the Gin and Tonic was perfect if a little warm! Bye bye for now but sometimes you know when you have made a freind for life.
We have had some crew changes as I have already reported and it is with some reflection that we say goodbye for now to Captain Clare, Marko and the "Lord Nelson" gang, to Magda, Martha and "Sharki" and really well done!, Wojciech and "Queenian", Henk and "Ebb Tide" and Frank and Joost with "Jacob Meindert". "Rupel" must not go unmentioned, thanks for the champaigne! We will see you all next time! 7ft of water under your keels.... Thank you too to Veronika, our crazy Canadian/Lithuanian Liason Officer. She did so much for us! Ask the lads........
Thank you too to Halvor from "Christian Radich" and Marcus from "Statsraad Lehmkul", both captains so complimentry about Pegasus as she skipped lightly around these two sailing giants. It was a pleasure and honour to have you onboard in Klaipeda.

Amy left her mark in that city forever leaving behind a cast of her footprint to be set in bronze in the port (Klaipeda means "clay foot"). Go and see it sometime, it's a lovely place.

And so the long trip home has started and we will retrace our steps through the Kiel Canal. Our plan is to explore a little in this part of the world but there will be time to share more experiences in the coming weeks.....

Diggory
{received 00:12 5/Aug/2009}