The PowerBar Three Peaks Yacht Race
Waiting for an Indian Summer – Again
Rob Howard / 29.06.2007
After the withdrawal of Freedom last night (who are now motoring up to ensure they get to a Golden Wedding celebration), Indian Summer are once again the last boat in the race, and the race marshals are waiting to see if they can make it before the course closes. They have to finish (including Ben Nevis) by 18.00 Saturday but conditions are not good and it’s touch and go.
Freedom reported seeing them ‘heading south’, presumably pushed back by the tide and looking out from the race finish the waters of Loch Linnhe are glassy calm.
Last night Kilva and Whisky Galore both made it to Corpach just in time for the race party, which was held on the cruise ship Souters Lass. This took a short trip out onto Loch Linnhe after a performance by the Lochaber Schools Pipe Band.
Kilva’s runners were on Ben Nevis at the time but the crew off Whisky Galore asked if they could delay their trip up the mountain until morning so they could all go to the party. They moored up at 19.16 and walked straight onto the Souters Lass which left at 19.30!
Whisky Galore were one of the yachts who failed to complete the course last year due to bad weather, so they were pleased to have made it this time and to complete the Tilman Trophy. The only one not going up a mountain was the skipper Dr Charles Clarke ... the President of the British Mountaineering Council! Perhaps he’s seen enough mountains.
Their runners left at 04.29 next morning and returned at 10.23, and Steve Robinson and Adrian Hunt off Kilva came back down off Ben Nevis at 02.22. All the rest of their team were fast asleep when they arrived - so there was no one there to cheer them in!
Update: Indian Summer did make it in good time, arriving on Friday evening and finishing just after midnight on Saturday.
[If you’ve been following the race and would like to see the documentary made by Dream Team TV it’s on Sept. 9th on C4 at 08.00 as part of the Adrenalin Rush series.]
SleepMonsters
