The wind and rain had been lashing on the window during the night so it was a welcome change from the forecast when we woke to find a blaze of sunshine and and a fair wind. Couldn't be better! Yesterday had been a day getting stores onboard. Stocking up on food for the trip, diesel and water were topped up, new laundered matress covers onboard. That only left last minute shopping for today, bread and milk. Sailors began to arrive, a collection of stringed instruments were passed down the hatch. A big African bongo drum was stowed somewhere....somehow..

A large crowd of family and friends were down to see us off. Family and friendsThe motley crew!

We set sail at midday with final farewells and a fair wind, fiddles blazing south through the harbour and the start of the 600 mile trip to Antwerp. Because of the rules of the Sail Training International Tall Ship Races(formery called the Cutty Sark Tall Ship races) 50% of all on board must be aged 15-25 inclusive. We have nine youths and two adult voyage crew + four Swan crew members. Among the youths are three musicians who have been sponsored by Shetland Arts Trust to promote traditional Shetland music abroad. On this leg they are the amazing fiddle players, Ross Couper and Stewart Grains and fast fingered guitar player Grant Nicol. On the second leg the excellent pianist Neil Georgeson will replace Stewart and for the third leg another talented fiddle player Mark Laurenson will replace Neil.

The means of puting this page on the internet is entirely dependant on getting a decent phone signal, so updates while we are racing may not be possible. But we will try to make them as regular as possible.
Ready to roll!