The crew parade was today. Here's a first hand account of it from Kirsteen.

"Well the crew parade was very good we got to see the prince who was handing out the prizes to the various ships. As per usual we all got very wet, as we march along most of the crew members from the various ships throw water bombs at each other and have water fights which is quite funny but very wet also. The atmosphere at the parade was fantastic occasionally we were all getting down to do one big mexican wave which looked pretty impressive.

Sarah says,"My horn was fantastic!!!"

ben says "The parade was a good laugh, i got a water balloon in the face which was cool".

The crew all rise from a long nights sleep to breakfast and head off to check out the town. The swimming pool seems to be a real find, "theres everything there"! The latest position report puts us down now to 5th and it looks as though that is where we will stay. Provident has come up to take 4th place and Svanen is in 3rd.

" The sight of those square riggers flying towards the line is one that will stay with me for a very long time!Alexander Von Humbolt with her green sails,sleek fast Mer and the huge Sedov to name a few. I could not stop taking photos.we didn't get too bad a start, maybe getting under way about a third of the way down the field.From then on we just didnt stop over taking!first the Irish ship Asgard 2(Asgard is in our class) fell away behind us and by morning we'd even caught up with the Shabab Oman.This square rigger of about 40metres (double our length) had passed us just after the start and we were all very happy to leave her behind! The Swan is the smallest boat in class B so to be placed 3rd is excellent.Andrew(our skipper) is very laid back about it but you can tell he is well chuffed!At this mornings position read out we were still 3rd in class and about 24th overall.At the moment we are about 72 miles from Esbjerg so lot could change in that time.You never no we might climb up the rankings but I think everyone onboard will be well happy with 3rd.I personally am having a fantstic time. Helming in fairly big seas on the first night was fantastic.The Swan always feels really steady and strong and her speed has surprised me.I get the feeling that most people would be happy just to stay at sea and not bother going to Esbjerg!" Sean

Leaving day. The camp site was dismantled on deck and we had a run round to get milk and bread etc. The first leggers packed up all their gear and, sadly, left us. They will be a real miss on board. But we have a keen new crew who are rarin' to go so lets hear from some of them....

" Well Monday started with everyone running ashore getting all the last minute things that were needed before the race got underway. We set off after eleven o'clock and motored out of Bergen. We watched all the boats raise their sails and start warming up for the coming race. As the start wasn't until later that evening, we stopped at a little port to have our dinner, unfortunatly we had to move again almost straight away as the local ferry was due to arrive and we had docked in its berth.

" Alas! It did start raining during the night. It didn't stop anybody from having a wonderful party though. It started with the crews' party which seemed to be very nice. Only the "younger" members of the crew went there but they seemed to have been enjoying themselves. We had some visitors on board and we had a little party with the fiddles and lots of singing. the space is rather limited for otherwise I am quite sure they would have been dancing as well. One of our guests was so grateful for having had such a pleasant time that about eleven o'clock this morning he came along with two dozen of sweet rolls. They were gladly accepted and tasted very well. We will be leaving tomorrow morning so we are preparing to get ready for the next leg. Willie and I made an inventory of the stores we have. I think the best thing to do is cook an onion and garlic soup. There is some much of them! while making the inventory we cleared up the storage space and found we suddenly had enough space for all the goods we would still have to get. Andrew went down for the instuctions for the race to Esbjerg. The forecast is surprisingly good. They are expecting a Westerly wind, force 5 to 6 to begin with. Both the direction and the force are ideal considering our course. It is still raining which makes it quite difficult to climb through the hatch into the main saloon. The cover has to be closed from stopping the rain coming in so you really have to aim to through your legs down. Andrew found a solution to that by hanging some of the sail over the entrance. That made it possible to open the cover a little more.