Our team photo (right) looks more like it should be our debut album cover!

We met up in Edinburgh and drove across to Dunstaffnage. Felt strange being back up at SAMS - not much had changed and we were soon busy preparing, shopping etc so no time to call in.

Recognise a few faces at the briefing, Steve Birkinshaw, Anna Sloan, Andrea Davidson and Andy Brierly (ex BAS). Midday, hot sunny start. 5 mile jaunt above town before heading for the boats. Slowly passing people. A bit stronger than Paul but early days so easy to hold back. Once on board the pace slowed somewhat as we drifted across the start line in an almost calm! Some teams were rowing and the competitive teams sling-shotted themselves ahead, cutting engines just before the start line.

So progress across to Mull was slow, but it was a nice day. Took a while to get the boat trimmed and holding our own at the back of the bunch. Tides doing usual tricks out by South end of Lismore. We were halted in our tracks for a while with the tide and eventually were last to pull into Salen just before 9pm to see the first yachts leaving.

Also, being able to see more than a few feet infront quite alarmed me at the toughness of the terrain and how easy it would be to twist an ankle. My memory seemed to have forgotten that from previous trips to Jura.

While we were enjoying ourselves on the hill, Fearghas was having a bit of a nightmare trying to get an anchor to hold and eventually ended up chugging around for the 5:45 it took us. Not good preparation for an overnight sail. We picked up a few places again on the run, arriving back about 9pm. I was glad it would be a few hours before we got to Arran.

defeated by the weather here before and forced to motor. It wasn't all to be smooth sailing though as not far around we were once more becalmed with a few gusts just about enough to stop us being pulled back by the tide. It was bizarre listening to the forecast saying we should be in a force 4-5! After a morning of sunbathing and trying to keep the cruising sail inflated, the wind finally came with some force which caused us problems as we approached as the gusts came over or around Holy Island. We were dropped ashore about 7pm for the run up Goat Fell.

We had taken almost 22 hours on the sail while the bunch ahead had just about managed to make it into harbour during the calm, sometimes under oars, so several pairs were returning as we headed out in the drizzle. Almost got lost on the golf course but once on the hill I was surprised that it was a well made tourist path most of the way to the summit. The rain kept up but we pretty much made it down without torches coming back into town a bit after midnight and checking into the tent on the shore. There was no one from Pavane to greet us though.

While we'd been away, one of the yachts ahead had sprung a leak on the way to Troon and the lifeboat had been launched. Given that the sea was still quite rough, the guys aboard were still worried about putting the dingy over to come and get us so suggested we spent the night ashore. Not that we really had much choice! Time now to see if we really were carrying all the safety gear to bivi ... although as the marshals had also finished for the night they took pity on us and let us into the yacht club and even produced a couple of bottles of beer which were very welcome.

Mid morning we made it back aboard and headed across to Troon. Duncan and myself did the final row into the marina and walk up to the office to finish. Objective achieved and it was only Monday lunchtime.