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29 to 23 July. We set out in drizzle and a headwind so we motored for 31 hours with a few breaks as the drive was banging when it dropped out of gear. We headed on 257degrees, for Lossiemouth. It was about half the distance across near the Maureen field when we decided to sail. This meant we had to head NW towards Fair Isle. As a low was passing to the North of us we expected the wind to veer NW. While we were heading NW we trailed a fishing line and it was Pam who noticed that the gulls were taking a special interest in it. She claimed the fish we caught and called it Malcolm. About midday on the 22nd the expected wind shift arrived and we tacked on to starboard and headed for Lossiemouth again. Suzy cooked Malcolm and a curry and just as we were on the fish course, porpoises appeared. They played around Sufiana for half an hour. During the night we passed the fishing grounds and sighted 30 lights at one time. Twice I had to change course to avoid trawlers lit up like Christmas trees so that their navigation lights were obscured and their heading difficult to discern.
As we neared Lossiemouth we set up a link call to Pam's parents via Cromarty Radio who said our signal was "knee high to a grasshopper's arse". We alerted Elgin customs and cleared at Lossie. At the Clifton Bar we found the crew of the Fisheries Protection vessel Moidart which had started the race.
The return trip took almost exactly 72 hours and we covered 365 nautical miles averaging about 5 knot.
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