The Round the Island Race fleet swarms around the Needles...
....giving no quarter.
We awoke in the pastoral tranquility of Newtown Creek....
....with a grandstand view of the race, across the spit from our anchorage.
Yachts classic and modern, multihulls and monos ......
....of all rigs unite to race one another. The air drums and thrums with the sound of taut driving sailcloth and loaded sheets on winch drums.
Stargazer beats up to Hurst on the last of the fair tide. We're in with the cruiser classes, short tacking up the Island shore to keep clear.... and gaining on the Sadler 32's. We break west at Hurst to leave the duelling fleet astern.
The marbled cliffs of Hengistbury Head rise above us. The morning sun cheering their wizened features with splashes of ochre and dabs of shadow.
Stargazer romps along in 22 to 26 knots of SW breeze, double reefed and hard on the wind. Plumes of white spray blow back from her bow as she dances across the swell.
Queen Galadrial greets us with a royal welcome-home at Poole Quay.
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