“They were really smart here. I’d told them I could get in on a tide which would put them on the mountain in the night, and they said no, as the weather would be too bad. So we went in on the following tide and they managed the mountain OK and we got out with no waiting. That was good planning. Look how many teams pulled out when they attempted the mountain at night.”

“Josh had Dave’s kit, so the bike and helmet were far too big. He took the helmet off and when his mum saw a photo of him riding without one on the web coverage she gave him some stick!”

“I knew if we didn’t get out of Whitehaven we’d never leave in time to finish the race, so we set off and thought we might have to shelter found the Mull of Galloway, but we made it Port Patrick.”

“We had to work hard to save the boat even there as the gales were lashing the boat and we used all we could find in the way of ropes and fenders to secure it, eventually anchoring in the centre of the harbour, where we rode out most of the gale. Playing ‘Jenja’ on board as the boat pitched and we had a few drinks was entertaining!”

“Getting out was amazing. We considered leaving Wednesday night, but it was still too rough, and we decided to go for it on Thursday morning even though it was still force 5 to 7 with rough seas. We had to be very careful and sailed out with all the B&B owners and guests watching us from the shore, no doubt waiting to see if we were blown back into the harbour.”

One of the support team, Adele Carter, described their departure like this; "Many people in the town came out to watch them leave, basically in disbelief that they would attempt it as the exit of the port is tricky at the best of times, especially with crashing waves coming into it. They left under storm sail with three reefs in the main singing loudly 'we're all going on a summer holiday'. They were so determined to make the finish."

Mander continues the story. “Nick was amazing on the helm. He was there for most of the trip from Port Patrick and once the wind eased we had a perfect sail, catching the tides all the way. We did try to anchor in 150m of water in the Irish Sea when the pin holding our anchor on the winch broke. That didn’t work too well and we cut the anchor away, but otherwise we had a great sail and arrived earlier than expected.”