Today's forecast is looking robust... even up slightly from yesterday. The morning is a little overcast but right now at 12 past 9... the sun is already breaking through. Alex is in front of me tinkering with the COSWORTH loggers and a hair dryer is buzzing next door doing the final cure on the new strain guages installed on the rudder stock. Once it is well cured we will install the rudder and calibrate the strain guage against a calibrated load cell. We will put an incrementally increasing load on the rudder up to 200kg from both directions.

 We have had a spell of light to moderate winds which are unsuitable for VESTAS Sailrocket 2.

Today we managed to get most of the data logging action working our way. It turns out that there were a three independent problems that all happened at the same time. That old chestnut!

So we definitely won't be sailing today and it looks like tomorrow is pretty flat as well. The front planing surface has now been bonded on so we could be taking two people sailing in the next outing... starting with Helena. This will be a hoot.

 Just in after a day where the wind just didn't build. It was the day I thought we were going to have a week ago when we missed it. Oh well, we were over there and waiting this time and that's the best we can do. There was the odd gust to 23 knots... but a lot of 17-19 in there as well. In the end we did do a run just to keep our eye in and try the new cockpit seating. It sure is cosy in there now.

 Hi all,

We have been in 'standby mode' and even 'stand down' mode for the past few days due to a spell of lighter winds. 

VESTAS Sailrocket 2 sits patiently outside waiting for the winds to pick up. We have been working through a number of jobs which include...

-Alex's constant battle to get the electronic data package working and providing accurate data. He's doing a good job working through all the usual problems along with a nice bunch of random ones thrown in. He has a lot more patience than me in that field.