The synoptic chart for 1200 on Tuesday 14 August, two days into the Rolex Fastnet Race, shows a small but fast moving low pressure system tracking across the Irish Sea. Initially it looks as though the race will be a bit of a drift but with the wind picking up on Monday and at the Scillies peaking at 53 mph southerly by 1400 on Tuesday. This latter data came from the web site www.xcweather.co.uk/.

By this time most of the bigger boats should be ’round the corner’ and into the Irish Sea where, according to XC weather, they can still expect to see 40 knots. But the bulk of the 300 boat fleet will still be headed west along the SW coast. I’ll be following this closely and will post more weather reports later.