So eventually the time came to head back to Freo – the briefing on Friday morning was short and to the point: “we’re sorry we can’t give you better weather but it’s hard on the nose all the way home and it’s already blowing 30 knots at Fairway buoy”. In other words a typical Geraldton return! Well maybe not quite 30 knots yet but we could see it building and put in a reef before the start and reached out under #3 genoa. Another reef tucked in before the turn and we bashed off out to sea in a building headwind and sea. We knew the quickest course was to head out until the breeze swung more east, picking up the Leeuwin current as we did so, but we also knew it wasn’t going to be pleasant. Fairly soon we saw This Way Up heading back to Gero (with a leaky rudder bearing) – they didn’t actually look all that unhappy! Soon we were down to a #4 jib and night began to fall, with an increasing southerly sea crossing with a 4-5m SW swell and the wind getting over 30kts. The short, steep confused seas (now often with large breaking crests) crossing with the big swell plus 30-35kts on the nose made for very uncomfortable and wet conditions and most of the crew were feeling a bit ordinary and not much like eating dinner. As the wind rose and we got into the Leeuwin current things became more unpleasant, with some “backless” waves and despite much care Blondie occasionally crashing metres down into the trough. I could certainly understand those who chose the (slightly) less unpleasant inshore route. But we were making good progress and despite the difficult conditions Blondie was still smashing to windward at over 6 knots plus whatever the Leeuwin current gave us. I was glad to have a highly experienced crew on board, including boat builder Glenn Swarbrick who happily reassured me that the boat “was built to take it”. I wasn’t quite so sure about the skipper though! That statement took on more meaning when we heard that one of the high tech favourites MEII was retiring back to Geraldton. We didn’t know at the time, but were told later there had been some structural damage due to the heavy pounding and it wasn’t safe to continue. Several other yachts retired or reduced sail due to damage to boat, sails or crew. All night we crashed on, each helmsman trying hard to pick a way through the breaking and confused sea. The off watch tried to sleep inside a very wet and gyrating cabin. Dawn broke and it seemed nothing had changed, but gradually as day wore on the wind and seas eased. By afternoon we could even think about eating a little bit! The plan had been to tack back to shore as soon as the wind shifted SW and early Sat afternoon we did just that. Unfortunately in the rough conditions we had made more leeway than anticipated and faced an 80nm leg into Fairway Buoy. We still calculated we had a good chance of an outright IRC win if we made good time into Freo. For many hours we made good progress, but eventually as night wore on the wind lightened and came back east, slowing and heading us. Dawn broke and we still had some way to go, the wind was dropping further –not a good sign. We progressively increased sail but ended up off Mindarie early morning in 5-6 knots of SE breeze struggling to get back across to Fairway buoy. We could see our lead slipping away, as we knew the bigger boats were already home and had finished in a good breeze. Eventually as we rounded Fairway, a sea breeze kicked in and we sailed to the finish in beautiful conditions, eating the cup cakes my wife had packed as a treat for us (by this time they were truly a treat). But crossing the finish line at 11.30am was not enough and we surrendered the lead to Hoodoo Man (who sailed a fantastic race to win by a good margin) and second place to Terry Posna 4th (1st 3rd in Jaffa. But over the line in Div 2) and overall is nothing to complain about, and it was a tired but very happy crew who arrived in the pen at RPYC Annexe.