At 1330 hours GMT yesterday afternoon, the emergency phone rang at Race HQ – something which always makes the stomachs of the girls in office turn with fright and dread.

Race Officer, Lucy Gross answered the phone to find Tara Remington from Boat No. 25 – Team Sun Latte on the other end.  Tara was speaking very quietly, the reason for this soon became apparent as Tara worriedly explained that they were under attack from a very large and aggressive shark.

Tara described a 12ft long shark that circled the boat and then butted it with its snout, rocking the boat violently.  On the advise of the Woodvale staff back at Race HQ, Tara and Iain made for the cabin where they hid quietly and motionless.  This horrendous ordeal lasted 15 minutes leaving Tara and Iain in a state of shock. Tara comments:

“The scary thing is I was in the water cleaning the hull for barnacles at exactly the same time yesterday and Iain did likewise the day before,” said Tara.  “I haven’t bitten my nails for over a year now but in that time I chewed two nails right off.”

Iain said he considered taping a gas cooking canister to a flare and trying to shoot it ‘Jaws’ style but thought better of it.  He passed comment to Tara that, “In 20 years time you may not remember what happened yesterday but you sure as hell won’t forget today.”

Primary Support Vessel Aurora was instantly alerted to this situation and immediately made good speed towards Team Sun Latte.  However, when they arrived, the attack was already over but they stayed alongside Tara and Iain all night to give them time to recover from the shock of this terrifying experience.  First this morning, Tara and Iain were able to drop in to the water to check for damage to the boat, with Aurora keeping a watch out for any unwanted visitors.  The good news is that the boat is undamaged and full confidence has been restored.

Other race news – the weather has finally changed for the better and the fleet is now able to make good progress towards the Antigua.

Website News – Due to the phenomenal number of hits to this website, our web designers will be carrying out some necessary maintenance to the site later on today.  This may cause some disruption to the service for a short period but please bear with us and full operations will be restored tomorrow.
Posted20/12/05 10:45:41 AM