Afternoon and welcome to our Ships Blog. The weather here as predicted is pretty rubbish with rain and wind coming through. The wind is reasonably strong and in the east at the moment so its quite cold. Forecast for tomorrow much better with the wind eventually moving round to the south west. The rest of the weekend seems quite good as well with some showers possible during next week. The annual North Sea race starts tomorrow from the Harwich Harbour entrance at approximately 10.20am onwards local time. The course takes them up to Smiths Knoll, then across to the MSP buoys and down to Scheveningen where they finish. You can track the boats via Yellow Brick and the RORC website. We have a couple of clubs visiting this weekend, IYFR with a fleet of about five boats and the East Anglian Sailing Trust with around eight boats. Your day time lockmaster this weekend will be Richard Ireland and Colin Byford covering the nightwatch. In the marina at the moment and hoping to take part in the North Sea Race is the Joint Services J11 ‘British Soldier'( see our pictures above). Finally for those in the know and like a something a little different for breakfast, our supply of Goose eggs has finally come on stream again. Donations to help the hero’s in the big bottle on Miriams desk always appreciated.