By the time Scott had made it down to the beach to pick up the windsurf equipment the Polo had already rounded the NAB tower and all of a sudden we realized that we were cutting it fine to be rigged and ready when she rumbled up the Solent. With everything flung into Scott’s van we hit the gas and made it to Egypt Point in Cowes in record time. With no sign of the Polo, for some reason we became complacent again. Scott was screwing in the fin on the board and the sail was still in the van when, all of a sudden, I spotted the gigantic hull of the Polo creeping past the towers of Osborne House towards us over towards East Cowes. In a blind panic we both tried to assemble the gear as the Polo steamed closer at an alarming rate. At this point we had not even bothered to check the wind assuming there would be plenty. Today we faced an onshore north east breeze, probably only about 10-14 knots and when factoring the strong Solent tidal currents we were rolling the dice. With all the components slung together this was the best we could manage. Scott didn’t even have time to put on his wetsuit and raced out into the water while I loaded fresh memory cards into my canons. To say we were cutting it fine was an understatement. Now the big question was could Scott even plane or make it upwind before the Polo hit that all important turning circle? By this time I was in a cold sweat. If we blew this opportunity I knew I wouldn’t be able to cope with the fact we had two days to be ready for this and not been prepared. The Polo was set to depart the following evening at 10 p.m., in the dark, so this was our one shot and it had to count.