More frustration for the team

Rob White reports

Last night really tested our sea legs to the limit - with Force 10 winds gusting up to 51 knots. (A knot is a nautical mile per hour - and a nautical mile is 2000 yards. So 51 knots is just under 60 mph.) Force 10 is officially classed as a storm, and 'Northern Horizon' was right in it.

Cameraman - Mike Robinson

That added up to more delay starting our search for 'Bismarck', and more frustration for the whole team - and especially Search Director David Mearns. At his daily briefing he was clearly aware of the mounting pressure on his expedition. "We'll write off today" he said firmly. "But...this is eating into our contingency time!"

But it's an ill wind, etc. Our two experts, Canadian battleship design specialist Bill Jurens and leading naval historian Dr Eric Grove, have seized the chance to add to their already extensive knowledge of 'Hood' and 'Bismarck'.

Conversations between the two have led to Bill carrying out new calculations on how shells in the battle would have pierced their way through armour plate,

Bill Jurens and Dr Eric Grove

while Eric has unearthed more data on the last-minute manoeuvres of the two ships as they came to grips with each other.

Meanwhile Director Gary Johnstone and Cameraman Mike Robinson have been busy filming interviews and reconstructions around the ship.

But now, like the rest of us, all Mike can do is wait for the off. Could it be tomorrow? Literally, the answer is blowing in the wind.