Whale watch

The adventures of my first leg from London to Rio are coming to an end as we hope to arrive there in the early hours of Wednesday. We have been tested in many different ways and experienced many weather conditions but all the time have worked as a team racing the boat, led by Matt and supported by our sponsors; Mission Performance.

The past 24 hours have been interesting; for a few days we have been expecting to hit a big weather front spread across from South Africa to South America, and yesterday morning the consistent wind of around 10 knots died to zero knots in minutes and then kept changing direction, this was the sign that we were approaching the new front so the boat was prepared by getting smaller and stronger sails ready to hoist if needed. A few hours after the wind shift we sailed into the rain and 25 knots of wind, with choppy waters, life below decks became difficult to get around but on deck it has been very exciting; jobs are harder to do and take longer but in return are fun. Kate and I went up on the bow to retrieve a line and returned completely drenched; waves constantly crashing over the bow, we were clipped on and held on with one hand while working with the other, trying not to get washed over board! It is very easy to say that this is better than any roller coaster I have been on! The other crew members had a laugh watching us struggle and get very wet, They will have their turn one day!

In other news we have been on whale watch, at the moment it is whale migration season and this morning we saw around 20 whales over the space of 5 hours, it is incredible watching them fluke and breach, but it became a bit scary when two were only 20 metres away, and at one point we had to change our course, this can be easily done during the day, but at night you can't see them! 4,500 miles done and only 300 miles away from Rio, we are looking forward to turning the boat around to be ready for the next leg, seeing a bit of the City and welcoming our new crew members on board! .