<Written Thurs 5th Sept>

We’ve just got into Brest in France at the end of our first race. We finished 3rd, so were on the podium which is a real result after all our tech problems.

The reason is that we stuck at the task 24/7 even when there was little or no wind, foggy damp and cold. The fog was amazing, a real sense of drama allied to an edge of fear that someone who wasn’t concentrating on their radar, if they had it, might loom out of the fog and hit you.

One of the crew called Liz and I did a Titanic impression on the foredeck, so Ricardo is now Leonardo and she is Kate!

Highs: I did a 4 hour stint trimming the sails in light breezes which means 100% concentration every minute so squeeze out the max poss speed albeit slow, that was one of the reasons we did well and everyone acknowledged it which was nice. I’m using up this well earned credit.

Lows: Hit another energy black out !! bugger!! but this time saw it coming so took some Torq high protein gels and bars which Polly recommended and within 25 mins I was OK (thanks Polly!) In truth, it was my own fault because a few days beforehand I had stopped taking them and I paid for it…big learning!

Looking forward to setting off on our next race – much longer this time. Next time I see dry land it’ll be in Rio.

If you want to follow by boat’s course and see who is winning, you can do so at the Race Tracker – http://yb.tl/clipper2013-leg2

As always, you can sponsor me in aid of MacMillan Cancer Research and Prostate Cancer UK by clicking here to go to my JustGiving page and donating online, or by texting the word ‘SAIL72′ followed by the amount you wish to donate (eg, £10) to 70070