Wednesday 7th September:

I’ve just picked up my last sail from One Sails; an A5 -
it’s perfectly flaked and folded in it’s bag in the hold underneath me and I am
flying back to La Rochelle, dying to try it out.

This weekend I spent racing a Sunsail F40, for Cazenove
Capital Management, in the Jersey regatta; it has been a fantastic friendly
event, with amazing weather, dolphins in the bay and some great racing.

The sail back overnight on Sunday was windy and we made it
from Jersey to Port Solent in 14 hours.

Now I am happy to be escaping a wet and windy Britain and on
my way back to my reality.

The next few days will be spent with the other sailors from
CEM (Centre d’Entrainement Mediterranae) – there is only one sailor from our
winter coaching group who will not be competing in the transat – with our coach
Guillaume Rottee getting us up to pre race speed.

The programme is to include, exercise, sailing with the
boats fully loaded for racing ( including all water, safety kit and food),
practice on listening to and interpreting the French weather forecast, check
lists for the race, mental preparation.

We are lucky to be part of such a group and to be able to
benefit from the support from each other and from a coach. At this stage, one
little problem or insecurity could easily escalate and dealing with things
sensibly and methodically is essential.

My problem of the week is all about shipping.

In order to get my boat back from Brazil, I need to send out
a cradle to ship it back in.

I have a cradle, it was cleverly built as part of my road
trailer, a centre piece that is removable and will stand alone as a cradle.

Unfortunately I have discovered that this cradle is too
large to fit in the container and ship out to Brazil, therefore I need to magic
a collapsible mini cradle out of thin air to La Rochelle by 22^nd
September.

I have found a possible cradle, at the Artemis Offshore
Academy in Cowes, but currently the shipping costs are coming out more than the
value of the cradle……….. another solution is required.

Like I said……… keep calm, breathe deeply and don’t let a
little problem grow.