It seemed a good idea at the time, on board media crew, an all in one stills, video and blogging big brother. Bringing you the action as it happens, an imbedded journalist like a BBC war correspondent cowering from behind a crumbling wall dodging the fire and reporting from the front line, living eating and sleeping with the regiment.

It’s been a while since I last pushed myself towards a driven goal and when I got an email from Andreas Hanakamp, the skipper of Team Russia to join the team I was immediately fired up about the role. Many of my sailing friends don’t understand that as a sailor you can’t contribute to the performance of the boat. After the obvious gags about me never contributing to the performance of a boat before, I explain my take on the media crew member position (MCM).

A Volvo 70 is a very powerful craft, its movement can be violent and life on board is wet and uncomfortable. I’m intrigued and inspired about the challenge of trying to document that world and bring it into your worm snug homes like a bedraggled cat. The technical difficulties of using the media hardware in the harsh environment with the extremes of hot and cold, wet and more wet, salt and electrical connections will be a huge problem to deal with.

But even as I come to grips with the tools and the software, the race and voyage ahead of me??. it still seems like a good idea.

Mark Covell