Finally this leg is about to come to an end. It has not been enjoyable for us. For me, probably the toughest leg ever. We tried hard to pass SEB over the last 36 hrs. At one time, we were only ten miles away but we got hammered more than them in the light air area outside the South African coast. Bad luck? No. We didn’t do well enough, and facing that, we will make whatever change and improvement we can in Cape Town to hit back hard on next leg.

At least we had a good fight with SEB. Yesterday morning we where 14 miles apart, after starting equal from Ilha de Trindade, 2.400 miles away.

There are eight legs to go and many points to pick. We know we are fast especially powered up downwind, which you normally have a lot of in this race. This leg, we saw the spinnakers in six out of 38 days – right now we haven’t seen a spinnaker for three weeks..

I am disappointed about our strategy for this leg, and for letting down our supporters and sponsors. I can only promise that we will go through the shortest stopover ever in Cape Town with the energy and motivation we have spent months building up prior to the race. That spirit is something I am proud of, and the crew have shown it every single hour over the last 38 days.

We will be back in two weeks, faster than ever through the Southern Ocean.