WITH Alex’s leg slowly on the mend, we have tentatively been making it back out on the water and have had a week of fantastic conditions with most days sailable while the air is still relatively mild.

Other teams have been out training too, so we have managed to spend some sessions working together with them to practice starting skills, which we have been desperately lacking to date and will probably be our next major milestone.

With more time around other boats, we are also developing a better understanding about rig settings, and slowly, confusion is lifting and we are finding we are getting a feel for what works in certain conditions.

We still have a long way to go before we are fast but we are definitely closing the gap and each time we make a move forward the boat becomes easier to sail, so it pushes everything forward.

Although we are enjoying fine autumnal sailing conditions, we are very aware that winter is looming and the squad boats will start disappearing to warmer climates to train and make their gains.

We need to maximise our training here while conditions allow as it’s the most convenient and, certainly the cheapest option.

It is inevitable that at some point the bad weather will hamper us so we are beginning to cost out various southern European training venues to see where we could use as a bolt hole.

Everywhere in Europe is so weather dependent during the winter so it’s a real gamble and we are looking at locations where the risk of missing sailing time is reduced.