All the crew on borad Qingdao are suffering from Cape Town sickness, its a confused sickness between 30 knots on the nose out here and the wonderful hospitality we all recieved from the South Africans in Cape Town.

It was a truly wonderful stop over and one we appreciated so much more because of the tougher conditions we faced on leg two.

So here I am on leg three from Cape Town to Western Australia, my final leg. On this journey we will be dipping down into the roaring fourties and likely to experience even more extreme weather and conditions than in the south atlantic.

I spoke to many other crew from other boats in Cape Town and all of which were experiencing the nervousness I was feeling about this leg.

The boats can handle harsh conditions and as a crew we work through all that is thrown at us. It is the ultimate team building experience and between each person and each watch we share the load of what is to come on this leg.

There is a great reception waiting for us in Australia and family to greet me in so I want to race hard and fast. After passing the shadow of Table Mountain yesterday we were suddenly hit by 40 knots of wind which required us to work fast on dropping our sails and putting in reefs.

There was a collision between Cork and Hull and Humber on the start with some major damage leaving them late starting from Cape Town.

We are currently trailing behind the other teams but I am sure we can catch up. Amazing how quickly the fleet can seperate.