Leg 2 of The Ocean Race Europe - done! Looking forward to Leg 3 to Nice, France

Where I’m sitting now, writing this, couldn’t be more different to my home for the past five days and 19 hours! I’m in a dark, cool apartment, in the center of the Spanish city of Cartagena, in the south east of Spain, appreciating the cold draught of the air conditioning unit after five days at sea onboard Malizia-Seaexplorer where it was hot, wet, and so noisy!

We arrived yesterday lunchtime in fifth position after racing from Portsmouth, UK via a fly-by past Matosinhos, Porto, Portugal on Leg 2 of The Ocean Race Europe.

Celebrating our arrival with Will Harris the skipper. © Marie Lefloch / Team Malizia

We had a really strong crew, led by Will Harris, who will be my co-skipper for the Transat Café L’OR later this year, along with Justine Mettraux, Loïs Berrehar, and Flore Hartout, our OBR, and it was really amazing to have the opportunity to know them better. And to be racing alongside JuJu was awesome! We’ve been on the same team before but I’ve never actually sailed with her. Not only is she a good friend, but she is kind of a hero of mine … she has done so much in ocean racing and has just finished the Vendée Globe and smashed the female record. Watching her onboard, learning from her how she does things was really motivating.

I think it is natural that I was comparing my skills against these really experienced IMOCA sailors and … I feel I’m not a million miles away from them, so that was a real positive from this first leg for me sailing with the team. It gives me some confidence for the next three years that I’m not going to be a complete disaster!

A frustrating time during Leg 2 of The Ocean Race Europe seeking out the breeze to try and keep us moving © Flore Hartout / Team Malizia

I was asked when I got to the dock if I had the chance to have a think about what it will be like when I’m alone on the boat … but I really didn’t have any or many quiet moments to be thinking like that! But yes, every maneuver, or when we changed sails, it’s always in the back of my mind how I might do this by myself, and how it might feel. I had some good chats with Will about it and his advice was to just spend time on the boat, because the more time I spend sailing it, I’ll pick up all the little details in no time at all. The sailing part is actually the easy bit, it’s just a sailing boat … you trim the sails, you check the weather ... But what I really need to get to know are the systems onboard and how to fix them. And I’m slowly getting there.

Every mile sailed is another mile of experience onboard the IMOCA that I’ll take over at the end of this race and my on-water campaign with 11th Hour Racing will truly begin.

Finding the last stick of Kinder onboard! © Flore Hartout / Team Malizia

I have three days here in Cartagena now and I’m one of the only Spanish speaking people in the fleet so I have a few commitments with the media and I like to spend time in the race village as I really enjoy speaking with the people who come down, particularly the kids. They are all so excited to see the boats and have so many great questions. Our sport is niche - we aren’t a soccer team, filling stadiums - so we need the support of the fans who make the effort to come down. So, the next few days, I’ll be busy doing that, also I must do my laundry, and also try to grab some rest in my nice, cool, air-conditioned apartment, before the next leg to Nice, France starts on Tuesday.

I know I’ll be ready and really happy to get going, to get back on the water, and keep pushing to try and get more points on the scoreboard.