Dee Caffari’s latest blog

Last week was just great. Anna and I were sailing everyday and things have gone so well we enjoyed the weekend off, yippee! Thanks to the hard work by the team the boat is in a really good position now just over 2 weeks before the race start. Anna and I had a couple of days training with French coach Tanguy Leglatin and it was brilliant to blow away the cobwebs and remember how to do everything perfectly again. Then after loading the race food and race spares onboard we set off last Wednesday lunchtime for a few days offshore.

 
As the race fleet were arriving into Barcelona we were setting off for a final sail to check the systems and make sure we were happy with living on the boat as we will be for three months in the race. Wednesday was breezy and we sailed upwind in big waves with two reefs in the main and the solent flying with some ballast in and made fast progress towards Palma, Mallorca. We sailed past President, the former Ecover 3, being sailed in the BWR by Jean Le Cam and local Catalan sailor Bruno. As our sister ship it is great that they are in the race as they will be a real benchmark for us. We know the boat is fast and we know Jean Le Cam is a fast sailor so we will have to push to stay with them. Thursday saw the wind drop and Friday morning was very light but we arrived back in BCN at lunchtime all smiles with very little added to the jobs list.

With just over a fortnight to go, the race programme really gets going now. On Friday 17th December the race village opens and all the race fleet will be on display on the pontoon. Media, race and sponsor commitments really control the calendar now and it is busy, so it is good to know the boat is pretty much ready to go sailing when the gun sounds on the 31st December at 1200hrs GMT.