I woke up this morning asking myself what it would take to stay competitive in this race, whether the crew fully understood the sacrifices it may take to hold position and not lose ground to any of the other yachts. The hotter it gets, the less focussed we all become, myself included.

I keep telling myself the priorities of safety, happy crew and podium success, in that order might I add. I believe all of these mixed together would make for a very strong crew, but, as ever, it's all about striking the right balance.

I almost wish during Crew Allocation that I had a boat set up inclusive of four coffee grinders (the big winches that look like hand bicycle pedals), a couple of wheels, and a few lines to ease and pull in on in the slightly hot room in the Portsmouth Guildhall. I think the crew as a whole would have been greater equipped to answer the question - 'How competitive do we want to be?’

The crew are happy but I can tell they are feeling the hardships of being at sea for two weeks. I don't want to push them beyond their limits so it takes the enjoyment out of it, but on the other hand I don't want the team to get the Uruguay and then ask the question, 'where could we have improved and how did we lose ground'? I think it's like anything you do, if by the end you know you have put in absolutely everything you can into it, you shouldn't be disappointed with the result, you can kick back and say we gave that everything we had.

For me personally I want to do well but it's not everything, so I'm trying to show the crew the changes we will have to make to remain competitive but leaving it up to them as a whole to decide which of those changes they are happy to make to hold position.

The harder you work the luckier you get.

Andy