Finishing in Wellington in the pouring rain, 40+knots of breeze and the storm jib up, the overwhelming feeling was relief. The fact we had won was irrelevant and that is only starting to sink in now,  while sitting on a plane back to England with a bit of time to think about the manic last 6 weeks.

The main reason for this was the last 48hours, from the approach to fair well spit to the finish in Wellington proved to be the hardest bit of the whole leg. What made it so hard was a combination of strong winds, big changes in wind direction and continental plates, resulting in a very confused sea way that could only be described as a witch’s couldren, constantly changing with no pattern. We crashed off waves on an all to regular basis and had a couple of waves I’ll never forget, a wall of breaking white water, towering way above our heads and coming strait for the boat side-on. I had never seen a boats reaction to a wave like this so I let go of the helm at the last second and just clung on as the boat disappeared through the wave and popped out the other side.

Breaking the boat while crashing off the back of one of these waves was the biggest concern. It wasn’t until we turned into Wellington harbour that we finally thought finishing was definite.

The hospitality from everyone in Wellington was fantastic, I have never come across so many kind and helpful people in one place at one time, especially considering it was torrential rainfall at 2300 on a Friday night. Being met on the finish line with a bacon sandwich and being cooked a full Christmas dinner the next day meant there wasn’t much left on my cravings list after the first 24 hours.

A massive thank you to Conrad for inviting me on the trip, the Global Ocean Race organisers, the welcoming of the other competitors, the friends and family supporting us and the Artemis Offshore Academy for making sure we were able to make the best out of this last minute adventure.

Now back to figaro training in preparation for a busy 2012 racing season.

All for now

Sam