What a crazy week it has been so far! After a couple of lovely days off at home with my family it has been one of the busiest weeks of the program.

We have been practicing our inshore sailing every day, plus we have had to complete our last 110 mile qualification passage which we did Monday night.

Our chief sail designer JB has been here from the US to look at our final sail designs for the race as has Chris Bedford our weather expert.

Whenever we haven’t been sailing it has been briefings, debriefs, weather lessons or sail discussions. What with an increasing amount of media to deal with too, it is just 24/7.

Fortunately things should calm down now for the next week. Azzam is out of the water for the underside of the hull to have its final ‘tickle up’ (sanding and polishing) as well as a re-spray of the foredeck to improve the non-slip and make it safer for the crew to work up there. The mast is on the ground for its final checks. Whilst the whole project has felt like a race against time for the last year, the reality is the race for real starts in one week’s time.