Portsmouth

We arrived in Portsmouth after a very exhilarating trip. Very choppy seas in the Solent with a strong wind against tide. All was going very well until I completely misjudged a wave and went through it instead of over it! We could see the wave coming towards us over the foredeck but with no where to hide, we got the full brunt of it. We were soaked from top to toe. Lesson 1 - Always wear a drysuit.

Portsmouth was buzzing with activity. Race control was highly organised and we had millions of bits of paper to sign, ID wrist bands to wear for 9 days incase we are pulled from the sea, passes, scrutineering etc.

Lots of teams from all over Europe and great to meet some of the other competitors. Everyone very friendly. The guys from Garmin gave us some top tips on how to tweak the GPS Map and showed us how to simplify inputting the routes. Miranda is a mastermind at this - thank goodness, as I'm not.

After a relaxing coffee away from the boats, we couldn't resist a bit of retail therapy. Silly not to while in Gun Wharf Quay except that we were almost the last team to get to the briefing - slightly embarrassing!

Jeremy Bennett and Tim Kary also got hit by a big wave which damaged their console and a bit of the perspex flew off and pierced a section of one of the tubes. Must have been the same wave that we got! Anyhow, poor things have got their work cut out repairing it all ready for Saturday. Lucky it happened now rather than in the middle of the Irish Sea. We got a lift back to Lymington in Tony Jenvey's RIB and escorted Jeremy and Tim in theirs.

An amazing day and can't wait to get going. Weather looking good for first leg - whew!