Last night was a singing night – and that is when you know life is getting to be amazing.

It’s my guilty pleasure… singing when I am deck alone at night. And the thing is I couldn’t hold a note to save my life.

Springing a leak on board is never a good thing, especially when it’s boredom induced and self-inflicted. With the routine settling in and a bit more time on our hands we decided to fill up the bow ballast tank which promptly sprang a leak.

Now that the dust has settled, we have found our rhythm and are finally heading south, I have the opportunity to share a few of my objectives for this race and the reality of what sort of an outcome I could hope for racing in this incredible, high-performance fleet.

At last we’re well on our way south and starting to really settle into a routine; getting around the boat and doing regular inspections. The sun is shining and it’s warm and I’m enjoying sitting outside in just a base layer, which is incredible. Today is a good day, it feels like home again.

The last 24 hours have been pretty full on. The pace at which we went from Ushant forwards has been exhausting. We were really pushing the boat and decided to back off after a bit, because although it felt really good and the boat was going great, we’ve got to have the bigger picture in mind.

At 0900 yesterday morning Pip and co-skipper Ysbrand left a buzzing Le Havre amongst a parade of IMOCAs ready for the start of the 2019 Transat Jacque Vabre. The breeze slowly filled in and the boats departed at 1300 to begin the 4350 miles to Brazil.