I am wondering still if I am pushing too hard. It's a question that bugs me day and night. I am a competitive person I know that; but this extra effort to stretch, to learn, to challenge the status quo of what is possible

I have officially passed half way! Based on the rhum line course around the world, in the early hours of this morning I reached the half way mark. People! I am coming home.

I've had an incredible couple of days run, Medallia has been on fire and has made a great job of sneaking along to the south of my competition and gaining some miles.

All IMOCAs are wet boats, and Medallia is no exception. I have accepted the hardships of racing a boat with no cockpit cover, for that is the boat that I have. But the last 48 hours have seen more water coming over the deck than ever before and I have had to work extra hard to ensure that my life on board does not descend into a soggy pile of ruined kit.

The only niggling problem I have is the jammer in the aft end of the boom for the second reef which had me on another trip out to the end of the boom to remove and replace it - each time I think I have fixed the problem but this is something I will only know when I try the system in anger. It keeps me busy.

Last night Medallia and I achieved our highest ever top speed - 27 knots - and we put in a 4 hour run with an average pace of over 19 knots. Wow! that was incredible.