"It’s the last 48 hours of this epic leg, we have just passed the high pressure today and our world has completely changed in the last 24 hours.
The water temperature has climbed from 9 to 20 and the air from 3 to 18 in 48 hours. But strangely I have never been so cold as yesterday.
I think our bodies and our minds are just relieved to be free of the pressure and the fears of the South and we can relax. When you sail in this area you have to disconnect your brain to forget your fears, the cold and the humidity.
When sometimes you go training in these cold conditions in winter for 24 hours offshore, you suffer a lot and you think you will never be able to sail for eight days like this. But when you have no choice, you are able to push your limits so far.
That’s what we did last time, including our Chinese sailors who had never spent a night offshore before joining the race, and that’s what we all did on this leg - especially Marie, our Olympic sailor, who had the crazy idea to join this race with no offshore experience.
Now we have 48 hours left to try to pass Brunel, but first we have to finish the leg without breaking our boat. Most of the fleet have had issues and our priority now is to finish
Charles”
