“What a start, I am pretty happy with the way it went and the way I played the shifts and managed myself, the boat and the sails. It got quite spicy at times. There were lots of fast boats got bunched up close to the coast and a few people got quite excited about putting their boat in places where there was no place to put it when they did not have priority. There were a few elbows thrown out there, but you kind of have to accommodate that. There is no point in risking to break anything. That’s it, Everything went really well until I was in the middle of the Saint Lucia channel when I discovered that my wind instruments were going a little crazy because the sensor for the mast rotation had broken into pieces. And that is something that is going to make my life harder for the rest of the race. Also after we tacked over a big wave I heard a big crash and the carbon fibre sheave box for the J2 sheet exploded, so I have set up a jury set up but that is fine but it does increase my workload for the rest of the race, and mean that I am working harder to maintain the level. So that is quite frustrating to have small breakages which will impact on the way I can sail the boat efficiently. So I gave up a few places then but now I have caught up to Guirec and Manu and eat into my deficit to the boats ahead. That’s great as this will be a long and complicated race. I don’t think that will be the last of the breakages for me but then I don’t think anyone is going to get through this without any damage and so it is just a case of managing it, managing myself, keeping things in one piece and going as fast as I can.”