Arrived back through Sydney Heads on Monday night to a huge electrical storm which had been building over land for most of the day. The way that the lightening was lighting up the city was incredible, but I was very pleased to be back in my flat and not still out at sea!

The race from Pittwater to Lord Howe was pretty eventful. Crew on Copernicus (a Radford 40) consisted of Greg the skipper, Jim, Michael, Felicity, Alex, Ken and me. Pre-race prep was slightly hurried as Greg the skipper had to make a last minute dash to the chandlery to buy a handheld GPS as he'd forgotten a key part of the charger. We had to demonstrate to the start boat our storm sails (jib and trisail) and someone made the fateful comment that they hoped that that would be the last we saw of them. We beat out of Pittwater with the rest of the fleet and up to the turning mark off Terrigal beach. From there the rest of the fleet tacked off towards Lord Howe whereas we decided to continue up the coast towards Newcastle. Off the Newcastle coast we saw a whale in the fading light and tacked to keep out of its way, we also had to dodge between a number of the huge coal ships anchored offshore waiting to restock in Newcastle. This was the last of the shipping (and land) that we saw until we reached Lord Howe. Very different to dodging the shipping in the Channel on a UK offshore race!

The wind (as forecast) for the entire race was NE - just the direction that we wanted to be heading!!! This meant a rough and bumpy ride for the entire 77 hours. Needless to say I wasn't the only one to be sick, although I was more sick than most, only managing to hold down a few dry crackers for the duration of the race. We soon got into our 3 hours on, 3 hours off watch system, although with me being so sick my watch buddies, Jim and Michael did more than their fair share. On the final night the wind really got up and we touched over 40 knots. As we were putting in the 3rd reef the main sail tore and we had to drop that and put up the trisail to complement the storm jib that we were already using. Luckily by the next morning as everyone was feeling more on top of things we managed to make a repair to the sail and rehoisted the mainsail so that we arrived at Lord Howe before nightfall on Tuesday. The thought of having to spend the night outside the lagoon if we had missed the nightfall curfew was a definate reason to spur us on - as was the thought of a warm, dry bed, a nice cold beer and a good meal!!! Once over the finish line we discovered that we were 4th there, 3rd on IRC and 1st team (with Polaris of Belmont). Incredibly we only missed out on 2nd place by14 seconds! After so long at sea it seems unbelievable that it could have been so close.

We weren't the only boat having a tough time - there were a number of tails of drama on the high seas with a lot of boats retiring. One boat, Frantic, was a concern for a few days after no radio contact could be made. A flare sighting was made and eventually a tracker from the boat was seen heading back towards Sydney - a Qantas plane was diverted to ensure that all was well on board.

Once safely on the island we made the most of it - hiking up the 1000m Mount Gower, much of it using ropes; scuba diving in the lagoon (cold, but incredibly clear water and some of the largest rays that I have ever seen); swimming and snorkling on Ned's beach with the hundreds of Kingfish; dodging the Shearwaters (or Mutton or Pick-me birds) coming into land; yoga in the village hall; cycling around the island checking out Blinky beach and, a highlight for me - my first Australian BBQ on Ned's beach with delicious fresh kingfish - probably my best meal yet. A really special place and I feel incredibly privilaged to have been there.

The sail back was less eventful and I was only sick twice! The conditions were fairly similar as the way there, but this time we were sailing downwind so much more comfortable! Leaving the island we spotted a number of sunfish in the water - taking care to avoid them as they can do as much damage to a yacht as can hitting a submerged container! The most amazing sight was the huge pod of dolphins playing around the boat on Monday afternoon as we were on the approaches into Sydney - fabulous to watch. The other thing that is so special about being offshore is the lack of light pollution which makes the stars absolutely amazing. I missed not being able to see the Plough, but I got a good view of the Southern Cross and a billion and one other stars and some shooting stars to boot. Also, being so far away from anywhere the other thing I really noticed was the lack of satellites and planes - at home the sky seems to be alive with them.

Think that I have had enough of being battered by the waves for a while - the bruises on my hip from being slammed by the waves whilst trying to sleep in my bunk will take a while to fade, and I am looking forward to some more racing in calmer waters in the Harbour!