Leg 8 : race 13; day 3 Woke at 6.39 on deck for 7am it was sunny. During the night we had taken down the code 2 put up the 1 then taken that down now as we had gone through a wind hole. All positions changed we had gone to bed in 3rd place then when we went on deck we were 2nd. It was really close but lovely seeing 10 boats behind us. When we went through pentland firth the 13knots of speed with 4 knots of wind so 9 knots of current amazing. It was lovely to hav...

Had a lovely meal with the children at home chatting about our forth coming trip. Lots has happened since we left the boats in China. We got back in March then went skiing with the Connor Megan Sam Dana Jared Julia Steve their kids and Cheryl and Simon. Lovely time. Then a few weeks later we went to turkey with Lawrence Tania Sam and Dean - relaxing chilled pool holiday although we did get quiet a bit of rain. Then in June we flew to Italy and sailed a boat to...

Woke up and wondered where I was, the room was so bright and remember home in my bed. Felt so happy to be back. Went to the hairdressers at 10 to have my hair done : hadn't been done for 3 months ! So a few greys took a bottle of procesco!

After arriving home couldn't wait to see the children and Freya and Joey. Gave them a chocolate bunny each. Have missed them all so much and Freya said "you have been away for a long time " Showed them some photos and watched a video. Freya said "nanny and grandad the boat is really tipping over you could fall out and be dead in the sea !!! " Went to the pub in the evening then for a curry and back to Steve and Julia's. Lovely catching up with everyone

Today we left our four wonderful children and two gorgeous grandchildren to follow our dreams on an adventure of a life time. We left Heathrow at 20.30 flew to Doha (6.45 duration ) then into Hong Kong ( 7.40) then to syndney ( 9.20) arriving in Sydney on New Year's Eve Thursday 31st December at midday. The flights went really smoothly along with all the transfers. Watched some good films along the way.