The race ended this morning as we have run out of time to sail all of the way to Qingdao, and we are now motoring the final 500 miles.

I think that this has been the toughest race so far, and everyone was pretty excited when the engine came on!

The conditions have been tough, with strong winds, big waves and very hot, very cold and very wet weather.

This made life above decks even harder work, and the heeling of the boat from beating into the wind makes life below deck a constant series of press ups (and in my case constant stumbling around)!

Beating (sailing upwind) continuously is also pretty demoralising. As although you may be working hard and sailing fast, because you can't sail in a straight line, you may only end up wih a 12 hour run of 50 miles towards the target (compared to maybe 130 miles on a good day).

We've also had some other challenges to deal with, with illness that made us divert towards the Philippines in case we needed to drop the casualty off; and a semi man overboard - where somone went over the side, but remained clipped on with his strop. In that situation though, it was quite comforting to see how quickly we got him back on board, and how well everyone worked together.

So a tough leg, but with some good times - which I will remember better when firmly on land..... We are now awaiting a warm welcome, and some nice cold beers! xx