It’s been a very hectic month. The ash cloud didn't help as we had planned to go to the Caribbean to film the Farr 40 worlds, and instead ended up driving to Hyeres in the South of France to the Hyeres Olympic regatta.
It was lovely to catch up with the other Team Volvo for life sailors. We told the story of the Olympic journey through the eyes of a young Brazilian girl, Martine Grael. Her dad, Torben is a sailing legend with 5 medals, an America's Cup finalist and a Volvo Ocean Race winner. However Martine is quickly following in his footsteps and is a Volvo ISAF World Youth Champion already.
Being with Martine and driving across Europe really made me think about my own early days and how much the game has moved on. There is little driving now by the athletes, certainly no one is sleeping in the car, and nearly everyone has a coach. To succeed without the proper backing and back room support that the top teams have now is hard, probably impossible. We in the UK are fortunate, our sailors are well looked after. Martine though has bags of talent and with the 2016 games taking place in her country I am sure we'll be hearing more about her in the future.
Next up I followed Paul Cayard for a week as he competed in the RC44's in Austria, the Nespresso Cup in Portofino and the Medcup on Portugal. As you can see it was a tough schedule for him and for us!
But I found it really interesting because at 51 years old he's still incredibly intense about his sport. I enjoyed his company and I was inspired by him. He leads people by example and I wasn't surprised he had been so successful in such diverse areas of the sport.
This week I have been home on the Isle of Wight , hanging out with my kids, summer has arrived and it’s easy here to feel you are on holiday every day. After school, beach clobber in the back of the Volvo and we are off to another beach and ice cream! We took the twins out in a boat off Alum Bay today and couldn't help but look forward to rounding the Needles in the J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race on the 19th of June.
I love the race, 1700 boats rounding the needles is a sight you never get complacent with. First though I'm off to Sete in France to present a series of Channel 4 programmes of the Extreme 40 Series, then the Bell Lawrie Scottish Series (I have packed my wellies) then finally home!
I am being kept very busy with CNN and my Television commitments, we have lots of exciting events, stories and interesting people to meet. Next up is a Super Yacht regatta in Sardinia. We will look at what it takes to run and race 100ft plus yachts, I'll try all kinds of jobs, from the ship's cook to the Captain which should be really fun
As I mentioned the Round the Island Race is a real highlight of the summer for me, I will be skippering the Team Volvo for life TP52 for the race, my best time so far is 3 hours and 30 mins in an Extreme 40- I'm not sufre I'll be beating that!
Finally, I was very interested to read in the Telegraph that I was coming back to do the Match racing at the Olympics, my husband was even more interested! Chinese whispers are a great thing!
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