Race 6 - Day 10
Crew Diary - Race 6 Day 10: Hobart to Whitsundays
15 January

As my Clipper Race experience draws to an end with our rapid approach to Airlie Beach, I’ve been trying to digest what on Earth I’ll take away from these last two months - apart from a very suspect tan, nappy rash and peeling hands!

Here on GREAT Britain, we’ve had a bit of a battle with ourselves as to how competitive we really want, and can be, as a crew. GREAT Britain has been through a journey that’s taken us to the dizzy heights of a podium finish through to the devastation of the loss of Simon. This has shaped the lives of everyone on board and we are very wary of this.

What I’ve come to realise is that regardless of whether we finish on a podium or not, GREAT Britain is definitely winning its “race”. There’s no doubt about it - I’m a competitive person and having competed at 2 Olympics and had the experience of standing on the top of the podium, winning is incredible. However, when I look back on my career, the moments I’m most proud of are the times when I, or a team mate, won a battle no-one else was watching or aware they were playing.

Every time I get woken at 3.30am to go on watch, I genuinely look forward to and enjoy the company of the brilliant bunch of people around me. With Jeremy as our watch leader and Andy setting the tone, these guys have certainly won at creating an atmosphere and team that’s a pleasure to be part of. When we execute a sail change or gybe smoothly and efficiently, in my head I’m running around the boat giving everyone a high five! When we were flattened in the middle of the night by 80kts of wind and the crew on deck remained calm and delivered under extreme pressure and stress to get us back upright again, I went to sleep that night very proud of everyone’s performance. These are just a few moments where we were all winners.

Being competitive is about striving to win your battle. It’s not necessarily the one that shouts the loudest or puts the most muscle in. It’s helping the people around you to be brilliant and seeing the opportunity to deliver when it matters. This GREAT Britain crew has had many winning moments and whilst we may not be the most competitive on the Race Viewer, we are winning our battles, looking after each other and are better sailors than when we started. That sounds pretty champion to me!