So, leg 1 is done, and after a race by turns exciting, boring, frustrating and gruelling we arrived in Rio de Janeiro. 

On the way in I took the opportunity to pose with Jesus for the camera-man – he had plenty of time as it took me ten minutes to untangle that particular halyard – and once the sails were down we chugged into the marina.

  
Unfortunately Marina da Gloria is being redeveloped for the Olympics, and even the most optimistic spin-doctor couldn’t yet apply the World Cup strap-line of ‘it’s not finished, but it’s ready’.  The kindest one could say, while dodging the cement lorries, is that work appears to be progressing…
   
 
Still, the beer was cold, the ground firm beneath our feet, and the guest house bed unimaginably comfortable after four weeks sleeping on something akin to a hospital stretcher.  Thank you to everyone for emails, texts, and various other media bits which kept my phone pinging all night, and if I’ve failed to respond yet please bear with me. 

Garmin has been scrubbed to within an inch of her life, has had new ropes and blocks and wires where needed, and the victualling team have bought, sorted and stashed the food for our relatively short hop across the South Atlantic to Cape Town.  The new leggers check in tomorrow, and then we begin the slow crescendo to race-start on the 7th October. 

It’s not clear yet  whether LMAX Exchange will be on the start line with us, following their unscheduled stop, or whether we will all have to wait for them; but, if the latter, there are worse places to be stuck than Rio…