It feels closer now than ever. Or course, that's a stupid statement, because if you're counting down days until an event, then every day is bringing it closer.

But it feels closer, because a couple weeks ago I finished my Level 1 training week. A week living and sailing on a 69' clipper sailboat, one that's already circumnavigated the globe four times, really helps put what I'm signed up to do in perspective.

Mostly. Because there's not really a decent way to mimic the sort of conditions you'll get a thousand miles from the nearest land. And I'm glad we didn't do that this time around. The weather was great for the most part, almost a perfect build in conditions, starting out easy the first day and strong enough the last day that learning about storm sails was actually appropriate.

Despite the easy conditions the first couple days, it wasn't exactly easy to do. The sails can weigh up to 300kgs (that's over 600 lbs for Liberia, Myanmar, and the US). And hauling one of those up a 30m mast (100') is pretty knackering (tiring). Especially when you're getting less sleep than would be ideal, because of the squeaky fender just the other side of the hull from your head, and people have to pass you to use the facilities. I'll be buying stock in an earplug company, and gods bless Richard Branson for the fetching red eye cover he provided on my flight over. It's surprising what you'll sleep through when you're actually being physical all day.

And I think that was my second biggest surprise of the training. I didn't seize up, I didn't collapse in a jellied heap or have my heart explode out my chest like I half-expected. Don't get me wrong, at the end of the day the narrow, seemingly damp, unpillowed bunk was collapsed into as though I'd never move again, but every morning it was back up and at it again, and I was able to. Every time a sail was sweated up, or pulled up on deck, as a team we got it up and out and up. I've got a hell of a lot of work to do to get fit enough for the race, but the week gave me a sense of what I need to improve on (everything).

It was also good for me to learn something new. And I mean really learn, and have other see what I was doing, and be able to judge. And when you feel like you're getting the hang of something, and it's starting to feel good, and there's a little bit of confidence, well that's when you're going to fuck up. I forgot what it was like to do that, and probably rediscovered in the hardest possible way; on a 68' sailboat on two hours of sleep and high enough winds that reefs are not inappropriate.

Day 3 sucked for me. It felt like every time I touched a winch or a rope, I fucked up. And that annoyed me, which would make me screw up again, self-repeating and self-defeating until I didn't even want to go to the pub at the end of the days' sailing. Called my dad. Whined to him a bit. He laughed at me, which is probably what I needed.

I got over the day, and felt great at the end of the week. Great in that sailing is something I can do, and am not atrocious at (got the RYA competent crewmember cert to prove it). Not great in that my ankle was giving me gyp, I had the grip strength of a four year old, and walking on dry land felt weird cos it wasn't moving. But regardless of that, and regardless of day 3, I still think this is exactly what I need to do. Bugger off for 11 months, sail round the world, and finish up a changed man.