Caught out with the finish line in sight

SAILING VOLVO OCEAN RACE/ WEEK EIGHT DIARY: An unlucky Green Dragon slipped from fourth to seventh in a matter of hours

WE'RE ALL incredibly disappointed to finish in seventh place considering how well we had been doing despite our broken boat.

We'd consistently been in the top half throughout this leg, but we had a shocking morning - we got caught too far offshore, and when the sea breeze kicked in all three of our closest rivals sailed straight past us into Cochin. We went from fourth place to seventh in a matter of hours.

Our only chance was if the wind shut down again near the finish line, but that didn't happen.

We got so close to a fourth-place finish and it would have been great to have pulled off a good result despite our handicap of a broken boom, but on a positive note we scored enough points on this leg to put us in fourth place overall.

Although the close racing has been extremely exciting, I've found the conditions out here painful, as the wind has been so light and patchy. It's been a real lottery who will do well and who won't as, to be honest, a lot of the time it's been down to luck if you're in a good position when the wind picks up.

About a hundred miles out from India we were sailing in just one knot of breeze, with Puma and Delta Lloyd in our sights. At that stage Telefonica Black didn't seem a threat, but they made a decision to go in close to the shoreline and it paid off, putting them in fourth place. That was great sailing.

For the previous three to four days we'd been trapped in a kind of stalemate drag race, sailing from extremely light patches of wind to 35 knot squalls and back again. At one point I was just looking out of the hatchway at hundreds of square metres of sail flogging into the rigging, without a breath of wind. The ocean had completely glassed over. We were on one of the most powerful sailing machines in the world - going nowhere.

To say it was frustrating is an understatement.

On Saturday night Puma made a good break and went from two miles behind us to two miles in front. That was hard for us, but we were still confident that we could catch them.

This leg has certainly been one of extremes. It's almost hard to believe when we've been sitting in the Indian Ocean practically becalmed in no wind, that our boom broke on this leg because the weather was so severe.

We decided against trying to repair it and put all our efforts into sailing as fast as possible as we were, so the boom remained below deck looking pretty sorry for itself. Sailing without a boom hasn't been easy, but I think the other yachts will be quite surprised when they find out just how hampered we've been - if they haven't spotted it for themselves through the binoculars!

However, breakages weren't always bad news this leg. Having broken their daggerboard, Telefonica Blue were forced to go into the Doldrums a lot further west than they would have wanted, but, by chance, the weather conditions were much more favourable, enabling them to sail comfortably into second place. That's the way yacht racing goes sometimes.

We made good progress through the Doldrums - at one point we were in third, very close to second place. Once through, we hoped that we'd seen an end to the light winds, but it wasn't to be. Once we crossed the Equator it became very hot and sticky on board. For the last few days we had an unpleasant stench on the boat. We couldn't work out where it was coming from, but then we discovered the culprit: a rotting squid had somehow washed up on board and got trapped in the halyard tunnel. We were all pleased to see the back of him.

As we sailed into Cochin, along with the usual spectator boats, we were surrounded by local Indian fishing boats. I'm not sure the local fishermen knew what to make of us.

I'm really pleased to be in India. We were very sad and shocked to hear about the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. I guess it puts our disappointment into perspective.

We had a bad end to what had been a good leg for us, but it hasn't knocked our confidence. There's still a long way to go in this race and the Dragon has a lot of fight left in her.