SAILING:IT WAS a slow ride into Boston as the wind completely shut down on us over the last few days, leaving us on board the Green Dragon inching our way towards the harbour.

We’d experienced some exciting, fast sailing in this leg, but within the last 48 hours the breeze became really shifty and flukey and we dropped to just two knots of boat speed at one point. The days of racing along at 20-plus knots seemed a distant memory.

We were disappointed not to have done better, as we’d been close racing with Telefonica Black and Delta Lloyd over the last week. For most of the week there’s been just 10 to 15 miles between us, and by midweek we’d overtaken them both for a short time.

After the scoring gate at the Fernando de Naronha Island we moved into the north-easterly trade winds and jumped on the Gulf Stream.

This gave us some consistent, strong winds, and we were able to make great gains on the leaderboard as we charged along in 20-plus knots of breeze.

The wind angle changed so we were no longer “reaching” and were able to enjoy some fast downwind sailing, with the wind behind us. It was a great feeling to be in a consistent breeze for once.

Ourselves and Telefonica Black took a more westerly position and Delta Lloyd went east. At this point the three of us were juggling positions as we made gains and losses.

On paper, it looked like Delta Lloyd had made a big mistake going east, as the forecast was that the wind was going to fill in from the west.

But as is so often the case in yacht racing, they got lucky and picked up a huge wind shift which propelled them forward and took them into fourth place for the next couple of days.

We lost the wind as we struggled to get around the exclusion zone just off Cape Cod, which the race organisers had put in place to keep us away from a group of whales who are mating at this time of year. It was so frustrating for us, but there was nothing we could do.

On the plus side, we’ve seen some wonderful wildlife in the last few days and got some great photographs of dolphins dancing around the Dragon. It really has been magical to watch these creatures playing in their natural habitat. Whales, in particular, are some of the most beautiful creatures you can witness and you just marvel at the sheer size of them.

We’re expecting to have a great stopover in Boston: the celebrations started right on the dock with some great Irish food – roast beef, Irish salmon and West Cork Relish courtesy of Good Food Ireland. We’re told some of our Irish Ministers are making the journey out here as well, so it promises to be a great forerunner to Galway.

We’re all disappointed the leg didn’t go our way, but we didn’t make any mistakes and it’s impossible to think how we could have done anything differently. The Green Dragon is in great shape and we managed not to break anything on this leg.

We’re looking forward to enjoying a good stopover in Boston, and then it’ll be back on the boat for the transatlantic sprint to Galway.

The Green Dragon is coming home!