Leg 1 - Whitbread

I'd like to be able to say that I knew my first leg in the Whitbread would go this well when I decided to do it but honestly, I can not. It was a big surprise to many observers and a pleasantsurprise to me.The idea of winning the Whitbread Round the World Race is something that I thought we had a chance of doing when I signed up with TEAM EF one year ago. However, I thought the road to thewinners circle would be slow and painful as my team and I,largely novices at this type of sailing, struggled to catch upwith the Dalton's, Smith's and Dickson's along with their verytalented crews.I am taking EF Language's win on the first leg with a grain ofsalt as I don't think much has really changed. I still believethat the Whitbread experienced teams will prove their metal whenthe going gets rough. The boats will get hard to handle, andexperience in making decisions concerning changing sails and howto do it, will pay off. This should be coming up right now on thesecond leg, which we are 24 hours into at the time of thiswriting.What winning the first leg did confirm, is that EF Language canplay this game and can win the Race. What remains to be seen isthe amount of our deficiency in "Whitbread" conditions and can welearn fast enough to minimize those deficiencies, and come out ontop in the final tally next May.As we forge south right now, 50-60 knots of wind await us at 45S.Once we get down there, we should be in for 10 days of serioussailing in one of the greatest places on this planet to practicethe sport and one in which few sailors actually have the privilegeof going to. The waves will be in the 10 meter range, the wind inthe 50's, the temperature around 0, and the boat speed in the30's. The 24 hour record for a mono-hull will be destroyed by halfof the fleet.For those of you who know me you may be saying, "This isn't thePaul Cayard I remember. I thought he was smarter than that!"Well, I guess I may have talked myself into this but actually thisis really a unique experience, one I will never forget and as asailor one that completes my career. There are some sacrifices,probably the largest made by my wife and children