Today, on my birthday as it happens, I received an email from Clipper to say that my application is successful and that the contract is in the post. Am travelling north along the west coast of Scotland climbing munros and visiting Crossfit boxes so reading and signing the boring stuff will have to wait until the weekend.

It means that I can start preparing for the four stages of training. The place on the race is still subject to passing the first level of training so the quicker I get that under my belt the better. It also means that I need to start making up my mind which stages to do but we have been told that we have until the end of the year to decide.

The current thought is Leg 1 – UK to South America; Leg 5 and 6 – East Australia – China – Western US.