Heather Fell has competed in Race 14 from New York to Londonderry of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race as part of Team Jamaica Get All Right. She has been blogging from onboard and keeping us up to date with her progress over the coming weeks.

IT is so good to be back on dry land, in a real bed and using a flushing loo; the list goes on. A week later I think I have just about adjusted to normal life although I did have some form of what I am labelling 'land sickness' — the land wasn't moving but I was regularly feeling queasy for no apparent reason. The turning point seemed to be Wednesday and subconsciously I must have been missing the ocean as I was back out on a boat in Plymouth Sound. Keen to put my newly acquired knowledge gleaned from the Clipper transatlantic race into practice I rejoined Wave Warrior, the 37 foot yacht I have crewed on a few times in the past, for one of the summer series races. I distinctly remember the first time I sailed on this boat; it seemed huge. Perspective is a funny thing and after living on a '70 footer' I was seriously questioning if this was even the same boat. I couldn't comprehend how much smaller it was, so much so I hardly even recognised it. I know that Devon is a small world, sailing is too — combine the two and I shouldn't have been surprised at this coincidence. One of the crew on Wave Warrior was talking about coming up the Thames last Saturday, then I heard him mention St Katherine's Dock (where the Clipper boats moored up) and sailing a 70 foot yacht around the world. It turns out he had just sailed one of the Clipper boats back from London to their home in Gosport. I then had to be careful what I talked about and there was no room for exaggeration as I shared my transatlantic experiences with the rest of the crew.