Emma Richards update

Battered and bruised but landed in Cape Town after 30 days of solo racing

A stunningly interesting fact for ocean racing anoraks - and we have Mr Nigel Cherrie to thank for this gem - is that last year when we covered the Volvo Ocean Race, leg one of that race took the immaculately sailed illbruck a time of 31 days, 6 hours 19 minutes. Bernard Stamm, sailing his Open 60 Bobst Group Armor Lux on this leg has just taken a time of 29 days 22 hours, sailing singlehanded.

Yes, the course for Around Alone doesn't involve going around two remote islands off Brazil and the course is about 6,880 miles to the Volvo's 7,300, but still it is an interesting point. Emma Richards who finished in third and who held second place for much of the race should feel proud - her time of 30 days 15 hours and 27 minutes equates to 37 days 11 hours and 20 minutes for her peers on Amer Sports Too.

When we spoke to Emma earlier we got an overwhelming sense of relief from her, that she was in. Since touching down in Cape Town yesterday morning it's been a ball.

"Bernard [Stamm] and Thierry [Dubois] both came out and jumped on board as shore crew when I arrived," she said. "They basically hadn’t stopped celebrating since they’d both got in. After 30 days Bernard was only 15 hours in front of me. To have that kind of finish with three boats so close is fantastic."

The reception in Cape Town was exception for 5.30 in the morning. "I’ve got this habit of coming in at dawn. But the arrival was beautiful because it was still pitch black when I approached Table Mountain and I was really disappointed thinking “oh no, I’m not even going to see Table Mountain after all this time” and it was all back lit by the loom of Cape Town. So it was this most awesome sight. And then just coming in and I got the most perfect sunrise."

Her arrival was followed by beer and croissant with her competitors.

The last month has been an action packed one for Emma. To her surprise it was much more physically demanding than she anticipated. "I expected it to be really tough tactically and the most demanding physically I always imagined would be the Southern Ocean legs and north north Atlantic and this would be a more tactical, but physically it’s turned out to be a lot more demanding than I expected.

"It seemed like such a long leg, because after Hurricane Kyle at the beginning, then we didn’t really have good Trades at the top half, then the Doldrums – we didn’t have no wind, but we had that squall and it ended up being different and tough and not very nice – and then the South Atlantic trades were mostly upwind for us and then we cut the corner and had such a fast run in at the end which was great, but we had the challenges with the gooseneck and the mast and the main halyard which was a bit of a nightmare…I was so ready to finish when I did."

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