Sat in Stockholm airport, hardly able to keep his eyes open

Conrad Humphreys reports on a very tough Archipelago Raid

Overall, the experience of competing in the Archipelago Raid was incredible. Being only my first F18 event, with only three days practice in the boat beforehand, it was a steep learning curve, the navigation was insane at times and the conditions made for some of the most demanding sailing we've ever undertaken.

The last minute change in Bernard Stamm's plans for Barcelona, meant I switched to sailing with Ryan Crawford (who normally occupies the front slot for hugh styles) His knowledge of the boat, stength and superb crewing certainly raised my game. He is sat next to me on this flight and the sight of his hands tell me a great deal about is level of determination. He gave it all.

Some of your readers will know that I decided to use this race to learn about Bernard Stamm's abilities, as a test for the Barcelona World Race. Sadly this will not happen as Bernard decided after the Calais Round Britain Race to focus on the Vendee Globe, a decision that I was pretty gutted about. However, the Archipelago Raid has been the biggest two person test and challenge that I have undertaken and for this reason alone, it has been an amazing experience. It certainly ranks up their with the Vendee in terms of mental and physical duress.

For the Blue Project, this race has been perfect, and the level of awareness of the campaign is gaining momentum daily. The decision by the Archipelago Raid organisation to allow is to partner the race, with individual teams sailing as ambassadors for the environment, was brilliant and as a result we have increased the awareness further through this event than I expected. The comments from the competitors was very positive and I know that their efforts will continue to build the awareness for Blue.

The highlights were many. The comaraderie of the teams and organisation was exceptional. Christine Salen and her team ran an incredible event, always putting the competitors efforts first and there was a great bond with them even if they got is up at 3 o'clock in the morning!

Day three produced some of the greatest sailing, with a monster downwind leg of over 100 miles in 20-25 knots through rock alley. After an èarly capsize we pushed so hard and got back to score one of our best results of the week. It was insane and the footage taken from the chopper by APP team was remarkable.

The lowest part, was the gut wrenching sound as we destroyed both our daggerboards in a collision that could have ended our race. I guess the lesson is - make sure you hit it hard, the boards exploded but we suffered no damage to the boat! The last two days had us sailing and tacking upwind having to switch the board on every tack - not easy in 20knots!

The other worst part of the Raid was the bites from the mosquitos. I resemble something like the elephant man after suffering over a 100 bites to my body on Wednesday night in Orland.

So overall a top experience, I'm sure at some stage I will go back and race again. Ìt is one event that I have wanted to do for a number of years and having completed it at the first attempt in the top half of the fleet was really pleasing.

Big thanks to Matt and Jamie for sailing as team Blue and to Disc Manufacturing Services, Navico and Corum for supporting us at the event.