Training week with coach, Mark Littlejohn;

On Monday morning, Sydney Olympic Gold Medalist, Shirley Robertson's coach, Mark Littlejohn arrived into Palma to coach me for the week. I drove him through the picturesque town of Palma, to our apartment in San Agustin.

Mark expressed how much he liked our set up. How he thought it was ideal with its two bedrooms, large patio space, shed for the bikes and toolboxes and only 4mins from the Yacht Club.

My boyfriend, John had been match racing with Mark Camble-James in France and flew in an hour after Mark. We collected a happy John who'd won every race this weekend and went to collect the Rib that we'd parked in a friend of John's garden to escape the huge storage fees at the Yacht Club.

The second Europe hull needed some repair needed doing to it so we made a massive effort to heave it over the high hedge into our back garden. Once in place, it was ideal for working on by the patio doors as there's an outside light and a cover from the balcony above so we could work in dry conditions (as it does rain here, just to make us feel at home!). John did a great job on the repair and Mark commented on how I have my own "Peter Bentley", Shirley Robertson's boyfriend for years, who did an enormous amount working on advancing Shirley's equipment.

When I told John what Mark had said, he came back and said "I hope you corrected him?" "Why?" I asked. "Well, told him that I'm your Ferrari, not a Bentley!" ....He, he, he!!

After a foamy scrub down the rib was launched as the sun set. The sky is so beautiful at this time of night, with streaks of pink and turquoise.

Then it was off to the gym for an hour spinning class. Mark joined me morning and night for the spinning class, he got really into it. I managed 8hrs this week.

The program; 9:15am Spinning (1hr) 10:30am Breakfast/ briefing 12:00am sailing (2hrs) 2:00pm Lunch 3:00pm Sailing (2hrs) 6:00pm Snack & de-brief 7:30pm Spinning (1hr) 9:00pm Dinner.

I learned heaps in these days sailing. The first day out was gusting 30knotts, it was nuts! I went swimming when I tried gybing to start. Mark told me to ease my kicker more before I go into the gybe and this made a huge difference. My confidence grew and I was able to gybe freely as I chose, even in the biggest gusts! We got some great video footage to study.

We had a light wind day when we worked on starting, picked up some tips that are going to make a huge difference! There is still so much I don't know, which is a good as it means that I can still improve massively. I'm far from the Plato stage in my sailing.

I've had two days off to clean the apartment, do 8 loads of washing, make the beds etc. ready for Merel Witterveen from Holland who is arriving tonight, Sunday 8th Dec for ten days training with coach.....