The thrill of the chase, the pain of life at sea

It is not the easiest life on the ocean waves. For this first leg Assa Abloy has been running on a two-watch system, which in effect means everyone is on deck directly involved with racing the boat for 50 per cent of the time. But the "off watch" not only have to get their sleep and eat, they also have to keep down-below tidy and dry, repair sails, perform any media duties such as editing and sending video footage, or write articles like this.

On top of this the off-watch are on call for any difficult sail changes or on-deck calamities. On a good day this sort of routine allows the crew to get enough sleep – say eight hours in two different sessions. On a bad day you end up pretty tired – a big cloud that needssail changes or a ripped sail, which is always followed by two or three sail changes, quickly eats into that all-important sleep time.

Life below decks is pretty meagre – you would be amazed at how basic it all is. Everything revolves around performance – the more gear we take the heavier the boat is and the slower we go. For a long 30-day leg such as this we each have a compartment in a bag that would be under half the size of anything you would take as carry-on baggage on an aircraft. And that is it. The only thing you take of your own is a toothbrush – there are only six sleeping bags for 12 crew.

Eating arrangements are even more primitive – only six plastic bowls and spoons (we only have three now). One single-burner gas camping stove, a large pressure cooker and a stirring spoon complete our entire eating equipment, yet I have to say the food is rather good. To save weight we have only freeze dried food and we make water as we need it.

Much work goes into the food we take – it is a real science. Our calorific intake, mineral and vitamin requirements are carefully worked out. Our daily input would make most normal people pretty fat in a short time – but due to the physical work we do it is unusual for us not to lose weight during a leg.

Washing facilities are also basic – there aren't any. This leg is OK as it is so hot you simply take a bucket of salt water and tip it over your head every day or so, but in the Southern Ocean we will basically be wearing what we start in without a change for the entire leg. "Revolting" I hear most say but in fact its quite a clean existence – honestly – no flies, no dirt and a complete dousing with salt water every few hours.

So why would any one in their right mind put up with these conditions? Well, first, none of us are in our right mind, that's for sure – for three of us on this boat this is the second round-the-world race we have started this year.

Far more importantly, though, the thrill of the completion is more than enough to forget all the hardships. Since the start of this race three weeks ago it has been the complete ding-dong battle I expected. We have seen some of the closest sail-boat racing I've ever come across – it has already stretched over several oceans and several thousand miles and there is plenty more to come.

For the first two weeks we were never out of sight of another boat – neck and neck racing at its best. Every sail change or tactical call brings a painful loss or an exhilarating gain.

Every six hours we have an absolute indication of exactly how well or badly we have done – the exact position of the whole fleet is sent out. Even if you are sound asleep you somehow manage to hear the results. It makes for a pretty exciting and somewhat stressful environment, that's for sure.

So up to now, other than the occasional whine about being hungry none of us has had a spare second to consider the hardships we have to endure – or even question why we do it.

Neal McDonald, one of Britain's most experienced ocean racers, is a helmsman and trimmer on Assa Abloy