Alex Thomson: Welsh sailor not staying on dry land for long

After 74 days alone at sea and sleeping for 20 minutes every four hours, you would think Alex Thomson would want to stay on dry land.

The Gosport-based Welsh sailor came second in the solo round-the-world race, the Vendee Globe, in January.

But weeks later, he will take to the seas again.

"While I was on the race, my wife booked a yacht in the Caribbean," Thomson told BBC Radio Wales Sport.

"So in a few weeks I'll be flying out and I will be back on a boat."

Thomson does have some concessions, however: "I have insisted that it has air conditioning, double beds, a toilet and a fridge."

Frenchman Armel Le Cleac'h won the race in record time and Thomson crossed the finish line 15 hours, 59 minutes and 29 seconds later.

The 42-year-old is happy to be back with his family, but experienced an unexpected side effect of being back home.

"The last two weeks have gone very quickly and mostly trying to be in recovery mode and get some sleep and energy back," he continued.

"Unfortunately I picked up a bug when I came back because I've been in a sterile environment so I quickly got a virus and had to have a few days in bed.

"Having slept for 20-40 minutes every two to four hours, actually spending a couple of days in bed was quite attractive."

Despite his recent return from a gruelling race over the course of several months, Thomson has more racing planned for the season ahead.

"This year we have the Fastnet race, which is a race that starts in Cowes on the Isle of Wight to Fastnet Rock and back to Plymouth and I'll compete in that," he said.

"It's a sprint of 600 miles and takes two to three days and then towards the end of the year there's a race called the Jacques Vabre which goes from Le Havre in France to down to Salvador Baiha in Brazil.

"It happens every two years and two years ago when we did that race with our brand new boat, we were hit by a rogue wave and turned upside down so I'm keen to set the record straight with that one."