By Anna Wardley On board Hong Kong in the Clipper Race

All smiles on board Hong Kong

We're in the lead with only 200 miles to the finish in race six of the Clipper Race from Oahu to Yokohama.

It's been tough going so far on Hong Kong.

We've been pounded by depression after depression as we make our way up to Japan and the wind has seldom dropped below 25 knots.

On Monday night, we experienced our strongest winds of the race so far, with the true wind speed hitting 63 knots.

With gusts up storm-force eleven, we logged our top speed to date of 19 knots.

We've got used to the sound of the wind howling through the rigging and the thud of the hull slamming against waves as we've battled against headwinds.

In these conditions, the walls become the floor and the ceiling the walls and we're constantly dodging missiles of flying food and dishes down below.

Miraculously, the sail was undamaged, our mast was still standing and we'd held onto the lead

Simple things like washing up or going to the loo have become major operations.

It's also getting bitterly cold as we head north and we're piling on the layers after three months of bikini weather.

With base layers, mid-layers, oilskins, boots, gloves, hats and scarves, it takes a good 20 minutes to get kitted up to go up on deck.

A few days into the race we lost ground after spending a day untangling our spinnaker from around our forestay.

After around ten trips up the mast, our skipper Justin Taylor, 31, decided the only way to get it down was to remove the 80-foot steel cable supporting the mast.

His plan worked and 22 hours later the sail was back in its bag.

Miraculously, the sail was undamaged, our mast was still standing and we'd held onto the lead.

Now with just 200 miles to the finish, we'll be pushing the boat to the limit to maintain our lead.