SAILING VOLVO OCEAN RACE: Week Four Diary Justin Slattery, on board Irish yacht Green Dragon, is looking forward to a few beers after a great third place in Cape Town

IT'S A wonderful feeling to sail into Cape Town in third place. We're all delighted to be on the podium so early on in the race.

We crossed the line at 7.12 GMT yesterday morning three hours behind Ericsson 3. Although we were fourth over the line, Ericsson 3 have an illegal keel so were docked two points by way of a penalty, putting us on the podium. We're now in third place overall behind the big guns Ericsson 4 and Puma, which is fantastic.

It really has been the most incredible week, with the most incredible sailing. As predicted, it was a power charge to Cape Town in some of the most extreme conditions I've ever seen. We were blasting along in winds from 30 to 48 knots, pushing the hell out of the boat. We had confidence in the Dragon as we knew from our 2,000 mile pre-race qualifier that she handles well in the rough stuff. At one stage we clocked up 574 miles in 24 hours, breaking the current record of 563 set by my old sister yacht ABN AMRO Two in the last race. But in an amazing run, Ericsson 4 smashed the 600-mile barrier with what looks like a world record of 602 miles in 24 hours. Well done lads!

This was our first chance to see how the Dragon lined up against the competition offshore and we're pretty confident in her ability. We're not as fast as Ericsson 4 or Puma in certain conditions though. Our keel bulb is half a tonne lighter than Ericsson's and that means in tough conditions, when you need more stability, they will always have the edge.

The main thing is we know we're competitive. Ericsson 4 and Puma may have fast boats, but they can't afford to slip up, because when they do we'll be right on their heels, ready to punish them.

Their speed advantage enabled them to stay in the strong winds for longer. We were just that bit behind, which meant we lost the weather front and had to alter our course south, sailing an extra thousand or so miles. In fact, the whole fleet ended up sailing much more than the 6,500 miles to Cape Town. We clocked up nearly 8,500 miles in 22 days.

All was going great for us until about five nights ago. We were flying along at around 25 knots when the boat suddenly hit something. There was a jolt and we suddenly stalled.

Neal McDonald was driving at the time and the impact sent him crashing through the wheel. I was on deck trimming from behind the traveller and was thrown face down into the cockpit. There were bodies flying all over the place, but fortunately no one was badly hurt. Our keel had hit a submerged object. Luckily it didn't roll back and hit our rudders or they would have sheered off. As gutted as we were, we knew it could have been a lot worse.

From then on, our stats showed that we could only sail at approximately 90 per cent of our target speed. It meant we were around 2 knots an hour slower. If we hadn't had the collision then we would have beaten Ericsson 3 into Cape Town, but hey, these things happen.

It was great fun while it lasted though - this extreme sailing is what brings us back to this race time and time again. You just don't get that kind of sailing anywhere else. And the fact that the fleet was always so close together made it really exciting.

As well as learning about the boat, it was our first opportunity to sail as a proper team. We raced together for the first time just a few weeks ago at the in-port race in Alicante, whilst some of the other campaigns have been sailing together for one or two years. We have a great bunch of guys, we all get on really well and we have a lot of fun. This has been the longest time our skipper, Ian Walker, has spent offshore, but he's done a great job.

Sailing into Cape Town in the morning sunshine, in the shadow of the majestic Table Mountain, knowing we were third place overall, was a very special feeling. We had a fantastic welcome from all our families, friends and supporters, with even some traditional Irish salmon and beef to tuck into.

After all that freeze-dried food, it was heaven I can tell you. I'm now really looking forward to spending some time with my family, getting some rest and a few beers!

As for the old Dragon, well she's a bit wounded now. But she's in the trusty hands of our shore crew who have just over a week to get her back into shape before the fun starts again.