3 days later and going strong. There are still a couple of days left until I’ve matched my longest non-stop passage, and from then on, I’ll be living a new challenge. Adopting to a new watch system and living on a 12-metre yacht with 8 other people is in itself a challenge, and I’ve still got 18 or so days left. We had a little bit of a fall off 2 nights ago when a symmetrical spinnaker got wrapped around the forestay in the middle of the night. On top of it ripping, it took sending someone up the mast and afterwards, 3 hours to make sense of the wrap and get the sail replaced. Regarding the race, it’s starting to feel less like one. Day by day, as the boats fan out further from each other, there’s no reference to race against apart from asking exterior sources to report on how we are doing. From the beginning, it was made clear that we would do our best as a crew and get to the other side safely and in one piece. One can’t help but have a little hunger to push the boat and remain competitive though.
We are expecting to catch the trade winds and make the turn west in the next 24 hours. Since the 24th, we have sailed south towards Cape Verde where the Atlantic trade winds begin and blow directly to the Caribbean. So far, we have been sailing downwind as was expected. The other yachts have disappeared from view, and the occasional passing bird or ship is now a cause for excitement. Over 2 weeks left….