Race 11 - Day 12
Crew Diary - Race 11 Day 12
21 May

Be safe, have fun, and sail fast

While we are slowly making progress on our way to Panama, I wonder what’s going on at home. It is strange to not know what’s happening in the lives of my family and friends at this moment. I purposely chose not to purchase any tokens to send e-mails so I could be completely offline, but now I’m slightly regretting this. Our life is all about sailing now and the days are more and more like Groundhog Day. Some news from the mainland would be a welcome present. The other way around, are these blogs and the moving orange boat on the Race Viewer, the only signs of life they get from me. Perseverance is a bit further off-coast than the rest of the fleet and as far as our eyes can see there is only the sea. Unknown as well, is everything that is happening in this big blue ocean around us. The 3944 meters of depth underneath us contain endless secrets. I wish my eyes could see through the waves and into this interesting world full of creatures living their lives. We did see a few things. We left Seattle with a California sea lion waving us goodbye. He laid right next to our boat in the marina and was a perfect mascot with his answers to ‘Who let the dogs out?!’ On sea, flying fish and squids jump regularly on our deck, Gaston had an encounter with a smelly flying fish on his trousers and Jan sat on a squid, twice... Yesterday we had an amazing watch changeover with some Pacific white-sided dolphins jumping out of the waves next to us during a beautiful sunset. Every day we see some oceanic birds and thanks to the guide Jaap gave us, we could already recognise albatrosses, terns, and boobies (that’s what they are called!). In the distance, we saw some seals and an uncertain blink of a whale. We are patiently waiting to see whales from nearby. Almost every night we have bioluminescent phytoplankton enlightening the breaking waves in a pitch-dark sea. Perhaps the most interesting thing we saw, were millions of jellyfish floating past our boat for a couple of days. These jellyfish are called by-the-wind sailors and have a small crest on their upper surface that acts as a sail. It felt like these tough little sailors were cheering us on from their own tiny vessels. On board, we are trying our hardest to sail as fast as we can and improve our position in the race. The Mexican sun is finally showing and the temperatures are rising quickly on and below deck. To keep everyone sharp, we started a session of real-life Cluedo two days ago. Since then no one can be trusted anymore and everything is suspicious. Until now, four people have seen the light. One of them was Anthony, who was brutally murdered by Dan this morning with his own homemade bread dough. A few failed attempts have happened since then, but more plans are being made. As we say: be safe, have fun, and sail fast!