Race 13 - Day 8
Crew Diary - Crew Diary: Race 13
04 July

Annick – Day 8

It took me a few days to get into the rhythm of life on board. But since my sea sickness went away everything became much easier and way more fun. Time here goes fast and slowly at the same time, on the one hand it feels as if we have just left and on the other hand as if we have been at sea for centuries. The first days I heard city noises echoing in my head. A squeaky car, a siren, as if my head is so used to those sounds that you think you hear them for a moment while they are not there.

We have been sailing with spinnakers up in the gulf stream current for days now, which is great fun. It’s warm and below deck is a sauna. Ineke says that it will cool down in the coming days(I look forward to that) on the other hand, we are having a amazing time in the sun on deck!

It feels a bit like I’m in a great movie with the endless sounds and the sea as the soundtrack. It is special how quickly you have good conversations with people with whom I did not know at all just one week ago. I now have hours of long conversations under the infinite starry sky. The group is very diverse, and I learn a lot from everyone.

Yesterday night a lot of dolphins swam around the boat that lights up through the plankton in the water. Like ghosts around our boat under a giant starry sky. Then I lay on deck and a flying fish flew against me! I was a bit confused at first but that was actually very funny, we thrown the fish back into the sea. We also see a lot of sea birds here that can fly across the entire ocean without stopping.

As soon as we get out of the gulf stream it will get colder. We have already put our watches an hour ahead twice. This is how we slowly sail into UTC. How special is that! But we are not there yet, and we will do everything we can to keep racing as fast as possible. Because this is of course a race!