The last few days of the race past in the blink of an eye. Although we had pretty low winds after rounding Ireland. As a result the course for the race was shortened. So we would not make a trip across the channel towards France as it was originally planned. Instead we would head directly for the finish line off the east coast of the Isle of Wight. But the English Channel remained very calm. […]
Continue readingOban
The arrival to Oban will likely remain in our memories for a long time. When I woke up and realised we were still in a similar position as in the evening before the disappointment was big. However, when I saw that the boat ahead of us had hardly moved and was closer it lifted me up. What followed was an emotional rollercoaster. Sometimes we caught up a bit just to see Unicef pull away again. […]
Continue readingAlmost Home
Beautiful sailing weather with sunshine and wind from our starboard quarter have been with us for the past few days. This was only interrupted by occasional rain showers as we got closer to the approaching front. But we managed to stay ahead of the front and with that in relatively stable winds. Things were going well for us and we even were in the lead for some time. On the route we were sailing along […]
Continue readingAtlantic Crossing to the Third
Almost a week ago we left Washington DC and drove through the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay back into the Atlantic Ocean. The weather for our departure was very rainy which meant that both the farewell ceremony on the stage and the fireworks had to be cancelled. Nonetheless we did our parade with the Washington Monument in the background and left the US capital with a police escort. Even though the big fireworks was cancelled […]
Continue readingArrival to Washington DC
The last few days of the race have been very exciting. After having been in the last place earlier on during the race we were meanwhile back in the leading group. With three other boats we were racing for the podium positions. With us were the Teams for Seattle, Unicef and Gosh. This was facilitated by a high pressure system, that had lead to a compression of the entire fleet due to its low winds […]
Continue readingBack in the North Atlantic
The journey through the Caribbean was rather unsteady. The wind was rather low and changed its direction often unpredictably. At least we couldn’t trust the forecast. Thus the race resembled a weather lottery. Nevertheless, the fleet stayed relatively speaking close together. Only after passing through the gab between Cuba and Haiti the fleet started to spread out a bit more. We had three different gates to choose between in order to make our way northward. […]
Continue readingPanama Canal
After about 48 hours in Panama City we had to leave again. The alarm was set for two o’clock in the morning as we had to be on the boat before three. Shortly after we left and headed out of the marina and around the island where we had to wait for the pilot. In the end we waited one and a half hours before the pilot boarded and we could head for the canal. […]
Continue readingOn the way to Panama
In the past week we have made good progress towards Panama. Thanks to the two refuelling stops in Mexico and Costa Rica respectively where we got more than 1600 L in total we can now even make good speed along our route if the winds are not great. Both stops have been short as to not lose any time. Dock, immigration, refuelling and off we go again. This was handled very efficiently in both countries […]
Continue readingHeat of hell
Due to the very slow progress across the fleet already the first mandatory gate was announced to be the finish line. While some boats had already crossed it, we were still some 500 nautical miles away when this was announced. Every day it looked less likely for us to reach the transit window in Panama. Thus the pressure was on race management to make something happen. After some back and forth we agreed to accept […]
Continue readingIt is hot
We left the US-coast behind and are now off the Mexican coast. That coast extends roughly 1800 nautical miles before we get to the other states of Central America. There are currently still about 2000 nautical miles left to our next destination Panama. A week ago we were still moving at rather consistent speed and the decision to complete the Ocean Sprint along the shortest path has paid off. With the fastest elapsed time we […]
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