The start of the race from Fremantle to Airlie Beach was not an easy on. The wind was only blowing with medium strength, but from southerly direction so that we have to beat against it. That’s not really a pleasure and has caused some seasickness amongst the crew. Luckily I have been able to get through without this time. Maybe my body is starting to adopt.

In the second night we had our first big surprise. We heard something fall on the deck and starting to roll away. It took us a few moments to realise what it was: the nut holding on our starboard steering wheel had come loose and fallen out. Shortly after the steering wheel had fallen off as well. Luckily enough we were able to secure all the parts before they were washed off the deck. So it was easy to reassemble everything.

We are now heading southeast and hope to reach the scoring gate as one of the first boats to earn a few additional points. In the meantime the Christmas mood is building. The boat is nicely decorated, Christmas songs are blasting from the speakers and the first (disgusting) pieces of Christmas clothing have appeared.

For me respectively us this will be very different to what we are used to. But as our skipper keeps saying, we are a small disfunctional family on board. And we are going to celebrate with that family a slightly different Christmas: multi-cultural and somewhere in the ocean. And of course we have to continue sailing non-stop. In that sense, Merry Christmas to everyone.