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. […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

In the last week we fought our way down the west coast of the United States of America. First we past Oregon before going down along the coast of California, past San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego. Meanwhile we have gone past all of them and are now sailing along the Mexican coast. The winds on our journey have been rather weak and changeable so far, making our progress slow and tedious. Along the […]

With some delay but just in time for prizegiving we arrived to Seattle. And that despite the broken rudder not in last place. In addition, everyone was unharmed with only a few minor injuries. But after 31 days at sea we were all very tired and felt relieved that we had finally arrived. The stopover passed thus very quickly. First we had to finish the deep clean before carrying out our regular maintenance and the […]