Throughout the race we had fierce battles with our competitors and managed to grab the 9th place (overall 10th place after scores for the ocean sprint and scoring gate were added). To be honest, we would be happier with a better result, nevertheless we made great progress as a team and successfully crossed both the equator and Atlantic ocean. In doing so, knowledge was transferred, routines were established and skills were acquired. I am also happy to be able to report that no crew and material got seriously hurt or damaged during this leg. We only had some scratches, bruises, minor wounds and smaller rips in two sails, but nothing severe.

When looking back at this leg, I can definitely say that we were spoiled with good weather. We had slight rain showers when we left the UK, but soon could enjoy the Sahara sun with constant temperatures around 30 degrees, blue skies and seas and most of the time enough wind.

The numerous visits of dolphin pods, exotic birds and flying fish or whales elegantly passing by contributed to the joy on our boat. Sometimes we had the feeling of being on a cruise and not a sailing race, I must admit. This pleasant condition until the equator can be credited to the famous trade winds (moderate easterly winds with sunshine), which allowed us to sail our asymmetric spinnakers for most of the time during the first two weeks. We also had some amazing bright nights with silver water around us, due to the full moon. Moments I will never forget. The Doldrums, a band where the northeast and southeast trade winds meet - usually calm weather with potential days of no wind - where mainly avoided as the race director allowed all 12 yachts to motor for 60 hours. The now and then occurrences of squalls (wind gusts that lasts longer than a minute and have wind speeds at least 16 knots higher than the mean and exceed 22 knots - they are accompanied by hail, rain and big black clouds), which we mostly encountered around the equator, we're seen as a welcoming refreshment, as it was very humid and warm on the boat.

On September 23rd, King Neptune visited our boat, as we crossed the equator. For those of us, who still were pollywogs (people who did not have crossed the equator on a ship) had to present a gift to King Neptune, before being baptized and transformed into a so-called ‘shallback’. I presented a song with a couple of my crew mates, which we practiced in the sail locker in the days before. After this we were pelted with leftover food from the last days, including beans, Weetabix and other things, in order to become ‘sons of King Neptune’. After this we sailed south parallel to the coast of Brazil and took part in the ocean sprint. As we were in the aft of the fleet, we decided to not go straight south and aim for the two points we could get in the ocean sprint. We decided to head southwest, in order to keep up with the boat in front of us and make sure that the others behind would not have the chance to overtake us.