After an extremely warm welcome in Seattle's Bell Harbour, we definitely have been greatly enjoying Seattle so far. The usual deep clean and some maintenance jobs were completed after three days, allowing us to explore the city and take some time off the boat, in order to relax and fill up our energy. We were pleasantly surprised by how much the Seattle Sports Commission, Port of Seattle and the Seattle Yacht Club had organised for us. Every day there are different activities organised so there is definitely no boring hour, e.g. museum visits, urban scavenger hunt, baseball game visit, restaurant and bar special every night, etc.

Today, it is already our last day in Seattle and therefore time to "slip lines". Seattle is definitely now also on my list of cities around the world that I would like to explore more thoroughly, since you usually only get a taste during the rather short stopovers of the race. Especially the magnificent nature so close to the city is a part that I admired, including the breath-taking sight of sea- and snow-covered mountains.

Seattle is also the starting point of the seventh of eight legs and includes two races. The start of race #10 will take place at the same location as the finish of the previous race, meaning that we will motor-sail out of the Puget Sound and Strait of Juan de Fuca. The official race start will be in the afternoon of April 29th. This seventh of eight legs to reach London consists of two races: the first (race #10) will include sailing down the American and Mexican west coast and passing Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua until Panama City. The second race (#11) will start from Colon (Atlantic entrance to the Panama canal), bring us through the Caribbean and up the American East coast to New York City. In total, we will be covering more than 6,000nm in approximately 45 days and the passage through the Panama canal will definitely be a highlight of this trip. The weather conditions on this leg should again include a mix of everything: colder conditions with more wind roughly until San Francisco, from there it will get warmer and warmer until we reach the high humidity level in Panama, the Caribbean will be warm and full of squalls and along the east coast of the US again more wind and tougher sailing conditions can be expected. Therefore, I am looking forward to the leg with diverse experiences and challenges ahead. Our arrival window in Panama is between the 25th and 27th May and in New York between the 12th and 14th June. I am especially delighted to meet my brother Julius in New York and looking forward to spend some brother time in this exciting city.

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