After a wonderful stopover in anew York, including Julius's visit, we slipped lines once again. Ahead of us was an ocean crossing, which proved to keep the tensions on a constant high. The three weeks can roughly be divided into three parts: 1st part: extremely favourable winds with high speed sailing, including a new personal and boat speed record, 2nd part: the opposite to the first - light winds, sun and painfully slow progress and 3rd part: good progress in shifty winds in cold, foggy and damp weather.

In the first five days the wind was mainly coming from the south or southwest, which allowed a fast progress. Because of a exclusion zone ("Icebox" - to keep us away from any dangerous encounters with icebergs) we had to head east for the first 1200nm. The big swell from behind allowed a constant boat speed of 12 to 15 knots. When the wind once increased above 45 knots a huge wave appeared behind us. I managed to surf it and achieved 27.2 knots. This was a crazy experience. However, stronger winds also mean greater risk of breaking things. On the third day our spinnaker block at the top of the mast decided to snap, which made a loud bang and a second later we were trying to fish it out of the water. We were lucky that it didn't rip, yet it acted as a huge sea anchor. The worst part probably was that we saw three of our competitors sail past us. Thus, the new aim after a quick repair was to stay as close to the other boats as possible.

In the following week we saw a major decrease in wind and as rounded the bottom east corner of the icebox, in order to head northeast, the wind died completely. Due to the North Atlantic high we were separated of the rest of the fleet and unfortunately lost quite some distance on them. On June 25th we interestingly passed the same longitude as Rio de Janeiro, which meant we had rounded the world passing through all longitudes. This was an amazing feeling, but at that point in time it was still quite a long way until the race finish.

The third part saw a drop in temperature and heavy fog that accompanied us all the way to Norther Ireland. The winds were mixed, yet allowed a good progress. Since the high did hold us back as long as expected we were supposed to arrive two days earlier in Londonderry than expected. Everyone of us already was looking forward to the arrival in less than five days, however, the race director had something else in mind. Since the city apparently was not ready to receive us the race course was once again extend, like on the way to DaNang. The extension meant we went to Londonderry, but shortly before turned west and made our way to Rockall, the most western point of the United Kingdom. The additional 24h were not very well perceived by all team, however, when we finally arrived the anger was fast forgotten. Londonderry organised a Maritime Festival during our stopover, which allowed us to experience the local culture and get in touch with many locals.

Londonderry to Den Helder

After a wonderful stopover in Londonderry the second last race to Den Helder was only 770nm. The wind was predicted to vary a lot until the top of Scotland and the huge amount of tide in the Pentland Firth (the strait separating the top of Scotland and the Orkney Islands) promised to make the race tactically very interesting. 

The start day itself was beautiful, as the sun was shining and big crowds, including s traditional band, waved us off. The start itself took place at the estuary of the Foyle river. At first the wind was slightly shy, but picked up during hit first night. Thus, Northern Ireland was quickly behind us and allowed us to sea Scotland on the second day already. The thick fog patches made the race extremely exciting, as all boats were fairly close together, but did not allow to see the others all the time. As we were towards the back of the fleet we decided to push harder and keep bigger sail up than usual. As we were nicely speeding along with our code 2 we broached, which usually is not a problem, but since we could not recover the broach fast enough the code 2 was flogging for a couple of minutes. Unfortunately, a big tear appeared in the sail and eventually split the whole sail in two - one end flying like a flag at the top of the mast and the other being dragged alongside the boat in the water. After about 15 minutes of the whole 21 crew strong effort we managed to retrieve both parts and hoist the yankee and staysail instead. During this little accident we unfortunately were overtaken by our competitors and saw us in 11th arriving in the Pentland Firth. At first this was quite disappointing, but gave us the chance to closely monitor the progress of the 10 boats ahead and thus adapt our course their performance. When we realised that all of them were stuck in a big wind hole and driving backwards with the current, we decided to skirt around all of them. This was actually very successful, as we left the Pentland Firth in 2nd position. As we normally are a team that does not perform that well in the race we were extremely determined to maintain the intensity, in order to achieve a good position at the finish line. The wind slightly decreased as we were heading further south, but once again allowed us to fly the code 1 (biggest spinnaker) for most of the time. After some close match racing with two other competitors we once again managed to escape the centre of a high, which brought the rest of the fleet to a hold. In the end, the team showed great strength, mentally as well as physical, and managed to hold the position. Thus, we crossed the finish line in the early morning hours of Friday and achieve our long wished podium position. To our joy the first and third placed teams were similar to us the "underdogs" in the whole race, which made the podium even more special. You can of course imagine how big the celebrations in Den Helder were. To you joy, my family had decided to make the drive from Hamburg to Den Helder, which made the whole days even more enjoyable, as we could celebrate our 2nd position together.  

Den Helder to London

On Thursday we will slip lines for the last time and head back to London where we started more than 10 month ago. This race will be fairly short, as we only have to cover around 200nm. The finish line will be close Southend where we will cross our path for the first time again in the whole round the world race. As you can imagine the arrival in London will be huge and quite emotional for many of us. I am very excited to see many friends and family at the race finish and am looking forward to our first pint together.