Crew Blog

Crossing the finish line…finally.

10 May 2008

Even though we have crossed the finishing line a few days back and now motoring on our way to Panama, I finally pen down my thoughts about reaching this milestone. 

Though we had polled first at one point in time in this race, the happiness and relief of finally crossing the finishing line was greater than being first.  Many of you at home may wonder on what happened to us from a first poll to finally finishing 7th … simply put, we were masterly and uniquely humbled by Mother Nature… we had loads of sun (roasting at many times) with barely any wind for a good 3 days… I have never seen the ocean so flat in my whole life, it looked surreal.  All kind of thoughts came to our mind to move the boat or on how to get wind (other than eating more beans)… we considered swimming to push the boat, or get dolphins to pull it for us.. Kok Siong and I even had a 1 hour long ‘communication’ with the boat to bargain from a 0 knot to at least 2 knots (we both did push ups when we managed to get 2 knots of boat speed).  We badly wanted to move but were dependent on the wind, which had decided to ignore us. 

We finally accomplished this ‘survivor’ challenge, with Wei Wen (how appropriate to have a Singaporean at the helm for this special moment) bringing us through the finishing line.  For me, the finishing position really did not matter at this point as I was just glad that we managed to cross the line.  This experience has been very humbling in many ways, as it showed that no matter how much planning and strategic thinking is done, Mother Nature had the last word.

On an update note, to my family and friends in Singapore and Mauritius, I am doing fine and making the most of this experience.  To my mum, brothers, Nat, Queen Ashley and Princess Tofi, miss you loads.

Cheers,
Jen