Dare to leave London
Today was the opening day we were all longing for, the day starting the race of our lives! Months of preparation, years of dreaming and desire are lying behind us and we finally took the first step, an exciting step into the unknown! Before this, we enjoyed hot and sunny summer days in London during the final preparations of our beautiful racing yacht. Many bullet points have been ticked off during prep week in Gosport, but some last steps of victualling and receiving Code 2 and 3 spinnakers have been completed. Any yacht is an endless creator of new tasks. With a great team effort, we managed to stay on top of everything and we are ready to start the race on Monday!
After a calm wakening in the early Sunday morning, the pace stepped up. An emotional farewell to my friends and family waving me off for the circumnavigation was followed by the official goodbye ceremony on stage. It was unbelievable how many people came down to the Thames to see us off and Tower Bridge was opened twice for us. What a worthy setting for the start of the twelfth edition of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race! I was completely overwhelmed by such an unforgettable spectacle! Seeing my close ones on a spectator boat, coming all the way from my home country Switzerland is extremely touching! I feel really blessed and extremely lucky to have such a unique chance in my life, starting a circumnavigation with such a great team!
Under engine we moved out of London and finally reached our first destination in the Thames Estuary, where we dropped our anchor. A first delicious dinner was prepared and underway by our fantastic chefs and everybody enjoyed it, after a day without lunch and snacks only! Because of lacking bunks due to a not yet running on a watch system, I literally ended up on Yankee 3 hugging Code 2 in the sail locker! What a cosy bunk, what a day!