Race 2 - Day 26
Crew Diary - Race 2, Day 26
12 October

What I will remember

As we are approaching Punta del Este, it is now the time to reflect on this epic journey.

What will I remember?

The night skies full of stars as I have never seen them in Montreal … the reflection of the moon on the sea, the shooting stars crossing my view as I was helming and targeting a star to keep my route, the bioluminescent plankton at the end of the boat, racing in the dark night at a good speed, not being able to see anything in front of me, just having confidence in the navigation instruments and the navigator to check the course of any ships around us … the strange feeling I felt thinking of our 'little' boat alone on this big ocean.

Dreams of fruits and vegetables at the end of the race as we are desperately lacking these! Other crew members are dreaming of a good steak on the barbecue, but whatever it is we each want, it has fostered lots of discussions on the first meal that we will eat at Punta del Este...

The friendship and laughs when we were recently hit by squalls and everybody on the foredeck was soaked by huge waves crashing over the railing. The crew morale was still high, even if the result of this was to sit in wet clothes for some time...

The lack of sleep, the long nights on the deck trying to stay awake by discussing life with other crew members, by trimming the sails, by helming.

The confidence that I developed by helming under different conditions and trying to stay 'in the zone'. How? I will tell you a secret, I speak with 'her' i.e. the BOAT … yes, I must admit that I talk to her, as does Meta (refer to her blog part 1 on Oct 8th), begging for her cooperation especially when Josh or Hugo are around so they can appreciate my skills for a moment … which never lasts long enough … my new nickname is 'The arrow' because during one of my helming sessions I was 'in the zone' a significant amount of time and impressed the other crew members … but unfortunately, I have many other moments when the arrow's route was quite strange ...

The laundry on a boat: this is how you do it: take a bucket of seawater, take some soap, wash, take another bucket of seawater, rinse, then take as little as unsalted water as possible, rinse and try to find a spot at the end of the boat to hang your clothes. It dries out but always keeps a little bit of humidity depending on the amount of freshwater you had access to.

Good morning! You hear this at any moment of the day even at the most unlikely ones: 6pm, 10pm, 2am, whenever you start your new watch.

Getting into your 2nd level bunk when the boat is at a 45 degree angle and you are on the high side. It can become acrobatic because you have to walk on the wall in front of your bunk, which becomes a floor, to access your bunk which can be much higher than you … Laurence capitulated and got a lower bunk.

The butter beans, the chickpeas, the chorizo, the pasta, the bread … which, at the end, were the basis of all our meals and which I will not eat anymore for at least the next 10 years!!

And at the end of all of this journey? I will be able to tell you about this in Punta del Este, but I expect to be very proud of myself for having been persistent in pushing me to go much beyond my limits, to celebrate life in a 'special' way with a team of unique people! A special thanks to Josh, for his smile, his 'bonjour, comment ca va?' at every time of the day and night and his encouragements, for helping me go through the 'race of my life': crossing an ocean, in the context of a race, between two continents, with 20 other people that I didn't know at the beginning but I learned to appreciate, on a 70 foot boat, is quite different from the life I have lived. Thanks also to Hugo and the crew who shared all these memorable moments with me.

P.S.: un bonjour special a Vincent et Sebastien et a ma famille et mes amis: j'ai tellement hate de vous voir...de prendre une douche...et de vous raconter les details de mon 'aventure' et j'espere que vous avez apprecie la suivre (desolee pour le manque d'accents, je suis sur un clavier anglais avec des limitations)