Leg 3 ended with the mandatory deep clean. If you cannot imagine what deep clean could mean take it like this. Imagine you want to sell your house. You turn it into the best possible condition, like making an impression that it is almost new and that is what we did and always try to do when we do Clipper deeeep clean – scrubbin and rubbin down to bleeding fingers, oil smelling pants and buckets of dirty bilge water looking more like somebody threw up. So, we got this out of the way, prepared ourselves for the first shower and public bath visit and got ready for the last night with the crew. It was not the crew dinner at the end of a trip as we enjoyed that already pre finishing the trip in Olafsvik. At that time, we did not know what we could expect. Obviously, homecoming is always accompanied with a get together sharing all the memories made. And as we are seafarers we strolled to the nearest pub, rainbow colored (?!?), as walking is not what we normally do. It was a delightful evening. Loads of stories were shared. The clock ticked away but at this point we like the dark cover of silence over the end of this coming together which included a personal land overboard boat recovery procedure. Enough said!

Leg 4 was here now and in the next two days I was off the boat, had a hotel room in town to fix my back and offered help to prep the boat for leg 4 which included vitellin, fueling, water refill and so on. I was able to change my bunk in the ghetto to starboard last aft on top. This bunk is furthest way from the door but don’t get a wrong impression. It is right under the snake pit. So any work with halyeards, winches, sheets, vang, reefing lines or sail would be right in your ears. That is how sailboats are under deck – noisy and restless when in motion. And when the are alongside it is the trumpeting snoring concert at night that keeps you thinking why you are doing this to yourself. It is all we asked for – sailing adventure – away from the ordinary. I don’t have a lot to report because my touristic activities were close to none for the simple reason that Isafjördur is over swamped by cruise line tourists every day. In the summer season there are about two cruise lines a day. It is hard to believe that a local society can deal with it. But that is how they make their living in the season which is short. I spent one and a half day with office work and helped out on the boat during the rest of my time.

I went into town ton buy a neck preserver. I thought I might be successful in the 66 North store claiming tom keep Iceland warm since 1921. But the assortment was limited to stuff tourists would buy. So no neck preserver. I needed it badly so that I could sail my Dale of Norway in cold nights as it does not have a high enough collar. I found a bike shop, owned by a guy from Texas who moved to Isafjördur with his wife to enjoy the piece of the Icelandic outback. His shop was well sorted, and I found what I needed. His bike shop was remarkable if I as a bike addict may say. No womndert the North Fjordland is a paradise for mountain biking. Anyway, I thought I would be equipped now for the dark cold, very cold nights bout West.

On the day the new crew was supposed to arrive I strolled into town. An MSC cruise lines docked in the morning as we sailed our boat to the fuel dock to refuel. It was a big one. 4000 tourists poured into town and were picked up by a fleet of busses. Poor tourist. Only 6 hour’s time to inhale this beautiful place. At noon I went to the Thai place in town located at the supermarket. I was gob smacked when I saw a long line of people. When it was my turn, I asked the shop owner whether he is happy with the business of the cruise landers. He responded that he has never seen a single tourist in his shop as they are being fed on board. But most of these people here are from the crew and always come here to enjoy his wife’s very delicious Thai beef noodle soup. It is a bit of home for them in the couple of hours they have been released from duties.

In contrast to that stand the incident I had in the town center when heading back to the boat. And elderly couple from US, obviously not unwealthy as she was hung with gold and jewelry asked me if I can point them the direction to the Starbucks in town. With utmost surprise I responded that this town as most of the Icelandic town do not have a Starbucks. The couple got very upset claiming that a Starbucks is a sign of well-developed civilization and should be made available where the land on their “adventures” cruises. It is always surprising to me what expectations people have. I was glad to see that this uniformity of Starbucks, KFC, Mc Donals etc did not make it to this piece of land yet. 

Around 6pm the new crew arrived. And our initial meeting point was the bar from the other night. A brief hello and it became obvious. A lot of Clipper trained crew this time and a kind of WT&C reunion were 4 out of 12 of us on this leg. After a quick pint we walked to the boat to have a brief introduction before heading out to crew dinner. Kitty was helping other on board because we had low tide and not a proper ladder to get on deck. And as she gave Mel a hand to jump over her new iPhone 15 went for a dive into the harbor. What a mess. We looked over the side but could not spot it. And with water temps at around 4 degrees diving without gear was not an option. Practical Wavy suggested that we would look for a rescue diver tomorrow. During the crew brief someone banged at the hull. It was a diver and he was happy to go in now. It was still bright outside. After 15 minutes or so the phone had been rescued and has been working ever since. Too bad that we could not trigger a photo as it was laying on the harbor bed.

The briefing went seamless with the name and sailing introduction round. The 12 of us were Pam, Mel, Kaz, Karen, Maggie, Willie, Tom, Maxime, Stephen, Ian, Jose and me divided again into three watches this time of 4. We also had a new first mate as Sascha had to be replaced for a refit job at Clipper and it was Rachel, former WTC watch leader and winner of the Golden Globe Race crew on Maiden, this famous female driven racer. And with Wavy and Kitty it made us a crew of 15 crusaders. The Ghetto was open for bunk distribution, the collateral of SKIRR had been handed out. Skip had shared his plan to slip line at 14:00 next day when we headed out to the Husiet for crew dinner. It was awesome and first stories were shared about the endless experience that this crew gathered over the past. And expectations were voiced considering getting to sea tomorrow. I showed a few Berg pictures from the previous leg which fueled expectations. Skip took ma aside and asked to be careful as there might be bad weather, sea monsters and whatnot that might prevent us from seeing any ice. Aynway the fire was lit for Greenland. We were ready and headed back in peace with the world for our next adventure.

Next morning at 6am after an extra class concert of sleeping Hippos the ships bell got us out of bed. Quick morning wash, dive to the heads at the dock, breakfast and ready we were for the safety brief. Another good reminder of how to protect ourselves while sailing the boat sound and safe under all conditions to come. A reminder of skip made its round that it might be a good advice to take care of potential sea sickness now as we will be heading straight over to Greenland this night. Wind was predicted to be moderate but there would be the old sea from the storm of the last few days. Pills, plasters and what not got applied. Safety brief done. Water filled, sails prepped, own full of hot water, clothes on, watch on duty on deck and ready to slip lines. The departure was uneventful. The sky was still grey from the rain of the last day. We passed the dock of the inner harbor, turned 180 degree into the canal out to the open fjord. We passed another cruise liner as we said farewell to Isafjördur.

The other day, when skip and I sat in the cockpit we were visited by an Icelander who was curious about thew boat and wanted to look inside. He told us that this outer fjord is the home of 80 humpback whales. Whale watching here has a success rate of 100%. I almost had forgotten about it when someone from our crew screamed whale ahead, 1 o clock. And another one got sighted and another and another. Thjey were all north of our course. Rachel asked for permission to alter the course. Permission was granted and we turned North right into the pack.

In the beginning we saw the just in the far distance gracefully bobbing along and occasionally they lifted their fluke up for a dive. The further we came to the North shore the closer we got to the whales. Suddenly, we were in a school of whales of about 20 animals. Blow fountains left right and center. We saw up to 5 whales in one spot. And again, and again the appeared, made 4 or 5 waving moves showing their back and fin before they dived off into the deep fjord. And all of this happened within the mystic scenery of this Fjord with its towering cliffs left and right and its vast opening to the Ocean. In the west was the sun bright and shiny providing us with the right light. The noise of the breathing whales and the graceful movements, all of that left us speechless. What a spectacle right at the beginning of our journey. And not enough as a stat. All of a sudden, a school of artic white backed dolphins torpedoed alongside for 15 minutes. The immense speed and their concerted low jumps out of the water was amazing. We still had 13 days ahead of us. This was a breathtaking start and what else could new expect? We headed West and sailed towards Greenland. More to come

It is time to carry on with my blog about leg 3 of the SKIRR adventure. And as you recall the nerves of crew and professional tightened a lot over the last days as the weather just did not want to turn into our favor. But now we are on our way heading West. Sails are up and we are moving. Iceland slowly disappears on the horizon in the East. The first night is coming slowly. The wind is moderate, and the sea state much less than I expected. We made 8 knots. Wave height was only 2m after it had blown 40+ knots for more than a week.

It is all about sailing.

The routine of the watch system took over the rhythm of life on board. It is different from what you are used to because at home where it is dictated by breakfast, work, hasty lunch, work, end of work, social activities, dinner and whatever you fancy to do before you go to sleep. So, the routine is more or less 16 hours up and 8 hours out. For an old fart as me it might be even only 4 hours out as I tend to sleep less. 

On board it is very different. Wavy had chosen a 3-watch system. So you are on 4 hour shifts a day, 4 hour standbys and 4 hours off. At night this shortens to 3 hour shifts. It practically means theoretically you have 4 hours rest during the day but only 2 days out of three. And at night you have 6 hours rest theoretically. But it needs to be taken into account that you need to dress and undress and you need to eat and need to do toiletries every day. It reduces your available time to rest considerably. 

Dressing takes up to 20 minutes depending on sea state, time and weather. In rough weather you will be tossed around like a ping pong ball. Hitting the entry of your boot in darkness can take a while. Finding your third layer at night in the pitch black Ghetto (this is how they named the crew quarters) is a discovery hunt. Basically you lose one hour a day of free time for dressing. You lose 1 hour for eating, drinking and toiletries.

Another impact to your sleeping abilities is the noise level. The head is 40mm away from smashing waters. In high seas under powerful sails the noise by the sea is significant. And you have the crew snoring in the front and sometimes whistling in the back. There is our girlfriend Gennie (Generator) to ensure we have enough power for all our instruments but also to make a cup of tea, a pot of coffee or just a slice of toast.

I define my sleeping by saying it is the period of non-memoizable brain activities. And I have 2 hours of that in 24 hours in a shift system. I add 2 hours of dozing giving me a strong 4 hours by 24 hours in a sustainable setup.

Anyway, out on deck we had stellar sailing conditions going West. The boat was doing very well in the old sea. Amazingly we had not seen a single case of severe temporary food allergy. All they ate stayed in. But the sailors at risk dosed themselves up very well. Means we were able to lean on a fully functional crew pushing then boat. The sky was over casted, and time runs by. I cannot say that the day came to an end and the night took control because on this leg there was no night. There was a period of two hours where the colored world turned into a million shades of grey. No complete darkness. But helming turned out to be a challenge for some crew. It seemed that not everybody was able to execute the principle of controlling the bow first and correcting the course as second priority well. But anyway, we were not in a race, and we made it westward.

The expectation within the crew to explore Greenland was sky high and the motivation of getting there was very high. It for sure superseded the social stress that was noticeable within the group. I won’t go there here but it became a considerable factor of performance. And the expectations were sky high even with skip Wavy trying to down tune any expectations. 

Almost halfway across we suddenly heard this deep hissing sound. And gone. And there again. A scream came across “WHALE 9 o clock 5 cable to starboard”. We all stared into the direction into then endless shades of grey. And then we saw it. In a rhythm of minutes, we saw the rounded back and the splash of spray rocketing into the sky. And as it came it disappeared, without leaving a sign except the stamped mark in our memories. I have to say it always touches me emotionally seeing these large animals swimming in elegance doing no harm to anybody

Watch after watch we sailed westwards. The wind died, Wavy executed the principle of motor sailing creating our own apparent wind to give us more efficiency in lower wind speeds of about 12 knots true wind. And at midnight the second night we saw a white bank at the horizon. Was it Greenland? No, impossible. Minutes later we became eaten by fog. The temperature dropped from 9 degrees to 0. And suddenly biting cold scratched on the moral.

You know it is this sequence where you go on watch well dressed. Two base layers, a thin second layer plus a full second layer, foulies and storm jacked with very high collar, gloves, neck preventer and hat. You feel warm in the first 30 minutes. And then suddenly you feel a patch of cold under your armament against cold, not big, but down there on your skin. And like throwing a stone into water creating centric waves the cold slowly eats you up. Trying to scratch it away does not help. The area becomes bigger and bigger. You start moving your amrs, jumping your feet, rubbing your gloves. Your feet cool down and your fingers get stiffer by the minute. But with brutal consistency the cold moves on and on and on. You start looking at your watch. OK another 15 minutes at the helm. You stare into the grayness of the fog. Fingers are hard to move. Feet end at the knee. You believe you made another hour but looking back to the watch only 5 minutes. My god. After three hours I had no feet and no hands anymore.

Off watch I limped to your bunk. No interest in food, no interest in drinks. Just my bunk, ripping off outer and all second layers. Swinging up into the sleeping bag. Once I was in my Ocean Wear sleeping bag, I zipped it over my head creating a tent so that me breathing would warm the bag at night. I slipped the socks off while in my tent. Icecold feet, yeah, because of wet socks, Jesus!. So, I laid out the socks in my bag so that they would get dry for the next shift (and that works with this sleeping bag very well). The reanimation of feet and fingers took me half hour

And on deck? Hours and hours of fog, lovely freezing fog. Skip and mates were wrinkling their foreheads. Crew was getting worn out by the cold, misty grey ahead. Would we see Greenland at all? Late next morning I cut into the boat, I was on standby in the galley prepping coffees and tea, a yell cut through the boat, the mist, the dull feelings. “Iceberg, Iceberg on the bow!”. And a few minutes later “Landfall, Greenland ahead”. And it was not the progress of the boat but the lifting fog turning the environment from a freezing coat to a feathering grey which lifted from the surface of the calm sea. Our headsail was down, engine in overdrive and we made 6 knots towards land. Land was a small stripe of darker grey on the horizon and in the distance up front there was this white shadow, almost without contour. 

We altered couirse taking the “Berg” on the bow. Slowly it grew bit by bit lifting from behind the horizon. It slowly became bigger and bigger, massive, overwhelming. We were still about 4 miles away from the “Berg” when suddenly, a hole could be seen in the cloud cover. And through this hole we could see a single peak of a mountain ridge. “What?”. “Amazing, a pin needly, sharp as a knife up in the sky, towering high”. The weather turned better every minute. And our later we were close to the “Berg of Hope”, as I named this my first iceberg. It turned out to be somewhat mystic. In front the temperature dropped so you could feel it. Also, the smell of the sea changed as the Iceberg is sweat water.

It is almost impossible to describe the feelings. The crew became euphoric. What a sight. The coast of Greenland cleared. Waving glaciers could be seen making their way from mountains thousands of meters height fed by the inner glaciers of Greenland. Fjords cut into the seafront. The shoreline was covered by hundreds of smaller icebergs. Our “Berg of Hope” was here in front of us. On top a flock of about hundred birds travelling with this giant free of charge to the South.

The color of the iceberg is full of shades of white, grey and blue. Hit by sunlight the top appeared like sprinkling stars, bands of blue clear ice started to gloom like a torch. Our berg was about 20m high and about 100 by 400m, small. The walls were full of cracks. Occasionally there was a loud banging sound and most of the time you hear this whistling and hissing of melting ice. Inside the block a big lagune was created by the waves splashing continuously against the walls. The lagune showed light green water and in contrast dark green ice under water. It was mysteriously beautiful. I could not stop looking around and admiring the beauty of the colossi having in mind, that this is a process of complete destruction. At the end the berg will vanish. The melted water will just disappear in the vast ocean, thousands of years just gone. But the Berg lulls one in with its could cover of air, with his beautiful face and its charming whisper.

Sorry that I got carried away. But honestly, they touched my seriously, these silent giants on their journey of death along this coast with its sight of these scurrile mountain ranges

The second iceberg was much taller, about 60m tall, full of cracks and scars. With its height it was majestic, and it had a special color of green shading from a green hint of white to a dark ultramarine green. On the waterline the ice-cold ocean turned from a dark blue to a smaragd green with splashes of white whenever the spray of a wave smashed back. Our second iceberg, the “Tower of Berg” made our feelings even stronger for this environment. It is beautiful and charming on one hand, but empty, hostile and unforgiving on the other hand. It is trhe beauty of nothing that is coming across as something – something not to forget.

There is this block of ice. One fifth over the water, 4 fifth under the water. Gigantic. It reminded me that this block started to be formed more than thousand years ago, maybe when Vikings found Greenland or even before that. And these glaciers in Greenland are feeding the ocean with icebergs for many hundred thousand years sending then on a journey down South, releasing them to the death row day over day. 

We, who entered this inhabited piece of ocean close to the Vedel Fjord, earned your “Blue Nose”. These are sailors on sailboats sailing North of the polar circle. We celebrated on board with a cup of tea and coffee, blue painted noses and a group photo. We saw skipper Wavy Immelmann happy about the result that he was able to take us West, presenting two icebergs and the great views of the coastline of Greenland.

We had no time to rest of explore more. We had three days left to make it back. So, after a few hours only with our new ocean companions, the “Berg of Hope” And the “Tower of Berg” we turned the bow to East and headed to Isafjördur. It was 11pm when the sun went down behind the mountain range in the far distance. I few whales played between us and Greenland diving for food. A few more icebergs passed by in silence. And no wind. It meant it would be only a question of time when we would disappear in fog. But before that only 45 minutes after the sun disappeared sunrise happened in the NNW. Very strange but extremely beautiful.

And as predicted 2 am in the morning the fog just swallowed us, dense freezing fog. And with it came freezing feet, cold hands and biting skin where it was exposed to the ice-cold air. But most of us were happy, happy to pay the price of discomfort from a while because the payback of this experience was and is priceless, unimaginable for those who did not sail bergs, inaccessible for those who don’t try. 

Uneventful we came to Isafjördur. The wind picked up and finally we sailed into the majestic Northland of Iceland, the land of the Fjords, whales and dolphins. We moored safely. It was an experience of a lifetime, short, full of dedication and full of memories. I am also happy that I could make some great friends hoping that we will stay in touch and that we will have the opportunity sailing together. And I was also happy to shake off some unhappiness that sailed with us as it did and does not matter anymore. Thank you Wavy for not letting the idea down to show us the beauty of ice and Greenland, even when it was only a glimpse. Thank you, Sasha and Kitty for taking care of our sugar and caffeine level, feeding us properly and guiding is through all the action on board. Can’t wait to do leg 4. So more to come on this blog.

Morning has broken and the current watch is bringing us back to almost where we were before. One night of sailing. Have in minds, nights are currently very short here. We came back to known waters at sunrise. The last watch did a great job sailing us here. And as per decision we are going to Olafsvik, which is basically one town more to the West on the North shore of the Breidafjördur.

Yes, we arrived safely in a harbor. Yes we did some nice sailing. But at the end it was going in the wrong direction, not West but South.

When arriving at a new port there is a bit of sizzling hectic on board as the mates and the team want to find out who the new place has to offer. Where are public heads and where is a shower. How many restaurants, where is the bar, what is the offering of the supermarket and does the place have a swimming pool, hot tub, sauna and cold tub? All very, very important and to an extent life saving.

Olafsvik is the second largest town on the peninsula, a clear upgrade from our provision docking point, which was the third largest town, Grundafjörden. Olafsvik has 1.011 inhabitants, a high street, 1 filling station, one super market, one restaurant open and a swimming pool. So a number of our desperates needs would be covered. But no public heads. But the heads on the boat are not an option.l So we need to find ways to deliver our posh poohs properly. And let em tell you that the crew was very creative finding places. My routine – one hot dog at the filling station and I got my free be delivery on the heads in the station.

But other than that Olafsvik is not really where the world rocks. Clearly this town survives on local business, no cruise ship terminal, no tourist bus station. The focus here is landing and processing fish whenever quota will allow it.

Now in order to give credit to those people living the dream of tourism in Olafsvik we have to mention that it has one major attraction, the heart of the waterfall. The rim of the waterfall gorge form a heart. And so it is an Instagram spot. The town setup a street sign where you must kiss whomever you love for a selfie. For me hard to believe, cars with Chinese pull up in front of the sign giving them the chance for this ultimative experience and life bucket list location.

Once we moored at the fuel dock the harbor master showed up. And it became a disappointing fact for skipper that we would not be able to fuel our boat. The fuel station delivered tax free boat fuel but you need to have special permission and a special card to fuel. Back to coffee than. All of a sudden skipper jumps up We need to move, we need to move. He realized that depth of water was not suffcuient at that mooring. So we moved onto the North wall of the harbor where we should spend the next few days.

By the black building above is the older building of Oslafik. 1892, a fishermen’s shed and today the tourist office.

But the weather, man it sucked. We were locking bat the start every hour. Sunday now and for Monday there was a gale warning out not only for the Danish Street but also for Olafsvik. Lots of wind and my favorite these days, horizontal rain. Impossible really. This is going on for a whole week now and our hopes to get beyond Iceland shrank. The local pool was no compensation at all especially as the pool was full with screaming kids as it was Sunday and really not much to do.#

Deb and Sarah went to a hiking expedition above the Heart Waterfall and they found blueberries. Deb there herself in and offered to make a fresh blueberry cheesecake. Yes, a true highlight that will be memorized forever. But no, not helping is believing that we would see Greenland in the remaining time.

Pool, strolling through town, pool, strolling to the waterfall, pool, hanging around on deck, pool, checking out super market, fuel station, hot dog, posh pooh and back to the pool. No, not an adventures life at all. Skip calculated every possible option. But what could he do? Rain dance? Candle light in church? Praying to common weather physics? I am sure he did all of it. But it did not bloody change our situation.

And I order not to freak out on Monday we made the plan to visit the street art capital of Iceland. Great plan as this was turning into the worts weather day locally. 9 Degrees, horizontal rain, blowing 30 knots plus, white water in the bay. But we needed to do something kind of with the nature of exploration. So Pedro found out that there is a public bus service to Hellisandur. Very reliable and frequent. One bus in the morning and at noon to Hellissandur and one bus back at noon and at 4pm. We found the online ticket app, downloaded and bought tickets. The bus arrived on time. We wanted to check in our tickets but the busdriver smiled, „no not this here“, „no not this“. „Pay“ and pushed the cash machine into our direction. „But we have a ticket man!“. „No not here. Pay!!!! or stay here!!!!!!!“. We paid. It was double the price. And with the pinging noise of his cash card reader a smile hushed over is lips. Yes! Damn tourists.

The ride took 8 minutes along the coast line. We were dropped at the filling station in Hellisandur. Rain. Cold. No, let me correct that, cold cold. On the left of the main road the fisherman museum and the National Park center. On the other side the town. No Icelanders on the road. Just tourists.

The street art is actually quite amazing. Therefore I will just share a number of pictures. The town had invited artist from all over the world to express there vision of street art including a feeling about Iceland. The work turned out to be very impressive.

There is a walkway right on the shore line with massive cliffs on the waterfront side. It offers nice views of the village and the black beaches.

The walk is about only 500 to 700m. This leads to the Eastern border of the town. And there is a historic place, the Keflavik landing. It is a half rounded bay with shelter against Westerly, Southerly and Easterly winds. It was a spot from where fishermen launched rowing boats to go out fishing in the fjord. There are still today the marks in the rock where they pulled the boats in and out of the water. The business was very dangerous and quite a substantial number of men were lost over decades. But it was all you could do here to survive during those times.

Trolling beyond this point of Keflavik landing I walked straight into a breeding place of Arctic Swallows and Sea Gulls. I got really excited watching them feed their new borns in a restless effort.

And they had an eye on me all the time.

They also had trouble amongst themselves battling out who owned the fish.

On my way back to the filling station I enjoyed the views of a remarkable landscape and scenery. The light basically changes by the hour. And things you spotted in one second might look different in the next.

We made it back. The bus was on time at 4pm by the minute. Same driver. I showed my pre paid ticket and a smile just went over his face with a very clear instruction, „pay or walk!“. And the ping on the cash machine released his happiness. Again double the price.

If you talk to seafarers crossing the equator they will tell you that the doldrums will have an end at one time no matter how long they will last. We had decided to walk out and eat together in the one and only open restaurant run town. Skip, who stayed on board all the time, declared on our return back, that the low has finally moved East allowing us to move on to West. His proposal was to head off next morning and sail the next 4-5 days continuously to the coast of Greenland and back trying to see some ice. Yeeeeeeessssss, saiiiiiiiillng!!! Finally we had a plan. Yes it might get a little uneasy for the less experienced to live over a longer period in a watch system in the cold. But finally we were back in exploration mode.

By the way dinner was incredible. On my table we had haddock. Man these Icelanders know how to prepare fish. A couple of guys had fish soup and we licking their lips. Good food as an intro into a good start tomorrow. Breakfast, shave, shit, shower, the famous triple S, and off we go. No, there was one thing in the way. Refuel. Remember, we could not fill her up on the fuel pontoon. All the attempts to get us a full truck with a small hose failed. So we needed to fill CV11 up with jerry cans. The filing station was about 600m away from the boat. We had 4 jerry cans with 20l each. Skip reckoned that we needed 400l of fuel. So 5 trips. But man 600m with 20kg+ could wear us out. So we had the plan top borrow shopping from the super market, to trolley the jerry cans. I went up there asked the cashier and she freaked out. „No, you cannot have it. What will you do? Who says you will come back?“ Shit! „Please, whom can I ask to borrow a trolley?“ A dark grimm Icelandic face responded „You must ask the boss!!“. And there he was and said generously that we do not need s a shopping cart. He will drive us and the cans and as much as we needed it. Amazing.

After the successful refueling we had everything on board to make our journey. Sails were rigged, crew was in gear, navigation done, all fees paid. So skip was ready to slip lines on the hour of the planned line slipping when a hotel head request came in. Yes, timing sometimes is everything. The request was granted, we waited and when all were on deck again we slipped lines – Westwards – finally. Greenland here we come.

We took a last site of Snæfellsjökull mountain with its magnificent glacier, but hopefully for the last time. Yes, an majestic view as he was without clouds for the first time.

Hoist main!

On our way.

One whale sighting and one sunset away from Greenland.

Our sightseeing tour around the peninsula (see previous blog entry) was quite nice although it was covered in rain. But we are still in Grundafjördour waiting. The weather, a nightmare. Skipper is tearing his hair out what to do with a crew that is not doing what is supposed to do – go sailing, explore, freeze and all the other good stuff. Skipper is a bit unrestful in order to find a solution. When he got up in the morning you could hear him grumbling „never saw this“, „what is it“, „can’t it stop being miserable“. During the day we would enjoy his advice on our interpretation of the Windfinder weather map trying to see something that he did not see. But he proved to be the master of weather interpretation. And at night you could hear him saying „f…ing impossible“.

In expectation that something would happen soon we decided to treat ourselves going out for dinner to the best in town. There are three restaurants and one coffee shop in Grundafjördur. We did choose the best one – an experience!

It is this type of restaurant where you can experience excellent meals and well thought out dishes, where you can enjoy selected Icelandic beers and reputable wines. You can also explore Icelandic Cousine. It is this type where you cannot pronounce the dishes name and you know what you are eating only after the explanation from the waiter. I went into exploration mode and tried what was sold as the best starter from Iceland, fermented Shark and dried Haddock. Besides the sticker shock I still cannot get around the taste. Fermented Shark, 6 month old and rotten, considered better than ousters and Caviar was tasting like urine to be honest. And the more you chewed on it the more intense it got. The Haddock was like eating the door mat slightly salted. So for me this expedition into the delicacies of Iceland failed. But all the other stuff was heavenly good. Filled up with food, tuned to expectation about what should come we trolled home. Next day, next opportunity.

Never mind, any static situation comes to an end. Next morning skip stood in the galley and said we must go now. Quickly. „I saw the light! There is a weather window, hurry up, we must go!!!“. Really? We looked at the map and saw red and purple all over the Danish Street. Purple means 50 to 60 knots. That most likely comes with towering waves and ice. So what window? Guys there is a window of about 4-6 hours where we can head North. No, I am not talking Greenland. That would be suicidal and at the end I would have to deal with all the paperwork. But instead of looking for another bus tour or another hike to one more of the 15.000 waterfalls in Iceland we can go North to Isafjördur. It would give us a better jump off position to Greenland if this „bloody“ low pressure system finally start moving to the East.

So the plan is to sail out into the Fjord. Skipper had spoken with locals about whale spotting spots in the Fjord. We would do the SKIRR all inclusive whale watching watch and after that head over to the Northwest corner of the Fjord sticking our nose around the corner. In the evening the window was promising us 25 knots Easterly winds which would allow us to sneak around the corner, sail 10 miles North in exposed sea state and than head East into the next Fjord. And we could do this cape by cape, Fjord by Fjord until we will have reached Isafjördur. Good plan. Very good plan to make a snipping move against our friend, the Low Low Pressure system between Ice- and Greenland.

And an impatient crew served with the „window“ news created a sizzling jump start in the morning. Breakfast fast, deck preparation super fast, dressing up with light speed. We are going sailing, tourist version first by hunting whales and tuff shit later (excuse my French) when we will exercise our nose sticking procedure to sneak North beating the rested low in the South.

Yes Grundafördur, you treated us well. We enjoyed your pool and hot tub. We are taking your waterfalls home in memory. But we must say good bye now and get closer to what we want to explore. We sneaked out of the harbor into the fjord and immediately spotted a whale watching boat.

So whales can’t be far. I was surprised that we might see any as the water is not particularly deep here. But it was Orcas that we soon spotted. What a sight!

After an hour or so spotting these whales skip made clear that we need to go about 40 miles North now for our nose poking and window opening plan. Yes, lets go sailing. Windfinder forecasted the window to be only a finger wide open with a clear shift of the wind from North to East. Ideal to sneak up West and North.

Skipper was conservative. Two reefs and the staysail. As we go closer to the North coast of the Fjord we would see cliffs a few hundred meters high. There were very good chance of katabatic winds.

After four hours we reached the cape and poked our nose around the corner. WHAT A SURPRISE.

The wind had shifted not to the East but to the West. It was blowing 40 knots. Breaking waves. WE GOT BEAT UP. We turned the boat around and sailed into the shadow of the cape, hived to and waited. Skipper wanted to give it an hour to see whether the window will open. After 30 minutes we tried again. WE GOT BEAT UP. Back to the shadow position and hiving to waiting was the best. It was just 10 miles we need to go North into the next Fjord. !0 miles. Nothing. But with a Northwesterly the coast was in lee. So one major issue or one mistake and we would get smashed against towering rock walls. Nose out again and bang, we got the next hit.

Skip came up with the idea to sail free from the cliff by going West trying not to sail closed hauled but with a fine reach. Great idea. We headed our bow to West to a 60 degree true wind angle. The boat jumped forward. As soon as we came free from the wind shadow we got beat up again. I mean the boat did fine. But 40 knots and waves up to 5m breaking was not to everybody’s liking. We tried for an hour or so. Whenever the boat jumped off a wave it crashed into a hole, the mast screamed in shivering motion, the sheets yanked around and the crew had trouble to hold on tight. Breaking waves smashed against our starboard side. It was fun, it was wet, very wet and it was cold. Skip came to the wheel and made a comment. „The boat will handle it. But I dont like the cost line being leeward. And the crew, another three hours like this and we might see it break“. There is no way we will make it North against the wind, against the strong current at night in these conditions. „Helm to leeeeeeeeee“. The boat veered to port. A breaking waves smashed against the stern. Keeping control was hard. So skip jumped up and took the helm. Wild ride. most fun. And as we sailed on a brought reach now we had the main still pinned to the middle so that directional control was still tough. Skip fiddled a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it up. All under control now. We attached the foreguys, eased main and surfed back into the direction where we came from. „Guys, I am sorry, we are heading back. Weather has still control over us. Safety first., We will sail back to where we came from and see what the weather will offer the next few days. THIS WINDOW TODAY NEVER OPENED FOR US. TOUGH LUCK!“

In order to make the next wait and see period not too boring Wavy decided to change port. We headed to lovely Olafsvik, a place that cannot be more exciting. Fishing harbor. Main attraction waterfall with Kiss sign, swimming pool and one open restaurant.

Next episode to come.

It is Sunday, 28th of July. It is rainy in Reykjavik and when looking at the forecast for wind, seas state and general weather conditions there is a lot to worry about. But I will come back to that later. It is time to think about joining on board and it is time to make a plan how to move my kit from the hotel to the boat. It is just vis a vie of the hotel, but around the old harbor basin an 1.1 km walk. I was pretty sure that I will not be able to make it in one go with all my gear sat once. So as our Whats App Group got established for Leg 3 of the SKIRR Adventure 2024 I contacted Sascha, our first mate. There was no instant response but I did not worry as I was sure they were busy going shopping to keep us fed over the next two weeks. When she came back around noon I was given permission to bring at least my large bags to the boat. It was raining. It was cold. It was windy.

At the boat I met Pedro from Mexico. He did already leg 2 and I met Adam L from Cayman Islands who had just arrived. After dropping my bags it was 12:45 and we decided to go out for lunch and spend a bit of quality time together. Really nice chaps both they are and I was really looking forward going to sail with them. Especially Pedro had some good stories about leg two. Some of the findings – this summer the weather has been weird and unpredictable. After lunch it was still time till 18:00 where we were allowed to come on to the boat. I went back to the hotel and jumped into my laptop. All of a sudden a British lady approached me. „Are you doing SKIRR?“. She introduced herself, Sara from Great Britain. „See you in a bit“ and off she goes with her husband to buy a few more warm socks.

18:00 we meet at the boat to learn whom we will be sailing with. Let me introduce you first to the professional crew. At the forefront there is „Wavy“ Immelmann. To say the least, a sailing legend by himself. 670.000nm experience, I mean that is 3 times to the moon and back. Holder of multiple world records of which he is still holding on to one, single handed rowing across the Atlantic in 67!!! days. So we can’t be in better hands. He sailed almost every campaign and race there is on this plant and he sailed with all the big sailing legends of the past.

Second in line Sacha, first mate and well into the organization of Clipper. She does sailing for her joy and loves it. Obviously was racing in the Clipper Round the World races and manages refits of Clipper boats. Actually she did the refit also on our CV11 68ft racer. So what more expertise about the boat can you ask for.

And last but not least Kitty. She raced as an onboard reporter in the Clipper 19/20 race o „Seattle“ and is now working as mate for the Clipper organization. She is also a professional photographer. So we have the right support on board to prevent us from doing stupid things.

And my fellow crew members introduced themselves in our meet and greet session this evening.. Result, tons of sailing experience on board. The right mix for our adventure out west and up North. The crew is Deborah and Sara, our two power girls both from the UK, Arno from Germany, Adam L, Cayman Islands, Pedro Mexico, John from the US, Adam from Poland and Alex from the UK. Nice and well balanced crew. After the introduction and a first brief by Skip we discussed how the trip will work out. And there was a very big issue between us and Greenland.

Off the South coast of Greenland, where the Labrador current and the Gulf stream hit each other a very low pressure system developed fast. DWD forecasted the system to be at 975 mb. That is close to Hurricane level. But the worst, the prediction showed that the system would be stationary over a long time. The anti clockwise movement would shovel ice down the cost of Greenland blocking our two potential destinations for the time being, Scorsby Sound and Tasiilaq. But before we discuss our options we go out for dinner together, a good opportunity to share all the good sailing stories.

And after coming back skip and his team had a chit chat with an exploration crew bound for Greenland locked in Reykjavik for more than a week because of the ice conditions on the Greenland cost.

Next morning we went into a briefing about our options. And other than last night Wavy saw a weather window to sail overnight into Grundarfjördur and from there we are looking for the next small window to go West or North. Breakfast, very thorough safety brief including MOB Routine with „Bob“ our casualty dummy. These briefings are very thorough. Wavy, Sascha and Kitty took this very seriously, a policy that Clipper is famous for and a reason why they are successfully routing so many non sailors through the organization without major incidents. I have to say that these briefings and trainings are one of its kinds. I alway appreciate it a lot as I learn a lot for my own sailing.

The forecast for Greenland did get worse over time. But Wavy saw a window to go North. So we preped the boat for our first overnight. Perfect, out to sea. We slipped lines 14:30.

Reykjavik falls back, a small lighthouse to our starboard side and the main lighthouse to port. We are heading West and everybody is already excited. Out to new destinations, not yet Greenland but something new. And the first night sail. Skipper has devided us into three watches, „Mountain“, „Fjord“ and „Hot Springs“. During daytime we would do 4 Hour watches, 06:00 till 10:00, 10:00 till 14:00 and 14:00 till 18:00. One watch is on watch, means on deck, one is on standby means in gear to go on deck any time and one watch would be off. Standby watches prepare meals. They are the next to go on watch and prepare meals before going on watch. The watch going off watch is responsible for cleaning dishes. At night we go to 3 hour watches due to the cold. 18:00 till 21:00, 21:00 till 24:00, 00:00 till 03:00 and 03:00 till 06:00. As there are no meal preps at night standby and off watch are in bunks. So without maneuver you might sleep 6 hour a night when lucky.

Once clear of the main shipping lines we are all ready to set sails up. Nobody is downstairs, all on deck for the work and to sniff the fresh cold air of Iceland waters. It is 10 Degrees Celsius. Initially you do not notice as you are working to get sails up. But step by step the cold tends to creep in and bite you. Therefore there is the routine to fist of all dress up properly, one or more base layers, a proper mid layer and if need be two of those and on top foulies. In addition proper hats gloves and scarfs are absolutely essential when sailing in cold conditions, because once you got cold it will be extremely difficult to get warm again. There is also the routine to serve hot drinks whenever possible, mainly tea and coffee.

And once sails are up everybody can relay and enjoy the sailing.

As the day goes on we are heading into the evening. Only a cruise ship is overtaking us sailing to the north, same direction as us. It appears that the really bad weather situation in the West has caused a lot of ships to re route or wait in Reykjavik for a window to head over to Greenland. The cruise ship is overtaking us. In the meantime we have the delight of spotting two Minkie Wales.

Our watch is heading into the night. On port we can see the Snæfjell peninsula sticking out West from Iceland. At the end is the Snæfjellfödur mountain, plus 1400m high and covered by a glacier of 10 square kilometersi. Only 10 years ago the glacier had twice the size. The scenery is mystic as the sun goes down around 22:45.

At 24:00 we were off watch and looking forward to a 6 hour sleep in case we were not needed during our standby time. There was still light outside so that we had to pull our light covers down in our bunks to find sleep. Next morning coming onto our next watch at 06:00 am we were already heading East towards Grundafjördur. This is an epic spot in Iceland and considered to be the most photographed spot. And I have to say coming from sea was breathtaking. First morning fog over the mountains which turned the area into a mystic spot.

But the sun turned out to be strong supported by an Easterly blowing the fog and the low hanging clouds away given us a spectacular site for the arrival. Too good to be true.

Everybody enjoyed the scenery as we sailed into the small harbor staring at the landscape.

And wildlife everywhere

After we were on the dock we had lunch together.

And as this is an exploration trip most of us took the chance to take a walk finding out what is around us. We found out that the small village with 800 inhabitants was in its full season with tourists. Almost everybody was tempted to walk over to the large waterfall, one of the 15.000 in Iceland, that could be seen on our approach to the harbor. Most of us did it right away but I stayed a little on board reading Emails about what is going on at home. So when I started to head over the weather had turned quickly and light rain accompanied my walk. And again, the scenery turned out to be magnificent. Light changed every minute, whenever a cloud moved by or the sun lured through some of the rare spots in the clouds.

Hundreds of seagulls nested in the steep cliffs of the waterfall making their nest very secure. On my way home an Oystercatcher followed me into town jumping from one road light to roadlifgt yelling at me all the time.

It is very interesting to see that houses are not very colorful . They are simple. Two building materials are commonly being used, wood and metal. It seems important that everything is strong against the odd weather in winter. I asked locals how that would be and to my surprise they shared that winters are not super cold, and also they have less and less snow.

In the evening we had another meeting. How would we go from here. And our friend, the static Iceland low was fixed between Green- and Iceland. It was getting more energetic without any option for us to head out for Greenland. Wavy pointed out that we cannot go West due to the potential ice hazard.

Looks our sailing options were not bright. Another day in the harbor and another day to explore the area. In addition the SKIRR team did an amazing job in order to offer us an alternative. A sightseeing tour got planned for us so that we could explore more distant places on the peninsula. But that was just for tomorrow. Today we strolled out on our own.

And after such an exhausting day of exploration we needed a good dinner. It was Schnitzel day. Amazing with mashed potatoes and marinated broccoli. What could have been better?

In the morning Wavy had no new news. Weather will be bad. It blew the night over and now it was raining….all the time. Best for a road trip to the hot spots of Snæfell peninsula.. But even more depressing the low pressure sat still between Greenland and Iceland. So the new idea was a weather window permitting that we would try to make our way up North the next day. So let’s enjoy the sight seeing first. Frist we want to a volcano crater, a small one. It was created by one explosion…about 3000 years ago.

Then we drove to a black beach within the volcanic area of Snæfellsjökull. At this beach an English ship wrecked itself with the whole crew being lost. Metal remains were all over the beach.

No surprise as the sea was constantly pounding against the shore. Surely one mistake in foggy weather and it is all over.

Further down the lighthouse of the peninsula rising high into the sky warning ships of the dangerous cliffs and unsure shore situation.

From here you could have a glance up the glacier

And finally we went to the Snæfell beach where the first settler landed giving the place its name.

And during this trip we were able to meet snow foxes. One single one at the volcanic beach.

And a family of four close to the lighthouse.

When came back skipper had good news. He found a weather window that might allow us to go North. There was a bit of uncertainty if the window would be big enough. But he decided to give it a try next day. So bear with men for the next stories.

The fleet of Clipper round the World race is now 10 days and 11 hours into racing in the mighty Pacific. They worked their way up from the North tip of Lucon (Philippines) along the coats of Taiwan following the coast of Japan having sailed now 2000 nm of the 6100nm journey. 1/3rd of the trip is behind them and still no bar or bus stop in sight.. In the current standings Bermuda is first leading by just a mile over UNICEF followed by WTC Logistic, my crew!

The white line is the giant circle, the shortest direction from the start line to Seattle. To the East it will be limited in the North by 45 degrees Latitude as this was the declared the ice limit by the sailing instruction.

The ranking is measured by the direction to the finish line in relation to the white line. Therefore UNICEF is still in second place. But now it is all about positioning, weather windows and weather development. It will be a tough tactical battle over the next 5 to 6 days as weather is developing fast and forecasts are changing half daily. It is really interesting to watch it ashore in our cozy apartments considering that it is a real challenge in the grey, cold and wet conditions out there. How does it look right now? Temperature is around 9 Degrees Celsius (50F), the sky is gray, the boat healed over on Starboard tack at an angle of 45 degrees with a full sail plan. Speeds are between 6.5 and 8.5 knots. The boats are punching North.

Weather reading is an essential tool for being fast and smart and drives to a good result.

This is the actual weather chart from the North Pacific as of today. Combine it with the wind forecast and the picture becomes clear for the moment.

A High pressure system with 1036mb is East of Japan and a low pressure system is forming South of it (later more about this). The ridge is slowly moving Eastward. In the forecast models yesterday the movement was straight to the East. This morning the models show a movement to the Northeast.

Based on the model you see here the tactical decision is obvious. Try to get North as fast as possible making as much East as practical. The amount of East movement will be dictated by how much East the High moves. The goal is to stay in a moderate breeze and to get to the North of the High between the ice limit and the high and then turn due East.

Why? South of the High you see a strong wind field. This wind field will turn into a low pressure system. Wind is from the East forecasted over the next 24 hours to increase to 8Bft. The sea state is hilarious there with waves up to 6m. You don’t want to beat up against the wind in that sea state. The sea state is part of the strong wind caused by the compressed isobars between the High and the forming low. And secondly you have strong currents flowing to the East as part of the Pacific Vortex. Here is the sea current live picture from this morning:

So clearly wind against current equals chaos. Before going to the forecast and the development of the next 48 hours let’s review where the fleet stands. As mentioned above the crews are 10.5 days in the race. Almost all of the distance closed hauled and at a boat angle of 45 degrees. They will carefully manage their energy as this type of sailing over such a long time causes fatigue very easily. Sleeping is a problem because of the banging noise, it is not warm and helming requires all the concentration.

Following the tracker you can see that Qingdao is heading back to Japan. They have a damaged running backstay. It is a vital piece of fear holding the mast in upwind conditions. It seems they cannot repair int at sea. And in order not to take any risk they make a stop over on Yokohama.

This backstay is tightened clause hauled and stabilizes the mast. Losing it especially with 4000 miles ahead is not good. and as safety is number one for al area, AQP, skippers and Clipper a return to harbor is painful.

There was another mishap on Imagine your Korea before but it seems that has been sorted as Imagine your Korea is in race mode going up the coast of Japan.

What is ahead?

This is in 24h. The High pressure system moves East but also more North than forecasted yesterday. There is still room to the ice border. In the South of it you can see how the Low is developing and the wind and sea state increases. This is in 24 hours.

The forecast weather map for the weather in 48 hours looks like this:

The low is forecasted to move NorthEast. The wind forecast looks like this:

We will need to have a close look at this as this is a change over yesterdays models and maybe the champaign sailing conditions that I predicted for the next three days will look different. The option trying to go North now and see how the Low will develop is in my opinion still correct as sea state and wind does not allow to cross the high in the South. But we need to keep an eye on the Low.

I am very happy about the progress of my team. Being where they are show that they have a very good sense for weather analysis, tactics, a solid strategic plan and much more than anything a highly motivated crew that plays team. Go EWTC, go!

It is almost time to say Good Bye as the crews of the Clipper Round the World Race 2019/20 after two years of sailing abstinent will head out to the Epic Leg crossing the Pacific. But let us go step by step.

In the last two weeks the skipper Dan and his first mate or to be correct his Additional Qualified Person Ineke and the crew prepared the boat. There was a deep, deep clean, repairs of equipment, rigg and sails to get „Black Betty ready. And since there was a 2 year pause everybody had to brought up to speed on maneuvers and procedures. So last week they were out there in the China Sea. And I was told by our team captain that it was awesome but hot, hot, hot. Yes Subic Bay is in the tropical conversion zone know for low winds and hot temperatures. and they enjoyed sailing and the area.

The training is about all emergency procedures like man over board, fire on board, engine failure, gas alarm and for sure very much needed storm procedures.

Also regular sailing tacking, kite sailing and the famous LeMAns start.

And after 5 days of training there was the well deserved jump into the ocean for a bath.

Back in the marina it is all about making final fixes to the boat and the equipment. And most importantly the boat will be filled up with water, diesel, emergency stock and food, food and food.

And now the crew is in bed. Dan and Ineke did the crew briefing today to get everybody tuned in for the epic leg. 6100 Nm in one go. Subic Bay to Seattle.

The schedule is line slipping at 12:00 tomorrow local time. That will be 4am GMT. This will be followed by two more training days, especially MOB procedure as this could be life saving in a dangerous situation. And on the 24th of March the fleet will start the race with a LeMans start.

What is ahead of them? The Pacific with its general current pattern. The will have to stay South of 45 degrees latitude between the longitude of 150 and 180 degrees.

The weather is expected to be quite interesting for the first days of racing.

The temperature forecast is not too bad.

And finally the sea state. Yeah, it will be perfect surfing conditions for the first week of sailing.

So all that is left for us now is to say Good Bye. Farewell WTC Logistic. Enjoy the epic ride across the greatest vastness on this planet. Sail safe, stick together as a strong crew, enjoy the leadership from Dan and Ineke. And finally sail fast keeping the boat just in one piece.

It is time to open up my blog about my personal dream and adventure which I started several years ago with the goal to sail across the Pacific on board of a race yacht. I was almost there with Clipper Round the World race on board of WTC Logistic, called „Black Betty“ when in March 2020 after a race in the South China Sea from Subic Bay to Subic Bay in the Philippines the whole adventure was terminated by COVID19 washing us off our beloved boat and tearing a committed crew apart.

Now two years later there was a very tough decision to take. Will I continue? The world is different today. I am not that easily available due to a commitment for our Startup which I founded with three other guys and friends. This little „plant“ still requires a lot of attention, my partners require my dedication. So stepping back on board for the Pacific leg? It just was not possible from a timing perspective. I am living in the US at the moment and we are part of a program that will last till July. So I need to stay. But what about the dream? Crossing an Ocean on a race yacht?

There is also another aspect. 2 years have passed. I am naturally 2 years older. Yes still healthy, knock, knock. But now I am way passed 60. Strength is not what it was before. Fitness is OK. Still I am becoming an old fart. So should I bother an ambitious crew with my aging problems?

I gave a long long thought in order to see what I can do to bring both things together, Startup company and sailing dream. I contacted Clipper and asked whether there is any chance to sail leg 8 instead of leg 6. And thank you Clipper, it was possible. With the OK from Clipper there was no reason for any afterthought – my decision was clear – I am returning toi „Black Betty“ and out team but this time sailing leg 8 instead of leg 6.

LEG 8
THE ATLANTIC HOMECOMING LEG

ROUTE EAST COAST, USA – UKSHARE FACEBOOK TWITTER LINKEDIN GOOGLE+ REDDIT STUMBLEUPON

While this might be the homeward bound leg, there is plenty of racing still to be done. With an Atlantic crossing and an emotional homecoming, this is one of the most sought-after legs on the race. And, with almost 40,000 miles of racing already behind you, there are still valuable racing points to be won. The podium places on the overall race have been decided on the last race of Leg 8 on the last three Clipper Race editions.

The weather might be mixed but the competition is hot, with teams battling it out for the final race points. The first race takes you north and a check of the sea temperature will tell you when your racing yacht is getting a helping push from the Gulf Stream. A further check will tell you when it gives way to the cooler Labrador Current and the mixture in seawater often produces unpredictable fog banks. Your last ocean race across the Atlantic might seem like familiar ground, especially to round the world crew, but don’t take this mighty ocean for granted. You need to stay focussed, race hard – and sail safe. The route will have waypoints to avoid any risk from ice and will take you close to the Flemish Cap, a fishing ground made famous by the book and film, The Perfect Storm.

Then it’s a 2,000-mile blast back towards Europe and one of the warmest welcomes of the whole race in Ireland.

With your odyssey almost over, it’s a great place to gather your thoughts and put your achievements into perspective. But still the challenges come thick and fast. A short and intense race from Ireland back to the finish port, more important race points to collect and a hero’s welcome. More people have climbed Everest than sailed around the world. Circumnavigating members of the Clipper Race crew are about to join that small and elite group. These final miles have all the pressure of extra time in the World Cup final. Although it’s not just the winners who receive a hero’s welcome…

The team has a new leadership for the rest of the race. Dan will be our skipper bringing us home to Europe through the outstanding 3 legs. Yes, You might remember him as he was our AQP for the legs 1-5. So he knows everybody in the crew quite well. He is supported by Ineke who takes the position as AQP.

The round the worlders are back on board. Dan and Ineke together with the highly qualified team of the Tech squad of Clipper have prepared the boat for the homecoming after they were moored for two year in Subic Bay.

The crew is out in the South China Sea for a 6 day training. Once they come back they will put final touches on the boat, get it victualed and than the will head off to the longest race ever in the history of Clipper Racing, a 8000nm leg from Subci Bay to Seattle. All stopovers to China had to be cancelled due to the Zero tolerance COVID policy of the Chinese government.

This leg is huge and a true challenge for any sailor. It start in Subci, a light wind territory which is located in the tropical conversion zone. The first couple of days will be dominated by thermal winds and require a pathfinder sense to find the fastest route. Once arriving at thew North tip of the Philippines an area of trade winds is entered between Phillipiones, Taiwan and Souther Japan. In addition very strong currents at the Taiwan cost and in Southern Japan will add to the sailing challenge which very likely will be closed hauled on starboard tack.

Once close to Japan it will be time to grab a low pressure system to get a slingshot into the might Pacific. Oh and yes if you think of the Pacific and Hawai, you have a wrong imagination. No trade winds, no warmth. The boats will take a great circle to the North in order to take advantage of the current flowing West to East in the North. Also in the North you have the weather systems that will allow reaching corses with fast sledge rides. Yes it will be cold, grey and windy. But that is what everybody who signed up for this leg is looking for.

As I have to stay ashore for this leg I will follow the crew of WTC Logistic and I will keep you posted how we will be doing. And On June 14th I will head out to Hamilton to step on board „Black Betty“. I am happy being back!

It has been a very long that you have not heard anything from me, not anything about sailing, the adventure of Clipper or the future ambitions. Everything was covered by this big burden of Corona and also by the fact to come back into business. It is an effort to restart when you did not plan to do so. And obviously it was a restart without the ability to move around or meet with people. Isolation, DIY markets, power gardening, phone conferences and WeChat were driving life. And everything was overlayed by this constant noise about Corona. Nothing else existed. All news, newspapers, commentary, radio programs, Corona, Corona, Corona. On top we had the beauty to see how the wise, mighty and powerful dealt with this crises and took control of our lives. The Trumps, Erdogans, Altemeirer and Merkels. Anyway no complaint. It is not over. And I am too much of a German not to follow the rules and regulations although at times I am not in agreement with what was decided. It does not matter though.

On the adventure side there is still Clipper. Currently it is just a memory about great training, awesome mates, smart skippers, agile AQPs and for me a little bit of racing in the South China sea. There is the outlook for the restart being scheduled for February. Leg 6 will be even longer now. Subic Bay, Sanya, Zhuhai, Qingdao, Seattle. And the trip across will be a bit earlier. The North Pacific most likely will be wilder although lets see how it will turn out with the climate change. This spring I monitored the weather and it was reasonably well. No sunshine, cold, but not so many storms and no cyclone. We will see how it will turn out.

Obviously I am thinking a lot about the come back and the complications. Which skippers will show up? Ours from WTC will not be available. Which round the worlders will be able to step back in? Who will be there from the previous team? All questions to come. And there wil be decision making time in around end of the year whether to restart or not, whether to postpone or not or even take a more dramatic decision. But the experience is still overwhelming and too good to miss on it. I try to phase out the blunt memories of the 8-9 days and stay motivated. I need to stay fit too which in my age is the harder part. On the sailing side I am sure I will stay current because I go sailing!

I am out there after contact rules in Germany have been lifted and my good friend Adreas offered to go sailing for this week. He owns a X-332, a racing cruiser. Compared to a Clipper 70 it is more a Dinghy. But it offers fast sailing and a tremendous amount of fun. I hopped on the boat in Cuxhafen which is the fisher town where the Elbe river flows into the North Sea. From there you can sail, weather permitting to the North Frisian island or the West Frisian Islands, piles of sand in the tidal waters west of Northern Germany. Obviously all timings and legs are being dictated by the tide and the weather. It requires cautious seamanship and sound decision making especially when the weather turns bad. Currently it is awesome, hot, sunny and a with a nice Easterly breeze. But our challenge is coming and will, catch us on Thursday afternoon. We are supposed to get overrun by an occlusion with rain and an increase of wind. There will be the delight of embedded thunderstorms. But I am ready. I do have my foulies from Clipper with me and my Musto boots. No matter what weather, we will deal with it. At this moment in time we still enjoy the peace here on Amrum. We sailed 50 NM yesterday.

I have to say that I enjoyed every second yesterday. the air was clean and crisp. It seems obvious that nature feels much better without the destructive pollution of dense air traffic and massive container traffic. I do believe I have never seen the Elbe river without the sulfur dust in the last 15 years. Yesterday no sign of it. There was no high flurry clouds by the condensation stripes of airplanes. We saw one plane in the 6 hours.

And the real piece of mind was the noise of the wind in the rigg, the zirring sound of the tensioned up backstay. How much have I missed the noise of burbling water flashing backward from the stern. How at home did I feel with the bashing sound of the bow cutting apart the waves in front of us. And minute by minute, hour by hour we moved North just by wind forces. I am loving it. Everything is framed by the execution of good seamanship. Hourly log book records. Hourly weather checks. Trimming the boat. Steering it fast and effective. And after hours when our destination approached from the horizon I felt a deep satisfaction of being out here, distant from the daily terror of modern society, instant messaging, enormous pressure of daily life and business. The ear listens to the noise of water, the eyes skim the horizon finding new objects and the brain is working just on one goal, sailing safe and fast.

Today we will hop from Amrum to Sylt, which is the largest German island and the most exclusive. It is for the rich and the beautiful. Normally nothing for me. But a walk around Hörnumer Odde is too nice to miss on it. And we will find a shed feeding us with fresh fish. I will report. You all stay safe and sound and enjoy life. Sailing is a vital part for mine.