Ein Rückblick der GORGirls auf die erste Woche an Bord und das Leben von zwei noch recht Fremden in einer 12-Quadratmeter-Wohnung ohne Klotür:
Later today will mark our first week at sea so we thought it would be a good time to reflect on how it has gone so far and how we are feeling about sailing the GOR together aboard 40 Degrees. When we slipped lines in Guadeloupe we had never sailed together, just us, before. We had known each other since our first Skype meeting in October, we had put hours and hours of work into the project and send numerous e mail to one another but this was our first sailing experience. It was quite a big day really, what of we didn't get on on a boat?, what if we had had just made the biggest mistake of our sailing careers, after all 2 on a boat is an interesting dynamic and it needs to work.
We spent the first 3 days as 2 individuals finding their way around their new world. Of course we were a team but we had not yet begun to develop that partnership, we had yet to find our team rhythm. Then came the turning point, a day of zero wind, searing heat and a good deal of frustration. We were both tired and hot and the sail to the Azores was suddebly looking like a very long one. Anna became annoyed about how much fresh water we had on board and I was getting short over the poor boat speed we were getting our of the gennaker. We both sensed one anothers angst and no doubt both wondered if this would work.
Well it is working. We left that moment on the last wave and started to see an improvement in how we sailed the boat. We laughed at being tired, smelly and constantly beating to windward. We worked together as a team when we met our first low pressure system and went through a series of sail changes and identified how we could improve performance and ultimatley we have become completely at ease with the lack of privacy on a Class 40! At about 0300 this morning as we sailed at some hideous angle beating to windward still, Anna laughed as she was sat on the bucket just opposite from where I was pulling on wet clothes and said 'if only people could see us now looking like such an old couple...'
So it is safe to say we are looking forward to the GOR together and we are enjoying our great boat 40 Degrees. We are aware of the challenges that we will face and know that it will not all be smiles and laughter but this qualifying sail has so far given us a very good taste of what is to come and we can't wait!
Hannah & Anna
POSITION @ 1400 UTC
LAT 27 39.4N
LONG 050 33.6W
Later today will mark our first week at sea so we thought it would be a good time to reflect on how it has gone so far and how we are feeling about sailing the GOR together aboard 40 Degrees. When we slipped lines in Guadeloupe we had never sailed together, just us, before. We had known each other since our first Skype meeting in October, we had put hours and hours of work into the project and send numerous e mail to one another but this was our first sailing experience. It was quite a big day really, what of we didn't get on on a boat?, what if we had had just made the biggest mistake of our sailing careers, after all 2 on a boat is an interesting dynamic and it needs to work.
We spent the first 3 days as 2 individuals finding their way around their new world. Of course we were a team but we had not yet begun to develop that partnership, we had yet to find our team rhythm. Then came the turning point, a day of zero wind, searing heat and a good deal of frustration. We were both tired and hot and the sail to the Azores was suddebly looking like a very long one. Anna became annoyed about how much fresh water we had on board and I was getting short over the poor boat speed we were getting our of the gennaker. We both sensed one anothers angst and no doubt both wondered if this would work.
Well it is working. We left that moment on the last wave and started to see an improvement in how we sailed the boat. We laughed at being tired, smelly and constantly beating to windward. We worked together as a team when we met our first low pressure system and went through a series of sail changes and identified how we could improve performance and ultimatley we have become completely at ease with the lack of privacy on a Class 40! At about 0300 this morning as we sailed at some hideous angle beating to windward still, Anna laughed as she was sat on the bucket just opposite from where I was pulling on wet clothes and said 'if only people could see us now looking like such an old couple...'
So it is safe to say we are looking forward to the GOR together and we are enjoying our great boat 40 Degrees. We are aware of the challenges that we will face and know that it will not all be smiles and laughter but this qualifying sail has so far given us a very good taste of what is to come and we can't wait!
Hannah & Anna
POSITION @ 1400 UTC
LAT 27 39.4N
LONG 050 33.6W
