Blue Moon - bm day 2

Early prep for the upcoming racing start. Boat is well stuffed with fresh food, loads of salads, sweet candies, chocolates, pasta, pasta, pasta, cheeses, and fresh meat for the first days. Tanks are filled up with prescious water. Gas bottles changed, fuel tank refilled. Sails repaired, new toilet pumps (thank you Ettore!) and we got a second life raft on the Blue moon, which is getting a hitchhike to Antigua.
During team briefing our captain kept us up to date with the current weather conditions: Wind 20-25 knots, swell is 11 seconds and 2 to 3 meter waves. We expect similar conditions for the next days! Everyone was quite excited. We made the last phonecalls to the homefront, and happy to leave the port and start this beautiful adventure!
Sailing out of the port was an emotional moment, to see all the people waving us goodbye and wishing us a save crossing. We made it out savely, unlike other boats we saw who already collided right after exiting their parking spot!
It was the first time we saw the full dimension of the race. So many sailing boats, racing ships, different flags and many other following dingies all crossing each other and getting ready for the starting line.
Mathias in the front, Thalita at the helm, Liesbeth on tactics, Wayne on the piano, Sergio and Katleen on the Gip and Margo making sure everyhting is put on film. Adrenaline got higher as soon as we heared the sign of 10, 5 and 1 minute. We made some taks to position the boat well and when the final 10 seconds got blasted out of the radio, the Blue moon set sail (on time!) towards the Caribbean.Teams were shouting and we saw happy faces all around. We had to make sure to navigate smartly to avoid collision.
The first hours after we were all getting used to the conditions, to our humble boat doing so well, and our stomachs getting shaked up.Until now one crew member already got to feed the fish ;)We are taking turns at the helm to get a feel of how this magnificent lady is surfing the waves. Soon we will start dinner prep: Pumpkin soup with tomatoe mozarella salad. Let‘s see if that was a smart move;).Shifts will start at 6PM and we‘ll take turns every 2 hours in the night shifts and 3 hours during day shifts.We‘ll report back tomorrow how well we got through the first night. Exciting times ahead!
Ps: Dear Giordana and Ettore , you left Las Palmas this morning and Bluemoon yesterday,it was emotional saying goodbye to you both.Thanks for bringing Bluemoon safely to Las Palmas and you helped us so much to get her ready. We sail Bluemoon for you …Thank you for all…