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Brainstorm - To the top through the gates of hell



It was with the sunrise in our back, on a pink sea from the ditto clouds above that Menno and I realized we where half way. From Las Palmas Mallorca to Rodney Bay Saint Lucia that is. 2.100 (3.900km) nautical miles of the 4.200 (7.800km) are behind us now. The mood was extra festive when Hein and Michiel woke to the sight of the storm front in front of us.

As we got closer the sun casted a golden glow on our target and there was a rainbow emitting from it. We fell as the winds picked up to 8 knots, we were blissed to rely solely on our sails once more but this was soon to change.

The problem lay in trying to clip a massive storm front, where avoiding it should have been our priority. With an unimaginable speed the dark drew near and within 2 minutes we were in a horizontal white rainstorm with 30+ knots. We quickly put 2 reefs to withstand the storm queefs. Just when we thought we’d fell- and sailed enough to circumvent the heat we saw that there was a second front coming in from the north west and straight for us while the main storm was still right next to us.

One morning shower was enough for us but we definitely didn’t feel like heading towards the South Pole, giving our competition an advantage. With this decision made we went for it. Tacking to starboard back around to the main front, to port towards the second, back again, again and on as both fronts pulled together, pushing us back and forth. We’re happy to say we made it without much more rain. Once through we enjoyed a mesmerizing view of what truly looks like two black walls of hellish storms, a cloud ceiling and a open sunlit gate that was quickly filling up with white spay as we hoisted the main sheet in full once more.

The effort paid off twofold: our Remmy intel indicated we are now 1 position away from the top 10 at 11th place after passing the Bastet, a Noon 55 🥳 💪. Additionally from here on down south west we had winds between 10 and 16 knots coming from a true wind angel between 280 and 360 enabling us to keep course at around 240. Much needed as Saint Lucia is at 255 degrees from our current position and dipping to much south still means ending up in a windless pool of boring death.

What an exiting day this came to be as the sailing went on and on throughout it! Winds in our hair, with the brainstorm on her side cutting her way through the waves, during daylight. At night the winds started to turn further north -enabling us to set course straight to Saint Lucia- and as it past north we could do this reaching😁.

Bonus was that even after sunset we were still in shorts underneath a full moon! The sea is now at 25 degrees.

At 1 am, an hour before our shift change, I noticed there was a top light, probably of a competitor, on the horizon and we were gaining fast with our 9 knots speed over ground. H&M we’re happy to inform us they passed the suspected competition and we could barely see the their top light at the 8 am early morning shift handover💪.

Our new intel from Hans informed us that we definitely made the right decision as we past not only Kiwi Cat (a Nautitech 40 open), Rhapsodie VI (a Franchini 53L) and Pipac (a Boreal 44) but also Bounty: a Solaris 50 😎!! The last we know to be in top shape as it is serviced by David who also maintains our dear Brainstorm. This puts us well in the top 10 at 6th place 🥳🕺🥳🕺🥳🕺🥳🕺


While writing this we are in hot persut of the Amante (a Hylas 70 😯) and guess What’s Next (a Jeanneau Yacht 54); your next 😂🤣

Br from the Brainstorm,

Duco

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