As Promised, I want to give a more detailed report. Now as I had a nice steak I'm ready for it. So here is our report for leg one...

 

If angles ride waves...

The weather prognosis for our first leg of the Baltic Sprint Cup fromTravemünde (GER) to Karlskrona (SWE)  predicted a lot of wind, thunderstorm and rain showers and for the evening some sunny moments. So for our KPMG women team exactly what we were used to from our Atlantic trip in last year. Anyone asked for a summer holiday? Here it was! Inall the dark nuances  of the colour blue one could think of. Well some how we must like it wet and with our new KPMG wet gets a new definition. She is smaller (35 foot), lower and has an open stern. This means water can much easier find its way to the ingenuous sailoress. Water flies over the deck, while surfing, the water builds fountains behind the shrouds which end up in the cockpit. Well so much for the wetness from  outside, but there is also so to speak an inner component. Being dressed up in three layers of functional wet wear and thermal underwear every move, every manoeuvre of course produces it's on wetness from inside. So beside the question, "Why do we do that?" there is the simple conclusion "Thank god it's breathable!". This leg needed a lot of working, with a lot of wind from unfortunately directly behind, there was always a demand of full concentration and a lot of trimming. But anyway all these thoughts, all these doubts blend away when we are sitting there cheering, while a new speed record has been broken, the sun glints in the rough sea and our spinnaker carries us over the waves. It is the feeling of being one with the elements, which the carved smiles on the faces of each crew member reflects, that let you forget all troubles.
If angles ride waves, there is no bad weather prediction, just glint and
smiling.

Now that we reached the eighth place we know we need to push the boat
even harder, so there will be more cheers...

 

Tomorrow we will do some final preparations, maybe some tests in front of Karskrona and afterwards relax and wait for the start to Kleipeda on Wednesday.