2013 Sailing across the Atlantic Ocean

In 2012 I was sailing in Croatia with my friends from the University. We were talking about sailing trips that one should execute. I had never thought that I would sail across the Atlantic but during that one week in Croatia my mind was changed. When I get an idea of something I have to do it and this was no exeption to that. One year later I was onboard in ARC crew getting ready for the start in the Canary Islands. 

I found an organization that was going to sail in 2013 ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers), and was selected on their sailing team. My family has had a sailing boat since before I was born so I had some idea about the journey.

The trip started from the Canary islands in November 2013. Our 10-person team plus the captain and the first mate were getting ready for the start a few days before and prepared the boat and supplies. Our boat was s/y Vahine, a 65 ft long Swan.

The crossing took 18 days and it felt longer. In the boat we had shifts to do sailing, cooking, cleaning and sleeping. The maximum amount of sleep was between 2-5 hours each and it really made me feel like a walking dead. After a few days you felt like a zombie robot performing your daily tasks as the direction was the same all the time and you do pretty much same things all the time when sailing. The fresh water was only used for drinking and cooking, so showers had to be done with salt water. After a while the salt was everywhere; in your clothes, hair, bed and stuff. The salt absorbes water, so after being salted everything is moist and doesn´t dry. My sleeping bag was basically wet for two weeks because of the salt.

We only had minor accidents on the boat and luckily nothing too bad.
Below you can see what might happen if the boom will hit you in the head while not paying attention:

During the easier days we did some fishing and dolphin watching.

In December 12th after 18 days of sailing we arrived to Saint Lucia and taking a fresh water shower had never felt so good. Definitely a trip worth making but a challenging one!