S/V Aphrodite

The start of this leg of the rally was on Wed. at noon.  It was VERY exciting because the winds were 25+ knts with 7′ seas.  I got to take Aphrodite over the starting line.  Our start was good, but not great.  We were probably in the middle of the pack.  But within one hour we managed to pass up all but three of the boats!  Since then we have pushed into second position. Being a multi-hull, Aphrodite can not point as high into the wind as the mono-hulls.  The conditions were very challenging for
the first two days with all of the boats getting beat up a bit.  But, the winds are expected to change from NE to SW which will allow us the FLY.  We’ll see if we can catch up to the fastest mono-hull in the fleet.

Today, Fri., the winds have died down considerable, as well as the seas.  This is what sailing is supposed to be about.  I think I mentioned that we took on an extra crew member.  His name is Gideon.  His presence has made this a much easier trip for us because everyone can get up to 6 hours of sleep in between watches.  We are enjoying him very much, learning about life in Israel.  We hope to visit him in his home town once we are in that area of the MED.

I just wanted to let you know that all is well.

Love,

Jeri