Odin tends to attract whales! On their way to the Azores from St Martin they
bumped into one, luckily there were no injuries on any part though! Onboard
Odin I have now seen my closest whale ever! I was standing at the helm,
talking on the VHF with Cecilie on Safari when my heart started pumping
frenetically and I almost lost the VHF while trying to scream whale… On
starboard side some meters from the boat something huge submarine boat look
a like appeared on the surface. The whale stayed about 10 seconds before
slowly diving again. It was spectacular seeing its gigantic fin pointing
straight up before disappearing into the deep blue. The whales are enormous
animals! The adrenaline kick lasted for a while and I tried my best not to
think of what consequences a whale crash would bring. At least I'm lucky to
be covered by the insurance company Europeiska, as if the whales would care
about insurances, but I do!

Do I need to say that Odin, X-yacht, is great upwind? It is amazing how
close to the wind she can sail. Beating with her is impressive, especially
when you see your competitors disappear behind you. However, the yachts in
our little mini-regatta towards Dublin are still fairly close, more fun this
way, having company on the ocean. But in order to allow MaggyV (Beneteau 45)
and Safari (Bavaria 42) to follow we tend to reef conservatively and to
decrease the often upcoming gap between us we sometime furl the genoa at
dinner time to let them catch up on us and let us have a comfortable dinner.
But what so far has hit me the most is Odin's ability to sail in almost no
wind. Even if it is only blowing a couple of m/s, the sails are still being
filled and she manages to sail while the other yachts need to support the
sails with help from their engines.

We are having a wonderful time onboard Odin, not only is she a terrific
sailor, as I think I've mentioned before, her skipper Lars is an
extraordinary chef. It is very hard to keep up with his tasty cooking.
Nicolay and I tried our best the other day with some baking and Kjetil is
very keen on doing the dishes. Time flies when having fun! Even if Sex and
the City has not yet been introduced, yesterday we watched the movie Dirty
Dancing. Ten year old Nicolay found the dancing and kissing parts little bit
too much though! He prefers fighting movies a la Narnia instead of romance,
but do sometimes agree to a goodnight hug : -)

There are lots more to tell about my adventures with Odin, and updates will
follow when we reach Dublin and proper internet. ETA is at the moment
sometime late Sunday/early Monday.

Have a nice weekend! /First Mate (who will do her best to celebrate Sweden's
National Day on Sunday among all the Norwegians…)