Location: Antibes, France
Our crew was woken up in nostalgia for some of our childhood bangers in Ville Franche. Our sweatshirts and fleeces went on as we were greeted with the smell of warm Spinach eggs and toasted PBandJ’s. After a quick, smooth cleanup and a long time admiring the sun rising over the rolling hills of France, we started passage prep. When I handed out boat prep jobs to my crew, I wasn’t expecting nearly everyone to know exactly what every job entailed. I felt immense pride in my group and bountiful hope for the future of our trip. Calum took the helm (steering wheel), and we set out for Barcelona. We divided into our watch groups, took to our various jobs, and raised the sails of our beautiful Vela. Despite our initial setback: our main sail being slightly ripped near the bottom, we raised the main and forward staysails. We relished the feeling of a brisk and chilly North-Westernly wind which was coming from the perfect angle to make a great time in Barcelona.
Suddenly the wind started to pick up, and waves started increasing in their size and intensity. Before we knew it, the wind was ripping at 62 miles an hour. The waves were breathtakingly high with large overhanging crests. They started crashing over the side of the boat and filling our cockpit like a swimming pool. My peers had been waiting in anticipation for our boat to reach a 40mph wind speed and 40-degree kilt (40/40), and we thoroughly surpassed that. Even some of the staff had never seen conditions such as these while underway. Our captain described the weather as “not just a violent storm but close to hurricane conditions.” Down below, we tried playing a game of spoons and enjoyed our time playing around with standing at a 40-degree angle. Up on deck, Eli was surprisingly in nothing but a swimsuit and a life jacket. Our staff prudently made the call to take shelter in a bay in Antibes, France. As we headed back to land, we reached speeds of 12mph (this boat can only handle speeds of about 15mph) — a change of pace from our initial heading of 1.5mph. After taking down our sails with a still violent breeze and anchoring in the best possible way for the conditions, we headed to bed after a long day of fighting with our beautiful and merciless mother nature.