After six hours of motoring we reached the starting area, weather forecast materialized in stiff 15 to 20kt from north/northwest filling our hearts and those on square riggers with joy and hope of easy victory down wind. Steve Devoe held safety briefing in which he promised to personally kill anybody who falls overboard, Gosia put her fastest Rolex sunglasses on and took a wheel.It was another spectacular show, our class starting last, we could watch the mighty ships accelerating slowly and disappearing behind the eastern horizon towards China since the wind veered in last minute and was blowing now from southwest over 20kt. We didn’t t-bone anybody on the start since most boats got late except of the ones that jumped the gun a minute or two early.Committee was generous and there was no X flag on display, we were off leaving behind dry friendly land and a fleet of spectator boats bobbing on building waves.Good thing is that we did not start with a spinnaker up as planned, because changing from second favored jib top to heavy jib took us some 30 minutes or more. Finally we had sails under control and every body went to sleep.The hardest part of that race were 2 mandatory daily communications with the race control, we were far ahead of the well spread and slow fleet, our radios did not work properly and the Global Star satellites fly over Sweden once a day at 5.15pm, the cell phone proved to be the most reliable mean of communication. St. John being our radio officer did heroic job listening for weather and position reports, calling race control and other competitors practically 24 hours a day without break, he has my vote for MVP, thank you and god bless you for your patience, persistence and stamina.We reefed at night but it was still hard to drive having most off the crew in 3rd stage of hypothermia and other diseases hibernating down bellow. There were no fights over the steering wheel and trimming, Steve, Dave and I got it all, having Andrzej, Haley and Tomek helping with the main.In the morning we spotted a boat on the horizon ahead to windward of us, we called all hands on deck and I made a promise that we will pass that boat if everybody hikes for 2 hours. We took them up and forced to tack in one hour and half, it was Fazisi, old Withbread 84, the fastest boat in the race.Baltic is famous for its washing machine wave pattern and after 24 hours of this ride we started getting reports of boats retiring the race, we had some concerns of our own but after getting weather forecast through cell phone from Patrick Kasic at Z sails loft in Stamford, Andrzej and I decided that there is a light in the tunnel. The wind supposed to die overnight and go north. We were on port tack 12 hours from our mark south off Bornholm if we continue we might get stuck in the lee of its high cliffs, we tacked to starboard away from rhumline to get better angle.6 hours later breeze died indeed to 14kt shifting 180 degrees; we were screwed but the sky was blue.It was a gorgeous first day without rain since I left NY, everybody on deck rubbing in sunscreen lotion, shoot flying, music sipping discreetly from the speakers and food (finally), Excellent time to asses damages down bellow, lots of inflated PFDs, radio manuals and squashed objects floating in the potion of salt water, diesel, and raw sewage; not pleasant but nothing life threatening, those boats always had week plumbing.I fished out some electronic devices that took a dive and after some gymnastics and drying we had our computer working again.Soon the boats started emerging from behind starboard horizon charging towards the finish at much sharper angle.We managed to be second boat crossing the line some 15 minutes behind UK boat Chaser, Fazisi followed and then others and others crawling in some 40 hours later.Swinoujscie invited us with border control shooting flares at mosquitoes protecting us from the attack that would impress any Amazon explorer.Prearranged bus took most of the crew for shower in Szczecin, leaving Haley, Dave an myself for bugs to eat.
