We have a tough crew although not very though looking unlike for example Offspring’s crew who look like serious sailors. Actually most of our crew have real baby faces. Maybe that’s because the crew partly consists of a 5 year old and a 2 year old. I truly believe Katie is the youngest Dutchman on the Atlantic at the moment.

But let there be no mistake. Alec (5) and Katie (2) can take on anybody when it comes to been though. The boat is rolling in an ugly swell. No problem, the sword fighting still continues without a hitch. How they can keep their balance is a true miracle. If I would allow Alec, he would be climbing in the crosstrees all the time. Sleeping on a pounding boat? ‘No Dad, I slept wonderful, was the boat moving?’

Energy is another major issue on Seawalk. And I don’t mean using it sparsely  as many boats need to conserve energy. No, I mean where do we get ride of all that energy on Seawalk. We just have too much. Kids needs to release their energy. So we’ve tied some pillows together to create a boxing ball. And Alec and Katie are pounding away happily. And of course Isabelle is doing Karate lessons, it is so funny watching little Katie trying katas. Alec is pretty good at it, especially the Karate Kid faces are very convincing.

And finally Alec found out how to imitate the clatter of a horse in a gallop which is remarkably suiting for Seawalk as she was names after Isabelle’s first jumping horse with which she competed in the States. Alas it doesn’t make Seawalk run faster.

Today we had a good run but as I write this we are experiencing very light wind again and doing little over 4 knots. The day has been uneventful. Isabelle saw his first Flying Fish. She doesn’t allow us fishing any more. The menu does not include too much tuna. So we’ll wait a day or two to start fishing again. We are now officially in the Tropics and we’ve adjusted Board Time to UTC-1. That is definitely a good sign. Although we’re going slow, we will get there!

Most of the family boats fly their kids to St Lucia and we totally understand that. Running a kids boat is hard work. Mum is constantly busy down below and we had to alleviate her watch duties since the combination ¨running kids – running boat¨ was not working. No watches for Mum! So we’ve changed the watch schedule to ensure everybody gets enough sleep. Hard work is may  be, but experiencing this together is very special indeed. I would not want to miss this for the world.