The Crossing: From the Girls' Perspective

Here you go, starting with Ryan:

On the Atlantic Crossing from Las Palmas to St. Lucia, it was fun…but challenging. On the 6th day the french press broke. Everyone was trying to keep the adults caffeinated. There so many people in the process! The kitchen was crowded! We found a plan B: use the perk-o-later; and a plan C: use the tea holder; and a plan D: freak out because the adults will kill us! Luckily, we only needed plan B.

On the first day of December the Christmas decorations were up! It was super fun! Music, hats, lights, stickers, and good food!

We also got an advent calendar with white chocolate. When on the first couple days we saw dolphins at sunrise. I was asleep, but I saw videos. They were HUGE! Every night my sister made fresh cookies warm out of the oven. She made ginger molasses and one other one I forgot. They were really good, and she was always willing to help the ones on watch. Mrs. Katie brought water color pencils and water color paper so we could paint. I made a few islands, a cat stargazing and a random color mix. I also made moods. We had an accident with the toilet too… It wouldn’t stop over flowing! PLEH! It was so gross! And for almost a day, the boat smelled like—grossness. We also ripped a TON of sails😅. Mrs. Katie and KK had to sew them back together. We were so relieved that they were willing to help in such a big way. The one time I got sick was when we had just gotten out of a rough spot… I was inside for that. It wasn’t great, but I got through it. We got to be on a great boat, with great conditions. And now we are with our friends! It was really fun—oh! Gotta go swimming! Bye! *SPLASHHHHH💦*

And Kenning:

I have mixed feelings about the crossing. On one hand it got us to the Caribbean but it was also not the most fun thing either. I was surprised that the crossing felt about as long as the one from Gibraltar to the Canary Islands was but it was about 7 times longer. I think that was because the crossing from Gibraltar to the canaries was my first crossing that wasn’t less than 36 hours. That really put perspective into my head and made me think about how so many other kids were crossing the ocean. It also made me feel lucky because we were the first family boat to arrive.

I was also very thankful for Katie and Jason. They both are such wonderful and positive people and their positive attitudes made me feel positive even when things weren’t the best. Katie bought watercolor pencils and we did watercolor almost every day and that was really fun. Jason brought biology to us so 20 minutes a day we would watch the ocean and record what we saw. They were also fun to visit on their watches so we could look out at the stars, watch the bioluminescence, and see the moon rise. It was really nice to have some unfamiliar faces to wake up to and have new things to talk about so they were really great to have onboard.

I was very glad that we had an uneventful crossing. For the first 5 to 6 six days we had to motor because there wasn’t really any wind but the calm seas were really nice. Then the wind finally picked up, we ended up ripping the sail we had just repaired but we had expected that so we had 3 extras. We then burst the ring on the Quantum sail which was sad, we fixed something up but we didn’t expect it to last. After that we ripped the bottom of the symmetrical sail so Katie and I spent almost all day fixing it. Other than that, the crossing was uneventful especially compared to others. We are so glad that our friends picked up the boat that had a rudder failure and we are very sad for the crew of the other abandoned boat.

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At the prize giving ceremony, all the kids that crossed the ocean were acknowledged for their amazing achievement. These kids all know each other now and share a special experience:

There was a professional photographer at the finish line, and here are a few more photos.

First, Luna Bay II with a bone in her teeth heading to the finish:

Shooting the finish line after 16.5 days at sea!:

The very happy crew right after the finish!:

And one more. The professional photographer for this one was Katie. Taken about an hour before the finish.