Ever since Oceans of Hope left Copenhagen I have been reading the daily blogs from the crew on board. Now at last it is my turn - here I am, actually writing this blog.

Before boarding Oceans of Hope, Claus and I stayed in a hotel just next to the marina. There we met the boss of all the shops in the hotel/casino, a woman who also suffers from MS. She shared her story with us, and we went to see the Oceans of Hope boat. She was very excited about the project, and now she is going to apply to join the crew.

Yesterday we started out organizing the different duties on board like cleaning, provisioning, cooking. We spent the morning cleaning the boat, filling the water tanks, and skipper Kristian spent some time discussing the main engine with Mr. Perkins.

Then it was time.... The magic moment I have been waiting for!
We left the marina and set the mainsail. Three strong women on the foredeck struggling to hoist 200 kg of mainsail - with a bit of help from Bertram. And we succeeded! The sailing was amazing - the feeling of the sea, the wind, the sound of the waves. To quote the Danish band TV 2 - I was feeling "almost happy.”

Report by Bosun Bertram:

9 knots over ground and 80 nautical miles to go! We are heading north again with 23 knots of wind out of the north west. Departure at 0730 this morning to make it to safe harbor before dinner tonight. We expect to be under way for approximately 12 hours unless we manage to keep up this average the entire way. Since there are no marinas capable of taking a boat this size from Atlantic City to New York, we need to make it all the way back up to either Staten Island or Coney Island before. From there we plan to sail around the beautiful area before we head in to North Cove on Manhattan. 

Local time on board is 08:40 and our current position is 39°22'867N 74°22'046W