At the beginning of this week I posted a picture on my socials of a building named “The Slaughterhouse”.. I added the comment: A tense week ahead.. This building happens to be right in front of the Race office of Clipper Ventures. I left this office 2 years ago for the last time and to … More Clipper Race – Skipper Trials

In Lisbon Walter, his brother and Heather joined Shaman. After the boat and safety briefing we left the next day for Cascais to get fuel. We had to wait for a huge schooner (Atlantic) and guess what; the also had the Frysian Flag in top! It is a small world. It promised to be a … More Part III Shaman La Rapita – Amsterdam: Puke your heart out

In La Linea (Gibraltar) Patrick joined me the same evening. Patrick is an ex-Clipper Race skipper and sailed around the workd at least twice. By the way: the Clipper Race is not on those wooden boats that most Dutchies think about with a Clipper. You can compare the yachts with the Volvo Ocean Race ‘machines’ … More Part II Shaman La Rapita – Amsterdam: The Clipper way

What a delivery.. 3 weeks in and we aren’t even half way yet! Last month I received a call from Walter who just became the new owner of the 6-year old Garcia Explorer 45 Shaman. A beautiful aluminium yacht built to do some proper exploring to even the Arctic. The first of May I arrived … More Part 1 – Shaman La Rapita – Amsterdam: “What a world we live in”

I don’t even know where to begin… So much has happened the last couple of weeks. I was approached by a Dutch owner of a Sweden Yacht 45. She needed to be delivered from Vathy 🇬🇷 to Scarlino 🇮🇹 for a refit. On our first attempt I left the marina with the owner and 2 … More Murphy’s Law…

After we abandoned our delivery Palma – Cagliari on the 15th we spend two nights on a mooring buoy in Porto Colom. The weather was hazy, fully clouded and hot between the mountains of Mallorca, but there was a 20-25 knots blowing from the SE. The worst you can have in that area because when … More This will make your day ..

I received countless messages from people asking why I am not part of the Clipper Race Skipper line-up. Thank you so much. It meant a lot. I started to doubt being part of the project a couple of weeks after last years race finish and it never really went away. My heart was not in … More Going home instead of the Clipper Race

I am so sorry for not writing a blog for over a year! The Clipper Race was such an extreme experience that blogging on my own website was pushed far down the ‘to-do-list’. During the race I wrote quite a bit but obviously those blogs landed on the Clipper website.. In February 2022 after a … More A girl has to dream

As you probably know I will be joining the Clipper Race this year as a AQP (Mate). It is the 2019-2020 race but due to Covid-19 they stranded in Subic Bay (Philippines) in 2019. Last month I found out I am assigned to Ha Long Bay Vital. I am absolutely stoked about this!! The team … More Preparing for the race of my life

For as long as I can remember I wanted to sail in the (Volvo) Ocean Race. But when I still worked in business, I didn’t have a clue about how to get ‘a foot in the door’. Coming from the Frysian lakes the big boat world was somewhat a mystery to me. Then I started … More Dream Big