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 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

Day 1 26 April 2020 0225 GMT This afternoon we left Horta after having been on the quarantine dock for 2 nights. It was strange to see Peter’s Cafe across the marina but not being able to go there. A big fence on the dock marked the ‘end of our line’. Groceries, diesel and even … More Part II – Horta to IJmuiden 🇳🇱