01:00 AM Sunday morning January 27. Barcelona is already a few hours behind us as we are heading back to Antibes (France), back home. Jean Baptiste and Laurent are driving in the front of the van while Francesco and I are lying sleepless in the back. From the rear windows we can see the catamaran on the trailer. We've been on the road to get Francesco and the cat for almost 24 hours, it has been a long day.
Aldo - Francesco, I think I have the right title for the next post on the website.
Francesco - Yes?
Well.. it has to do with the demon that must have been hunting you during the crossing, it's the only explanation I have to understand what you did.
Yes, I've been a little bit crazy, I realize that.
Ok, let's start from the last time we talked on the satellite phone, that is January the 5th. You told me that the conditions were quite hard and that you were afraid to lose or damage the phone while using it because of all the waves breaking on the boat. You sounded a bit overwhelmed by the huge task ahead of you.
Those first few days have been though, the wind was blowing constantly up to 30 knots. The third night has been the toughest. Imagine the full moon shining on braking waves 4 meter high. I had to steer constantly the entire night to go fast and to avoid being hit too hard by the breakers. By that time I was well off the last of the Canary islands, Hierro. That is when I started to have a strong feeling of how ephemeral was my sail boat, a meaningless dot in the middle of an infinite Ocean.
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