The previous report ended after 7 stages and approximately halfway across the crossing. In this report we pick up the thread there again. A few more hours and then we sail on the Suriname River; the end of the more than two weeks crossing! A new phase of our journey then begins. We look back on the past two weeks with a very good feeling. The ship and the crew have kept well. The first week it was a bit light again, but that also had its advantages. And the second week with enough wind, but every now and then a big rolling boat. No significant squals and almost no rain, nice quiet nights with good progress. Yes, we really enjoyed this first big crossing and feel very proud to have accomplished this achievement!

The two weeks have flown by without us being bored for a minute. Often we even felt we were running out of time and didn't even get around to reading a book. In the meantime we have developed the following reasonable fixed daily rhythm.
9:00 a.m. : the boat wakes up. The girls get out of bed and sometimes come to sit outside for a while and usually immediately start reading or doing something else. Toine comes upstairs and I prepare breakfast.
9.30 am : breakfast with bread, tea and coffee, together outside in the cockpit.
10.00 a.m. : it's time to pick up and send mail and pick up the weather forecast. The girls play with each other & mostly dog (Fikkie).
11:00 a.m. : the daily chat with Valentine about the ssb radio. We exchange how things went last night, how the mood is on board and in which positions we are in relation to each other.
11.30 a.m. : time for the daily race together with the Barbarossa. We will sit outside in the cockpit with the VHF, guess the distance of the last 24 hours and determine the points for the individual scores of also the number of boats and fish and add this up to 'boat'-scores for the Barbarossa and for us. This is always a very pleasant moment.
12:00 : the girls do school and I supervise them. Toine can always help with the calculation tasks and sits further in the cockpit on guard.
14:00 : lunch, together outside in the cockpit. Usually with bread (baked with cheese as a kind of toast, or toasted with garlic oil and soup).
14:30 : the girls often watch a movie and sometimes we watch along. Or they play with ministeck, drawing, etc. We do some computer work, clean a fish or sit outside in the cockpit talking or reading.
17.00 hours : drinks outside in the tub with chips and soda. Always a cozy moment with the four of us.
6 pm : Toine prepares the boat for the night (fold away the sun tent, tidy up the lines and put them down neatly, inspection of the critical points of the boat, lines, etc) and I prepare the food.
6:45 pm : dinner in the cockpit, often with a setting sun. The sun goes down right in front of the bow, you feel like Lucky Luke (Lonesome comboy ...)
7:45 pm : the boat is tidied up and the dishes are done.
8 p.m. : time for the daily evening ssb chat with the Valentine.
8:15 p.m. : Toine and I are sitting in the tub with a cup of tea.
8:45 pm : Toine starts with the 1st night watch and then often watches a movie outside in the cockpit on the laptop. At the Barbarossa Giel then waits, sometimes together with Ellen. I go to sleep and the girls go to bed themselves at 21.30 hours.
0:00 a.m. : Toine goes to sleep and my 1st night watch starts. Then I usually take the nap with the egg timer at 18 minutes and occasionally have nice conversations with Jan about the radio.
3.00 am : Toine starts with his 2nd night watch (and Koen at the Barbarossa) and I go to sleep. Toine usually takes a nap with the egg timer.
6.00 am: Toine goes back to sleep and my 2nd night watch, or actually morning watch starts. The first hour I am still napping. Then the sun rises and I start reading and making bread for the day. Around 8.30 am I have a regular morning chat with Ellen who is waiting for the Barbarossa. Also during the day and sometimes during the other night watches we regularly have nice conversations about the radio with the 'neighbors'.
9:00 a.m.: The boat wakes up again!

We've noticed that having a fixed rhythm works very well; for me and Toine we keep on waiting half nights, so enough sleep and rest is essential. And the days fly by!
Below is a brief review of the days of the second half of the crossing.

Day 8
The trade wind finally started blowing from the northeast with force 3-4-5. The wind comes exactly from behind and the course with a straight line to Surinam is just barely sailable without the need to jibe. It does give a very restless sea and with those waves right from the back we occasionally roll from one gangway to the other and back again. We are not used to that anymore. The days before were so wonderfully quiet that we all need time to aclimatise. We are e-mailing with the home front and it is very nice to get reactions from the Netherlands. I can't believe that there is snow in your house now and that it's freezing at night. Now that we are over half way and the weather has started to blow (and the forecasts are that it will continue to blow) we are busy with the arrival for the first time during this trip. When will that be? The expectation now is on Boxing Day.
The girls are having a good time today with mini-deecks; Eline a dolphin and Marinthe fish Nemo. They will be sweet with them the next couple of days. We leave school for a day; the boat swings too much for that. In the Netherlands the classes already have Christmas holidays, we still have to finish the last lessons, but we are going to make it before we arrive in Suriname. We eat delicious homemade pizza. Day distance 117 miles, 0 boats seen and 0 fish caught.

Day 9
In the afternoon it is still exciting for the Barbarossa. Their autopilot doesn't work for a while, but soon it is clear what the problem is and Jan manages to make up for it. The scenario of another 8 days of steering by himself will come along, but fortunately it is not necessary. In the evening we eat delicious fried potatoes with fried frikandells and lettuce. Did Murphy come by sometimes? In the evening the mainsail of the Barbarossa tears. Luckily it is at the bottom and with reef 2 in it they can still sail well. At night the wind is so strong that reef 2 is an excellent choice of sail. In the middle of the night at 3.00 am we reach the half-way point in terms of distance. We toast to that (without alcohol)! For the first time we have to deal with dark clouds that look like a squal. From one of those clouds comes some rain during Toine and Koen's watch. And the other clouds clearly give more wind. The boat is rocking tremendously, almost causing you to get muscle ache while sleeping. When we put the genoa on the tree the next morning, the swinging becomes a bit less. Day distance 131 miles (that result may be there again!), 0 boats seen and 0 fish caught. We end every day at half past 1 with the race via the radio with the Barbarossa. Giel leads the race and also the Barbarossa has the most points as a boat. We made up prizes for the winners. The boat that loses has to make an apple pie for the boat that wins. And the individual winners can choose their own gift. So the girls slept at the Barbarossa for a night and chose a drawing of Giel and I didn't wash the dishes for a week. We also guessed which day and which time we think we are going to arrive. The winner can eat unlimited fries with beer or cola. Well, it's a very simple competition, but it provides a lot of fun and distractions every day. Like Ellen said, it's like the result of the song festival.

Day 10
The whole afternoon is fine sailing, in clover mode with the wind right from behind. The wind has settled down a little, so the waves and the rocking of the boat have become a little less. We set the clock back an hour, and now we have 3 hours difference with the Netherlands. In the afternoon suddenly a fish is hanging on the line. A big joekel! It turns out to be a wahoo of 85 cm long. A beautiful predatory fish with a pointed head and sharp teeth. We are getting quite adept at bringing it in; Toine pulls in the line, I grab it with gloves and put it on the deck. Usually I cut off the head immediately, but now we first stun him with strong alcohol so he can fall asleep quietly and so we and the girls can take a picture with him while we hold him by his tail. A beautiful animal, really kicking! It also tastes delicious; raw as a starter with wasabi (like the Japanese sashimi) and prepared in an Indian way as a main course with rice and fried pointed cabbage. And all that on a rocking boat; well, we are getting used to that too. Just after sunset we suddenly see dozens of small dolphins around our boat playing in the waves. Sometimes the five of them jump next to each other over a wave. A beautiful sight!
The night is quiet so we can sleep well during our night watches. During Toine's night watch he has a long conversation with Giel about the radio, about cars etc. In the morning during the watches of Ellen and me, suddenly a lot of dark clouds come behind us and there is some rain with some strong gusts of wind. Unfortunately the rain is still too little to take a shower or to clean the boat properly. In the gusts of wind, the boat is holding up fine; we are already sailing well reefed for these kinds of situations. As tradition has it by now, we have breakfast on Sunday morning with freshly baked brown bread and a boiled egg. Lovely! One minute before it is finished (before the race) the Barbarossa catches a tuna of 80 cm. Fantastic! That is everyone's wish and they are the first to do so! The boat is rocking like crazy again, but we are making good progress so there is a very good chance that we will arrive in the afternoon of Christmas Day. Let's hope so! Daytime distance 148 miles, 0 boats seen and 2 fish caught (we a wahoo and the Barborossa a tuna). The Valentine still stays about 25 miles behind us without really walking in, that's a pity. It turns out that the Barbarossa and the Brandaan on a reef 2 mainsail and full genoa can reach an enormous speed on this course. The Valentine has a beautiful sail; a parasailor. When the parasailor is on it's position, they keep up the speed, but there is often too little or too much wind, so that is a pity.

Day 11
Suddenly we too are lucky with the fishing, because in the afternoon there's a dorade hanging on the line. From head to tail 95 cm! It is beautiful green/yellow with blue dots. I spend at least an hour slaughtering and filleting the beast. At the end of the afternoon we do the exchange trick again with the Barbarossa (transferring the line with stuff to the other boat). We get half of their tuna and they get soy sauce, wasabi and chopsticks from us so we can both eat sashimi as an appetizer. Quite an exciting action because there is a lot more sea and wind now than the last two times. But again we did a good job! And it tastes delicious, so fresh and self-caught! As a main course I bake the tuna like a steak for a while, spiced red inside in tandoori herbs. The night is going fine, with lots of stars and some small clouds but no rain or strong wind. During the morning watch of Ellen and me another small squal't comes along with just as much wind and some rain. Still too little to shower. We make a nice speed and from now on we pay close attention to that as 6 knots or more on average means arriving in daylight on Christmas Day. So that would only be four nights now. That is a nice prospect. Daytime distance 140 miles, 1 boat (a tanker 5 miles away yesterday afternoon) and 0 fishing. The intermediate score of the race is that Giel leads with 15 points, followed by Marinthe with 13 points. Toine is at the bottom with 8 points. But Toine is in the lead for the time being with guessing the time of arrival. The Barbarossa leads with 45 points and we have 43 points.

Day 12
The afternoon flies by with a nice radio conversation with the neighbors about what reflections of travelling and coming back later. We also muse about what Suriname can bring us. We all have little idea about that. Will it feel Dutch, a bit like Africa or completely different again? Very nice to experience that later on. It's still a nice breeze, a wind force of 4-5-6 right from behind. It also gets noticeably warmer. Inside the boat it's about 30 degrees and outside in the sun it can't hold out; luckily the bimini brings the much needed shade. We are still sailing clover mode; the genoa all the way out on the starboard tree and the mainsail with reef 2 and sometimes 3 (to 'sink in' with the Barbarossa) on the port side, and we make a good speed of between 6 and 7 knots. In the evening it seems that we suddenly have no more counter current, so the seaway is a lot calmer and we swing a lot less. We also go much faster. That stays the whole day and the next morning and that is great sailing. We even reach reefed speeds between 7 and 8 knots. That is very good because it makes it more and more certain that we can arrive on Christmas Day in the afternoon with daylight. Daytime distance 152 miles, 0 boats and 0 fishing.

Day 13
This day also flies by. The girls are finishing the last school lessons so that they really have Christmas holidays. Well done! The boat sails on without much attention. The sails have been in the same position for days, only now and then we roll the mainsail in and out to adjust our speed to that of the Barbarossa. In the evening we eat potatoes, carrot and zucchini in the oven with cheese sauce and hamburgers. After dinner we suddenly hear music through the marine radio; Koen and Giel play bass yeast cataract and jamballa and sing to it. We are challenged to do something in return and that's no problem; our girls sing 'Daughters' by Marco Borsato and we sing 'Down' van de Dijk. In the meantime we are swinging in the boat. A very corny intention and what a great moment! The night is going fine, without rain or whatever. In the morning I and Marinthe hang out the fishing line early and a little later there is a huge Wahoo of 113 cm for breakfast. What a huge beast! Beautiful though. Toine slaughters him and that is quite an achievement ;)! I fillet it and then there are still kilos of beautiful filleted fish left. Daytime distance 142 miles, 1 boat (in the middle of the night at a distance of one mile from us, he deviates in front of us after Toine called him over the radio), and 1 fish (the wahoo).

Day 14
The current's going against us, so we're not going so fast anymore. But if all goes well, it only lasts one day and on the last day we have a strong current so we still have to be able to reach an average of 6 knots per hour, so we can arrive on Christmas Day in the afternoon. At the end of the afternoon it's time again for the 'change' trick with the neighbours. That wahoo is much too big for us alone, so we give half to the Barbarossa. Toine steers the boat skilfully again with the tip right behind the Barbarossa. I cross the line with the fish on it, but this time it doesn't go well all at once. First the whole mess hits the railing, bag breaks and fish falls into the water in plastic bags. Luckily we can fish it out again with the scoop net (exercise "fish overbirth!!!!). Let's try again, then tie an apple at the outer end of the line, because an apple throws easier than a bag of fish weighing a few kilos. After a few attempts, the apple lands on the Barbarossa and they can take the line with the plastictas with fish in it.
During drinks, many dolphins swim around the boat for a short time. That remains a beautiful sight. The food is tasty again; beforehand wahoo sashimi and afterwards wahoo prepared like chicken satay with rice and ketchup sauce. In the evening when I am already asleep we hear (through the radio) a homemade rap-song of the Barbarossa. Koen on guitar, Giel on jambala and Jan sings. Very nice!!!! The guards run without any problems; again it is a beautiful night with lots of stars, a small rising moon and no squal and one ship passing in front of us at 8 miles distance. However, the boat is rocking a lot so the sleep is a bit less than the previous nights. Even the whole morning the current is still against us and we roll back and forth quite a bit. Daytime distance (still) 142 miles, despite the current against, 1 boat and 1 fish (for the Barbarossa who caught a tuna this morning).

Day 15
The last 24 hours are coming up. The whole afternoon we keep rocking and blocking steam. The girls don't care about this and make beautiful Christmas decorations that are now hanging in the boat. We take turns to sleep for an hour. Due to the countercurrent we don't get along well enough. For a moment we think with homesickness of the Christmas evening tradition of our family at home ... they are now enjoying a delicious Christmas dinner prepared by Inge with 11 courses. We call them with the satellite phone and that's a lot of fun! On Christmas Eve we eat 'delicious' meatballs with canned satay sauce and rice with cabbage. In the evening we hang up the Christmas lights in the tub, eat some Christmas chocolate and listen to Christmas music. But not for too long, because at 9 p.m. I'm already asleep in bed. In the evening chat with the Valentine they seem to be quite close, they are now 8 miles behind us. That's nice because then we're about equal to Suriname. In the night it goes like a spear. Suddenly the current is with us and the whole night we spray with a speed between 7 and 8 knots through the water. Regularly on a near pipe course so we have to be careful. But this is great sailing and we are making good progress! We determine the points of the last race day and then the winners are known ..... the individual winner is Giel, followed by Marinthe and then Eline. Yesterday the Barbarossa was one point ahead, but we end up with one point extra for the Brandaan because today only Toine (good distance) and Marinthe (right number of fish) get points.