Sponsor olé!

Most of you will have seen a post in Insta or FB or LinkedIn. I am sooo happy with Slaapschepen, my main sponsor! I feel privileged and so thankful. They believe strongly in my mission, my determination and my will to cross the Atlantic once again.

The Ocean will be rough at times, or smooth, and anything else in between. Same goes for the preparation. It’s not always easy to keep going with a full time job, but there’s help, advice, thinking things over with friends, you name it. I did some pitches at places, but none was as successful as the one at Slaapschepen. We all felt it: this is gonna be good! They didn’t need long to consider helping me out. Last week we signed the sponsor contract. We are looking forward to a great cooperation the next year and a half. Check out Slaapschepen.nl, and see what this (unpronouncable in English, I know) company is all about!

In meantime…. it’s rowing and rowing. The IJsselmeer, the vast lake here in the Netherlands, is a perfect playground. Even though it is not a sea, the conditions can be very rough, the waves tricky, the wind unpredictable. I’ve been on the water several times and will continue to do so as much as I can. Too much wind is not advisable. Of course, I will encounter strong winds on the Ocean. But hey, there’s no dykes, buoys, hardly any other ships and no shallow water where I can get stuck when not able to avoid because of strong side winds.

At times I’m at anchor, inspect the hull, try to get on board with and without ladder. Try my autopilot, try feet-steering, handsteering. Sleep, cook and eat on board. Living on the boat, like life on the ocean. So yes, my breakie is muesli with milk powder, my dinner some dehydrated outdoor meal and muesli bars for lunch. I’m a big fan of the Ma Baker Giant Bar I purchased in the UK – unfortunately they don’t ship to the Netherlands. They work perfectly as a filling lunch. 400 calories in and whoop-whoop some more miles I go!

Soon the Mare Fortuna will get a new look. Slaapschepen is working on a great design for the boat. It will be nice and blue and very recognisable. A lot better than the plain white she still is. Will update soon when everything is properly wrapped!

Looking forward to all the next steps and miles!

X Renate