Alexa, Mila, and Max spent two months in Switzerland while Benno did the trip with two crew. Rolf is the boyfriend of Benno's sister. He had never sailed before but was the perfect handyman aboard. Shelly replied to a crew wanted add at the Ocean Sailing Academy. She was looking for experience - and got plenty.
	On the way to St. Helena, we had stronger winds than expected. For several days, it was blowing with 30 knots and more. The sea was often unsettled, with short waves 12-20 feet high. At least, we made good speed. In general, we made 140-150 good per day (not counting the distance lost by tacking before the wind). Best 24 hour run was 170 miles.
	The first three days we were all fighting against seasickness. Rolf struggled most but even in the worst conditions he stood his watches like a man.
	Our Windpilot self-steering dealt very well with wind and waves as long as we kept the boat reasonably balanced. Sometimes, we got addicted to speed, though. When the speedo stayed above 8 knots, Anahita reacted quite sensitively to the swell and developped strong weather helm. In these situations we had to dramatically intervene in the self-steering's work.
	We had expected lots of sunshine and got plenty of grey sky and rain. Popular believe says that the conditions greatly improve north of 25°S but that as well is a myth. During our approach to St. Helena, we still wore foul weather gear.