Yes, every day is different, for wind, and clouds, and the seas. And yet a skipper will try to maintain a routine, because then he or she can sleep better and eat better, and if need be, be in a better mental and physical state to make repairs or change sails. I eat a full meal every 6 hours, and that helps me maintain a routine. My best sleeping is from 4 am – 8 am, and then I try to add extra naps during the day. A skipper never sleeps for more than 90 minutes at a time (the length of a natural biological sleep cycle).

Also there are requirements of the race for photos and videos, and of course we have our sitesALIVE requirements for biometric data reporting, answering questions, writing daily Ship’s Logs, and the weekly Essay for the classroom activity. I try to work on these in a similar way each day, and thus maintain some sort of regular schedule, even if the conditions outside are changing a lot.

– Dondi Gyöngyi Tóthné Bán’s class, Balatonboglár, Hungary