Isbjörn and crew made landfall yesterday morning, sighting land off Anegada and Paul Exner and crew coaxed the most out of the boat in the light airs of the past few days.

"Paul is the boat whisperer," joked Rik & Walter, two of Isbjörn's crew members. "Every time we'd think we had her dialed in, and Paul would pop his head up and start pulling the sheets and Isbjörn would speed up by half a knot! It was incredible!"

At the moment, aside from the Gunboat 60 'Moonwave', who sailed the entire route without motoring at all, Isbjörn has the fewest engine hours of the fleet, recording only 12 for the duration of the 8-day and some-odd hour passage. They covered a total of 1,347 nautical miles at an average pace of just over 7 knots, averaging a fantastic 168-nautical miles per day. It remains to be seen where they end up in the rankings when the handicaps shake out, but they ought to fare pretty well.

"It was a fantastic trip!" echoed Walter & Rik. "Paul is an incredible sailor, I learned a ton," added our other crew member Tom. And Mia's sister Lisa was along as the 4th, rounding out the crew with Paul and my Dad at the helm.

"I thought after the first day I'd have to tell you guys, 'sorry, I can't do this ocean sailing anymore,' I was so seasick!" Lisa said. "But then after a few days I got used to it and just LOVED it! It felt like being on another planet, it was super!"

I'll have more details of Isbjörn's passage, including photos from the crew, so stay tuned.