[DAY 39] Family bonding

The conditions were pretty similar to those of yesterday; strong opposite wind and waves. Paul, my nephew, was in the kayak. It had been awhile since he last spent time on the RHIB or kayak to pace me.
The both of us were alone on that vast ocean, or at least it felt that way at times since Seeker was very far behind us. We could see the tip of the mast and the sails but they couldn’t see us. Paul had to update them with our location throughout the day, staying in communication with them with the VHF radio was a must.

From the beginning of the day, Paul was very focused on keeping me at the right distance from the kayak, maintaining the right speed and making my feeding breaks as efficient as possible. I get cold very fast every time I stop swimming.

He did an excellent job and made my swim so much easier. We did not talk a lot, we just kept it to the essentials. When he was paddling, I was swimming and reliving the moments we had together back in France. He probably does not remember them because he was an infant then, I babysat him on Monday afternoons. That happened right before I came to the US. After that,, there were other moments we spent time together when I came back to France to visit, but nothing like what happened in the past 2 years since Paul has been working with me on The Swim. What a pleasure to have had the opportunity to spend time with my nephew and witness his dedication and how hard he had applied himself to see this dream of mine come to a realization.

Today he was the same dedicated person and kept on paddling for the entire day, thank you, Paul!

Ben