Day 4ish?

mike just caught his first fish. after talking of his prowess for days, yeah, years, he had fish on in 35 minutes! granted it was kinda small but a blue fin it was. A little blood on deck and DBR was having second thoughts.... we'll see if very very fresh sushi wins out over a little small mess on deck. mc: Yee of little faith......

our first entry in the blog got erased somehow but i will try to pick it up from here. the start was much more exciting than any start to a 2000 mile race had any right to be. boats got squeezed out of the starting line and there was some real close quarter drill going on. we came in full speed second rank with clear air and in just the planned place. thrilling. wee were still learning the 140 jib as we tacked several times out the gate then we wisely got our only allowed gear issue out of the way. we sent the second main batten to the briny deep. it seems to make little if any difference. mc: It was a start out of the text books. Flawless and as perfect as we could hope for. We instilled a little fear in our Div., we've got many more days of sailing to confirm their original impressions. So far so good. The boat and crew are performing well, achieving realistic expectations. With a little more hard work and some luck, we have a chance of achieving respectable results. One can only hope. The Bequia Boyz are making the effort, I can assure you.

our first days of getting situated went very well. everyone decides where their personal stash of gloves, glasses hats pillow, socks, PFD, extra socks, specially warm hat, nighttime gloves, etc. it sorts out over the first couple days. the excitement kept Dennis and Stephen up more than they slept for awhile but everyone is now getting the sleep they need. food has been great with cabbage rolls, lamb curry (OMG, thank you) and meatloaf. we snack a lot and breakfasts have been filling and store bought quality.

our routing issues were faced right away. a human professional said south ASAP but the high tech program suggested going over the great circle route for most of the way. we finally decided on the program for many good reasons and off we went. it was beam reach on white sails for the first two days. 48 hours after the start, up went the chute. it is still doing great duty. we are still reaching but not hard at this point. our strategy came into question as new data went into the program. in the end we are essentially on the rhumb line direct to Kaneohe. its a long story.... we have run down the two boats we could see. as you probably know we moved up the standings then dropped one place when another boat posted a days run of 12% more miles than any of the rest of the people in the fleet. we did beat the leader in miles yesterday which made us feel good. the boat that slipped into our spot took a much more southerly route. we are all after different approaches going straight to HI.

our watch schedule has been a riot to follow. in the middle of the night it is not uncommon seeing crew standing in front of the chart for five minutes then asking when they come on deck again. Stephen has redrawn the schedule so it is much more bleary eyed sailor friendly. Dennis Stephen and jack are pretty old hands at the spinnaker stuff. Jeff is showing that he is a natural. Michael took a bit to get comfortable with this boat since it behaves so much differently than his. he is now in charge and looks forward to his time on the wheel. Tom is a real wonder with little spinnaker experience and no ocean time, he has done a great job of avoiding roundups add downs. overall we have excellent drivers. the wheel hogs are Dennis and Stephen. Jeff will happily drive for hours and has done so when needed. all the crew show healthy concern for the others. this team got built beautifully in a day.

today it got hot. all the shorts came out and the heavy gear got put away. it is much more Hawaii like now. mc: We even started up the Hawaiian music and everyone is getting ready, albeit a little early for Kaneohe.

All are in good spirits and good health.

Gotta go, more later.

Jack

PS serious thanks to all who allowed us to go, supported the idea and the dream financially and emotionally. we all love you for helping.