=All,
The crew got a great start with Ashley and Carly cheering us on from the deck of the St. Francis. Also, Stephen and Andy sailed down to Richmond on Tutto Bene Monday and out to the start line with us on Tuesday. It was nice to see her and have good friends and family there as we started this adventure. We moved quickly out of the bay escorted for a while by a dolphin. It is quite rare to see a dolphin in the bay - surely a good sign overall.
Sunset was classic, no clouds perfect gradation from pink to the deepest violet. Very nice view.
Soon after the gate, wind speed dropped. At the time I'm writing this (0400) we have cleared the Farallon Islands. We were becalmed for a short while, the rest has been just moving along at 0.5 - 3 kts. Which maybe the world knows just as well as we do with the new tracking devices. Yes, that track looks pretty funny but you will go to great extremes to find wind during a race. Luckily the wave state has been 0 or 1 (gentle rollers) so, we aren't slapping around too much. We actually set the 0.5oz bedsheet, have jibed twice, and are starting to get some momentum (we hope). As the night went on it got more frustrating as we would get a puff off our left shoulder and then on the right side of your face and then nothing....then it would start over with a different pattern. When you don't know where the competition is, you try everything you can think of to find something to push the boat.
We'll see where we are in the morning, 2-3 boats got a big jump, others took very different routes, we will have to work hard to catch them anytime soon. Again, though, you have better situational awareness than we do! (the link to the right of this blog takes you to the "yellow brick" plugin and you can select us, or our whole fleet,updates every 15 min(ish)) We only get position reports once a day on the other boats. The rest of the time we are guessing.
'The ocean is a desert with it's life underground and the perfect disguise above' : we have seen and heard large numbers of dolphins, whales, whale spouts, sea lions and birds almost continuously.
The bird calls are near and far add sound, sometimes like babies or cats. The eating must be good out here for them! One whale was within 50 yards of the boat - they are really huge. Other dolphins and sea lions have swum up behind us and we can hear them breath,close aboard, but can't see them. Erie, and cool!
We are all settling into the watch scheme and doing well. Dinner for us was grilled chicken. Sleeping has been easy, aided by various meds preventing mal-de-mare. Spirits are high despite the VERY slow start. Perhaps we can make it out to the high tomorrow - a full weather analysis will be downloaded shortly. Today is Mark's birthday! One more birthday in the ocean on Bequia.
This morning at 0800 we found out there was a hitchhiking chunk of kelp snagged on the rudder. Dennis thought of looking using a camera held underwater behind the boat.
Shawna handled those undersea duties. BTW, the water is 50+ degrees cold. Then Mark took off his shirt and grabbed the boathook. He poked around getting some of it off. Finally, Travis put on the goggles and stuck his head under so he could see it directly. Off it came. Film at 11 ..... days from now. Multiple avenues were explored before a diving mask was procured and we leaned over the transom backward and fished the kelp off with a boat hook. This was a great thing since the only other option was a very chilly morning saltwater swim!
The roll call reveals that our night of frustrations were shared by the whole fleet. Our "day run" of 38 miles seems short compared to our 150-200 mile runs later in the race. On the other hand, in a race, everything is relative. We are excited when the wind speed hits 5kts true. the whoops and hollers that just happened at 1100 hours were the first 5kts wind we've had in a long time.
From the crew, we wanted to say "thank you" to all those who have helped make this happen. It has been a bequitiful day.
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