The last day of the race was really the best sailing that we had. Reports of record swell were made from the remnants of Hurricane Darby. After a midnight welcome party we were tied up on the end of the dock with the big boys. Cazan, a DK 46 and Zvi, a RP 55 are seen here with Mako on the outside.
Mako had her own lei and signage. Our solar did a great job on the crossing. We used a mobile panel as well as the large one you see here.
One of many sunsets, but not for all the crew. We all had four hour shifts so some folks got the sunrise and sunset and others did not. With the three hour time change if felt like we had a bit of variation in our shifts on deck.
That's the moon! We were always very excited to see the moon. We struggled on the nights with no moon and no stars. Steering by instruments only was really challenging in a confused sea state.
One one of our final days Bill harvested some rain off the mainsail. We all took turns dipping paper towels into this glorious fresh water for a much needed wipe down. We didn't have much rain on the trip. Lots of little sprinkles but only a few brief downpours.
This was early on in the race because there was little to no sitting and driving in the latter part of the race. When the wind and sea state was light sitting is nice. The lifejackets were always on when we were on deck and we always stayed clipped in to the jacklines (safety lines keeping you on the boat). It was great safety protocols but the life jackets were VERY heavy by the end of the trip!
These were the conditions that we were waiting for. We would be flying the A2 spinnaker but it exploded on day seven. This sail is an A3 made for reaching so we had to sail a bit hotter angles when using it. Some days that was great and other we were really missing the A2. The symmetric spinnakers were much more unstable in the confused sea state.
We spent a lot of the race at this speed, around 9 to 11 knots through the water. The white box is our 6-person life raft.
Bill wiggling the big blue wheel!
Delirium setting in....
Sailing towards a rainbow blob. We saw many awesome rainbows and even a moon bow that did not get captured on film. It was a white rainbow reflecting the moon!
Many folks ask about the cash prizes for these types of races... Well let's just say that you can't put a price on this little plaque.
Opmerkingen