Today must be Thursday

Because my watch and the GPS say it is...

Others are beginning to notice a certain ripeness to the boat - because they finally bathed!
I won't name names, but I fear there's a few who haven't yet.

We're sailing along in great trades of 18-20, and 10-11 knot average speeds. (1300 PDT) Day high on the speedo so far was 16.7! (tying last nights record)

Beautiful, sunny skies with light puffy clouds and good wind. This is why you do this race.

We encountered quite a few squalls last night. Due to the timing of my watch, I've yet to see the moon. Between the squalls and the lack of moon or stars on the horizon, night driving has been challenging. (with great swings of wind direction, velocity and swell coming from two directions!) At times you really lose perspective and feel that you're hurtling through space with only the digital compass readout to guide you. You know you need to sail, say, 270 degrees, but no matter how much you turn to the right, you just can't find it!

The squalls bring cool, misty rain and some good wind on the front side! We had more than a few wild rides last night.

I've heard that the Transpac/FIS tracker system has essentially crapped out. I've been a bit reluctant to post our position to the blog, because it's quite possible that our competitors would have access to that information (legally) if I do.

We're occasionally puzzled by our instruments. First, there's the issue of them reporting current in the middle of the ocean - as much as 1.25 knots, though now showing .44 to 241. I suspect that the paddle wheel that logs speed has come out of calibration (we calibrated it last week before we left), enhanced by speed and mileage... Or, maybe the rotation of the Earth in orbit has changed while we've been out here.

Our displays in the cockpit (known as "FFDs") kept shutting down last night at the worst possible time. (it's nice to know the wind direction and angle to the boat, in front of a squal when the wind seems to be blowing at least 22. Our performance navigation software seems to be the culprit, and caused the instruments to reset while trying to display "external" numbers.

2 days ago, our onboard computer kept crapping out. We eventually isolated to the inverter. We got it out of our electronics compartment (it was white hot!), took it apart, and lubricated its fan.. Now, we leave it out on the chart table with a fan pointed at it. (its fan has died again) Matt has his monkey, Joe has his octopus and I have the inverter and the B&G instruments. I hope my pets outlive theirs. I think Matt's monkey may have died today.

I know there are at least 2 people who will appreciate this minutae. Hopefully the rest can skim through it!

So, about our position and the current "standings." We're still pretty pleased with where we're at. Yes, we're concerned that the guys below us have some "leverage" on us (Reinrag in particular), but we bet that winds would fill in on our course, and they have. Further, we think we're enjoying some of this "fill" before them. Again, we're trying to maximize our speed, while minimizing our distance. We made some decisions contrary to the forecasts due to our observations and expectations and Jay's intuition and experience. (this is Jay's 14th Transpac, and that's not counting Pac Cups!) Our competitors appear to be following their automated routing religiously. So, we still think we might have it right. Either way, we're not about to consolidate at this point. We'll find out over the next 3-4 days, won't we?

Aloha to all,

Barry

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