Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Feet first

Last night was the type of night you sleep feet forward in the bunk. Because one minute you are going 15+kts, and the next second you are going close to 0.

We put up the 1.5 oz (heavier, stronger spinnaker) in the evening, and went on a wild ride I won't soon forget. No one slept. Drivers could drive for about 30 minutes tops. We had too many roundups to count, and a couple of near round downs. Waves were big and steep, there were no stars, and it was windy windy windy.

Inside the boat it sounded like you were inside a giant piece of machinery. Too loud to have a conversation without shouting. First you would hear the breaking wave sound starting near the bow and traveling aft as the boat took off surfing, then you would start to hear a roar and a humming sound, like someone revving up an engine. And all this taking place at exactly half way between SF and Hawaii, 1000+ miles from land.

It's still windy as hell right now, so I need to take any opportunity I can to lay down in my bunk. Fully clothed in foulies and boots, ready to run up on deck if things continue to pickup. We are doing well though, 202 mile run yesterday, despite dropping down to a poled out #3 at 5AM...we were still doing 10+ kts with that rig.

We passed halfway, did I mention that? Pretty awesome, although if the wind doesn't drop soon we won't be opening any halfway boxes today.

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