CAPTAINS BLOG

CAPTAINS BLOG SEA DATE 15 JULY 2007

POSITION: 24'41N, 126'49W

ok, sorry to be so late on today's blog, its been busy. i am going to try and tell you of the events of yesterday as simple and as quick as possible, then i can go to sleep. here we go. it started like any other day, a line had formed at the computer to check the mail and to send out the blog, some of us were in the cockpit enjoying our coffee and cereal. Caroline and Christin had got the energy up to take a shower on deck, while Nancy and i were having a competition to see who could get the boat going the fastest, i was holding strong at 8.3 knots. once Nancy took the wheel the wind and seas had picked up a little, i had just unclipped my safety harness and was in the process of saying "im going down to get a heavier spinnaker" when Nancy called out "8.7 knots" and then wham!!!!! the spinnaker blew out, it ran from the tape to the top and then hung in the air like a ghost. by this time i was on the fore deck pretty well tangled up in my safety gear, my mom was right behind me, just as the sail was starting to fall into the water we were in a position to drag it on deck, meanwhile Nancy was still on the helm, Christin was getting me sail ties and assisting in pulling the sail out of the water, Bill was on the halyard trying to get down what ever was left of the sail, and Caroline was working the sheets. we got it all under control pretty quickly. Nancy did a great job driving. it is not easy to steer in that kind of situation.
i left Bill and my Mom on deck finishing up, while i went down below to get another, heaver 1.5 oz spinnaker. Christin made sure the lines were run right, and up she went, the whole ordeal was over in about 20 min. after that we had a good hard long look at the weather maps, and this program were using, and i came to the hard decision to jibe, and go further south, for reasons that have to do with the wind direction and speed later in the race. so once again we all piled on deck. Bill was on the fore deck and i was on the wheel, that's all i remember as far as positions go, but it went smooth. on that tack the boat was not to settled, but sure was going fast. Nancy was back on the wheel, Christin was her watch mate. the rest of us were trying to get a nap in before dinner. i had just fallen asleep when we all heard Nancy say "OH NO!!!!" i was out of my bunk and into my safety gear before i was even awake, my Mom was already on deck, we did a quick assessment and realized the guide broke at the shackle on the port side, we went up to the fore deck, Donna grabbed the spin sheet, Caroline slaked it off, Christin drooped the pole down, just in time, it was about to bust through the spinnaker slammed it in to the jaw of the pole, Christin brought the pole back and up, while Caroline trimmed, the whole event was done and under control in less the 15 seconds. Bill and Donna went down below and jury rigged some doughnuts for the two guides.
after all of that we had a very nice dinner of shrimp scampi over pasta, with fresh broccoli and corn. the evening seemed pretty hairy due to the new tack and the wind and seas building a little, we are having to focus more on our driving, in order to keep the spinnaker from oscillating too much, therefore nobody got very much sleep last night. we were all very grouchy this morning. Caroline set today's speed record at 9.5 knots. we tacked back over this morning, i was on the for deck, Caroline was on the wheel, and the rest were on the sheets, we all feel a little better now that our ETA has gone from 20 days to 8. i have to go now, i would rather be looking at the backs of my eye lids then this computer screen. have a nice day everyone.

CAPTAIN Lindsey girl