Pacific Cup Day 3 – Ups and Downs

Yesterday was so much better. We clicked off 180 miles in 24 hours and 103 in the first 12 hours. That’s plenty good. The day was completely uneventful too. We started out blasting south with the gennaker in 15-20 knots. Max speed 11.70 knots. Then in the early afternoon we got headed and switched the #2 genoa to be able to head back up to our waypoint. We were able to hold mostly 7-9 knots, with occasional light spots. Our entertainment was seeing Thirsty cross our stern in the afternoon heading more south with the spinnaker and staysail up trying really hard to head as high as possible, sometimes they weren’t successful and the chute spent some time flogging away. I’m pretty sure their 8am position report is wrong they are likely at 34-11, not 35-11 as they are clearly south of us now.

From the position reports it seems like we had a decent day, even gaining a little on California Condor. This morning we took the opportunity in smooth water to go up the mast and rerun the spinnaker halyard that broke two nights ago. That went well and is one less thing to worry about. It broke at the splice where it wraps around the shackle. In retrospect that was a visual weak spot and we should have replaced it already. Lesson learned. The other spin halyard seems to be in good shape.

We’ve been sleeping and eating really well. It wasn’t as cold last night, but I still wore 3 pairs of pants, and 4 shirts/jackets, plus a winter hat that I think Bob & Cher gave us for Christmas 2 or 3 years ago. It is perfect. Wool on the outside and fleece on the inside with big ear flaps. So nice. Today it is much warmer. Shorts and long sleever.

Oh and as I’m writing this we just drifted up to and picked up a real glass Japanese fishing ball. Big score and a nice bright spot to midday because we are completely and fully parked. I don’t think we’ve seen boat speed above 0.00 for an hour and there is not a ripple on the ocean as far as the eye can see in any direction. I suppose that is why we caught up to California Condor. They were likely already struggling to cross the ridge. It seems most boats are trying to get south, so while we are one of the most southerly from the Tuesday starters it doesn’t seem like we are out on a flyer. I suspect the northern boats would like to get south too, but they haven’t had much choice as they were further north when the wind finally filled from the northwest 1.5 days ago. From the weather files it looks like another 1-2 days of light stuff though. Light as in 5 knots is okay. Light as in 0 sucks.

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