Pacific Cup Day 9 – Life on Board and Midnight Company

We are in the tradewinds for sure – lots of cumulus, and perhaps more telling, the cabin smells like wet clothes and people needing showers, mixed in with warm humidity.

Last night, we saw our first racing sailboat – saw their port running lights and they seemed to be a pretty big boat, so I tried hailing them on the VHF to make sure they saw us, then resorted to shining our spotlight on our sails. Being run down wasn’t of interest to us, and we were screaming along in 12+ knots of boat speed down waves, so weren’t wanting to stop or slow ourselves. Turns out we were going approximately the same speed as us on a nearly parallel course and that the boat was a Beneteau 45F5 – Ohana – in one of the fully crewed race divisions that started the same day as us. They hailed us back on VHF, and told me that they had been dealing with a round-up, that some of their chutes were blown, and that their SSB was not functioning. I think there will be many stories to hear when we get to KYC.

Life on board has been fine – we miss the space and dryness of Shearwater, as well as easy to use head accommodations. Our fancy “Porta Potti 735” appears to be measured in cc’s, so it gets old dumping it. Its antiskid lacks much antiskidness, so it’s also been a mean game to strip out of foulies and make the goal as the boat flies around. Our Jetboil with gimbal is amazing, and the canvas pockets I sewed to keep small crap together have worked pretty well – the moisture below is causing some adherence issues as the days wear on.

We’ve valiantly tried to save 100’s of flying fishlings that land on decks. I am sure we will discover their little bodies in the months to come. They are beautiful, and it’s something to see as 20-30 at a time fly out of waves. We’ve seen albatross (I think Laysan) and shearwaters – no dolphins or whales since the bay. No Pacific giant sunfish yet, but we’ve almost 400 miles to go so maybe I’ll get lucky.

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