EOD 8 – About to turnover 1,000 miles to go!
July 12, 2022
We’re somewhere out in the Pacific, approximately 1,000 miles from the closest land. That milestone has always been a little unsettling to me. In 2016, where the race was brutally exhausting, it was such a relief to see our GPS start the countdown at 1,000 miles, then 999 miles, where we felt like we were finally making progress to Hawaii. This race has been a bit different since we’ve effectively lengthened the course on our trek south for more breeze. We crossed over the theoretical halfway point in terms of time, but it’s still nice to be at the official mileage halfway point (since the race, great circle/point to point, is ~2,070 miles).
It’s been a bright, bright sunny day with super blue skies. Last night, we had lighter breeze, so really worked to keep things moving along. The moon has been very bright, backlighting the clouds, and we figured out that many of the clouds were little accelerators of wind – maybe they were pre-squall clouds or whatever, but last night we sought them out for their occasional 12-knot hurricane blasts to move us down the course. Today has been moderate breeze mostly, with temps probably around 80 degrees. Down in the boat, it’s warmer, and we find ourselves shedding clothes to try to get air movement on our skin when we try to sleep during the mid-day watches. We have no more ice, and we finished our fresh food, so we’re making do with what’s left. For our half-way party, we opened up the Dr Pepper we carried from SeaTac, along with some stroopwafel cookies. Justin has a travel sized thing of cereal that I am sure he can’t wait to get into, as well.
We’re spending our time trying to coax every bit of speed out of the boat that we can – it helps pass the time, and it feels productive. We’re also working through the riddle that CW sent us, so thanks for that :).
We have also had a very welcome visitor – I think it is a shearwater, but Justin thinks it is something else (tropicbird?). It circled the boat for a long while – I have a crazy video of it that was cut short when I had to go back to sailing the boat. Anyway, it’s so nice to see friends out here coming to say hello 🙂
It’s been a bright, bright sunny day with super blue skies. Last night, we had lighter breeze, so really worked to keep things moving along. The moon has been very bright, backlighting the clouds, and we figured out that many of the clouds were little accelerators of wind – maybe they were pre-squall clouds or whatever, but last night we sought them out for their occasional 12-knot hurricane blasts to move us down the course. Today has been moderate breeze mostly, with temps probably around 80 degrees. Down in the boat, it’s warmer, and we find ourselves shedding clothes to try to get air movement on our skin when we try to sleep during the mid-day watches. We have no more ice, and we finished our fresh food, so we’re making do with what’s left. For our half-way party, we opened up the Dr Pepper we carried from SeaTac, along with some stroopwafel cookies. Justin has a travel sized thing of cereal that I am sure he can’t wait to get into, as well.
We’re spending our time trying to coax every bit of speed out of the boat that we can – it helps pass the time, and it feels productive. We’re also working through the riddle that CW sent us, so thanks for that :).
We have also had a very welcome visitor – I think it is a shearwater, but Justin thinks it is something else (tropicbird?). It circled the boat for a long while – I have a crazy video of it that was cut short when I had to go back to sailing the boat. Anyway, it’s so nice to see friends out here coming to say hello 🙂
Sign up to receive blog updates
Leave a Reply