Day 5: The Stalking

The crew today was pleased to see the progress and climb up to second place. (The second day in a row with the longest day's run! Great job to the hard workers who sweated it out putting on a fresh bottom before the race: Dennis, Jack, Mark and Shana.) The strategy so far has paid off, now comes the 5 day stalking. The boats are all sort of lined up in a slot of weather, it's expensive to adjust your lane, so from now until Tuesday, we have to focus on boat speed and the little things. How little? The entire gains of yesterday were due to sailing 0.16kts faster than our competitors - and our position assumes that we continue to do that! For the first time, we can see another sailboat in the race. It is 'Lightspeed' (the fleet leader), and she is dead ahead just on the horizon. we can see the color on her sails and we hunt.

The wind angles finally opened up enough to launch the 0.75oz full size kite. In honor of the upcoming America's Cup, this spinnaker's name shall be, "Spirit of 83'" - for she is a dragon slayer! She is a nice crispy kite, and seems to be doing us well.

We got our first subtropical rain squall thingy. Light winds, but we progressed along at just over 7kts though a world reduced in size to a mere 400yards by an opaque drizzle. There was only us for a time. as we sailed out, it was glorious sunlight and water as far as can be seen. It would remind some of the infinite, but certainly how far we've gone, and how far we have to go. (In the next few hours, we will have completed 25% of the miles, but most of the race is yet to come)

Across the fleet different boats face different challenges. Many of the boats have had failures of a most diabolical type. The head. for them, buckets are their friends. We on Bequia have dual redundant system. One head forward, one head midships. While some would say this solution is heavy, others would point around the fleet with a cringed face and plugged nose. This kind of luxury is what Bequia is known for, that and enough wine to go around. The boats continue to work well, power, coms, navigation, software, stove, refrigeration, heads(2), and water systems are all nominal. The sails and lines are also still 100%.

All is well here, we are making dinner (pot roast), a glass of wine, and other yummy items. we appear to be closing range on Lightspeed and now it's time for a nap!

-Bequia Crew
33-19.5' N x 132-13.95'W
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At 7/14/2012 12:11 AM (utc) our position was 38°06.27'N 122°16.02'W

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