Day 6: Long Night

All
Yesterday was a great beautiful day, glorious skies and an ocean blue that pierces the soul and fills one with wonder.

The Sunset was incredibly dramatic as well. A dark layer in front, puffy clouds behind, and the sun setting in fiery red through a peep hole in the cloud bank. That transitioned into a orange crescent moonset and a most incredible night sky. The Milky way stretching across the sky and basking the ocean in it's starry light revealing just enough of its flowing swells and ever moving face.

We saw a satellite flare, a few shooting stars, and a few planets we think, but didn't bring the decoder ring...

After that, the night turned into a total ruckus. We did 100nm in the first 12 hours and knew we needed a 200nm day to really put the pressure on. Around 2am this morning, the boat speed went from hanging in the 9-11 range and plopped solidly at 6.7kts. Investigation under the boat didn't show anything, but something was down there. In the 4-7ft seas and 20-24kts of wind, 'backing down' was the only real option. The crew reorganized, doused the kite, and tacked around, backwinded the main on the port afterguy, and backed, stern first toward HI for a few boat lengths - clearing whatever we had caught on the boat. We then started putting everything back in place and off we went. That took about an hour and cost between 4 and 7 miles. While we are still in third, the lead two boats made small gains, and the 4th place boat (same rating) is only 10nm behind. Due to timing, several crew worked 20hr days yesterday to keep the boat going fast. It is certain the crew will sleep through their off watches today.

Evidence of the devastation and magnitude of the tsunami in Japan continues to float by - a sandal and a Japanese license plate are two of the notable ones in the last day. Very Humbling.

Later in the night we could look over our shoulders and see a huge north to south blackness that extinguished stars as if it were eating them one by one. The horizon disappeared in the towering dark. A look back from the cabin made it look like Shana was racing away from "The Nothing" in "The Never Ending Story." The race continued through several drivers until The Nothing finally conceded defeat and passed to the south.

The race continues, we continue to make adjustments trying to improve boatspeed and some very challenging decisions are ahead in the next few days.

Now off to eat breakfast which is a wonderful looking stack of omelet with sausage and cantaloupe - Thanks Mark!

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

"Swazik" - a Swan 69, (E div) passed to the North today, great pictures of her beneath huge clouds.

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