Finally a spinnaker run. Carried the big asymmetrical kite all night long boat was really moving. We put a pretty good dent in the miles left to go, knocked out a 200+ mile day. At daybreak when you could see everything, it probably wasn’t the smartest move, to run the big kite all night. I saw some 25kt winds, and Marvin saw 27 as dark clouds passed in the night. This morning when a 26kt breeze blew through, I looked up to see the unstayed top of the mast bend by what seemed to be a foot or more. DOH, that’s enough of that, we need that mast to hoist any of the available sails, so we down sized to the symmetrical spinnaker that runs at the fractional (3/4 of the mast, instead of the very top) point where there are stays to support the mast. Kept pretty much the same speed and was more forgiving in the rolling seas that were building.

Bacon and Eggs for breakfast after the spinnaker change.

Awesome run, making about 10 miles and hour most of the day. Little rain storm to wash off the boat, no other boats in sight all day.

Pasta with meat sauce, basically goulash with what ever looked like it would go. The quantity that I cooked, I thought for sure there would be leftovers, guess the crew was hungry even though no one really had a preference for dinner, double helpings were had by all.

Even Mr. Dorado decided to stop by for dinner, as I’m plating up the grub, the fishing line goes off. Pause, turn off stove, attend line, bring fish aboard, resume dinner. This time I learned how to filet the fish, our freezer is stocked with lots of Dorado, guess we’ll have to have some for breakfast, or at least for dinner tomorrow.

Woke up for a little early for my shift, as the boat was zoomin through the water. As I’m walking up, AIS collision alert goes off, I have it set on 10 range so any boat with in 10 miles goes to alert. No big deal, its 10 miles crossing in front of us. We are doing 14kt of boat speed in almost 30 knots of wind. Way over the night time rules that were setup before dark. So its time to take down the small symmetrical spinnaker, down it comes, nothing too difficult but the tack line goes through the block and is running under the boat, Marvin quickly pulls that in, but now the tack line is no longer on the starboard of the boat, we’ll have to fix that in the morning. Anyone know how to push a noodle through a 50 foot straw? Thats where the take line goes.

Running under jib alone, we are still making some 8kt times, but also the wind is dying back down, if we had the tack line, might consider putting the small spinnaker backup.

Crew is dreaming of Caribbean sun, well we already had that today, nice and hot in the sun, cool in the shade. Also enjoying knocking off miles as this is what the winds were supposed to be like for the whole trip, not just the very end.

Course over ground: 258 Speed over ground: 9.1kn Total miles through water: 719 Miles to destination: 988 kn (as a crow).