We had been flying our large spinnaker A-kite which is bigger than most.  It goes from the very top of the mast to past the deck and some times almost to the water. We had to take her down today because a squall came through with too much wind.  Matt happened to look up at the mast and noticed the top ¼ of it was bending with the pull of the spinnaker so down she came!  We put up the smaller kite which is super pretty, but does not provide as much speed.  Let me clarify, when I say not as much speed, we were averaging 30 miles per shift and that has done down to 25 miles per shift – still great!

Since it was another relatively beautiful day with no pounding and decent seas, I decided to tackle the Tupperware cabinet.  I know you are thinking “what’s the big deal”.  Let me tell you what a pain in the butt it was!  There were 3 shelves in a double cabinet full of a mix match of round, oblong, square, rectangle, and tubes Tupperware.  Plus all the lids are mixed up.  So first I organized by type, then tried to figure out what fit inside where most conveniently and then tried to find the mated lid.  Once I determined what pieces we wanted to keep (based on what could be stored easily inside another piece), I matched it to a lid and marked the container with the color of the lid.  We were able to discard over 30+ pieces of Tupperware that was either old, tired, odd shaped or cracked.  I cleaned each piece, cleaned the cupboard, inventoried everything and put it back. All I can say is √, √!

Matt caught a huge Mahi Mahi about 3’-4’ long and about 30lbs.   It was beautiful and huge.  After they brought it on board, there was a discussion about how much 150 proof should be given to the fish (to stun/numb and eventually kill him).  I liked the fact of numbing the fish as much as possible so it does not suffer (keep in mind I have a 100 gallon salt water tank at home and have had a fish tank in my life for over 20 years).  A Mahi Mahi comes out of the water a gorgeous blue and green luminescent color and the more alcohol you give them makes them turn a boring yellow.  So, some say to only give them enough to numb them and not change their color – I say, change their color and give it a rest!  Matt took the liberty to gut and clean this fish and did it “with the hands of a surgeon” according to the others. I of course did not watch.

Our shifts are all messed up because we have crossed over a time zone or two.  So my 4p-7p shift which used to fall around dinner and dark is now in the late afternoon – kind of funny.  We decided to keep the shifts as they are since we are used to the routine and who really cares what time it is when you still have 1100 miles to go J

Spinnaker. Thats all I can say, up at first light, was still light winds, 12-14 kts, exchanged all the normal canvas for one spinnaker. So we put away the main sail, rolled up the jib, and deployed an asymetrical spinnaker. It is huge.

We have a 70 foot mast, and the A-kite goes all the way to the top and can touch the water if it wasn’t full of air. The length of the bottom of the triangle is longer than the length of the boat. With the almost following seas we are rocking and rolling right along, we have covered 174 miles since yesterdays update. With wind gusts into the low 20s we have seen boat speed of up to 14kts and pretty much on course.

Cereal for breakfast while the spinnaker was getting used to its new spot pulling the boat forward.

We tried to use the SSB to call one of Captain Ron’s buddies but were not successful. Could hear some auto part dealers from Oklahoma swapping car parts tho. I’m going to have to get a HAM license to understand all the features of the SSB.

Sandwich for lunch snack on a nice sunny after noon. Shorts were attire all day, little sun burn.

I took my day watch on the lido deck, took one of the remote auto pilots to the foredeck and chilled in the shadow of the spinnaker on the nets while on watch. The kaos of the stern of the boat sounds rushing through the water are missing when on the front of the boat on a run. At 9 kts of boat speed, I think we could surf the double up wake that the hulls make behind the boat, just like on Lake Austin, except turning around to get a fallen surfer would take quite some time.

Pork chops, garlic gouda mashed potatoes and a salad Missy would be almost proud of for dinner. Would have made the required 7 elements to the salad, but the cilantro had seen better days.

Christine mentioned that it would be nice to see land again, but then laughed as she said I guess that is still several days away.

The following seas and wind from behind are giving us a quick run, and the motion is like the Ab Chair on TV. A little swing to the left, swing to the right as the quartering waves catch and pass us and the wind pulls us back on course.

I slept all the way till my 1am shift as I guess I was tired, getting up early to set the spinnaker, and Christine woke me to jibe the sails during her shift last night. So she was tired today as well. The crew is still in good spirits especially since we have found some favorable winds.

Course over ground: 276 Speed over ground: 8.7kn Total miles through water: 478 Miles to destination: 1189 kn (as a crow).

Oh my goodness, we had a great day.  We finally got the trade winds, through up the spinnaker and experienced the type of day that everyone told us about.  This is how the crossing is supposed to be, this is sailing!  My spirits have lifted just because the winds shifted.  There was no engine noise, no generator, water maker or washer machine – just the wind in our sails and the sea under our boat – perfect.  To top it off there was a gorgeous rainbow off the port side of the boat at the horizon – it’s like Mother Nature is telling us to have a great day.  We averaged about 20+ knots of wind, 10-12 knots of boat speed and great VMG.  We averaged about 30 miles per shift and hit a 200+ mile day.  Not many boats or sailors can say that they sailed a 200 mile day and we did it – thank God!

After 14 days of not being on my crack berry, phone or computer I finally decided to try to send an email to my family and friends as I was certain they wanted to hear from me.  During my shift, when the boat was floating across the waters, I climbed onto the noisy navigation chair and tried to type.  First it was weird trying to remember where the keys were on the key board, and then I had to adjust my stance to accommodate the shifting of the boat as that shifts the keyboard.  Once I got into a rhythm it flowed and it felt amazing. It was good to share my thoughts and feelings, but probably not so good to be as honest as I was for the first communication.   After that I got productive online as there were a lot of things that I needed to do too: cancel cookie baking day, extend the day care for our home and fish care, alert my work of our delay and make sure some tasks were completed, and reschedule all of our flights.  Once I got that all done I went back to my shift to enjoy the spinnaker sail.  It is part of my personality; I like the check list and today was a good day to √ things off the to-do list!