EOD 2 – Little Bit of Everything
July 7, 2022
Aloha!
Today started out interesting. During the night we were beating slowly, due south, near Limitless when suddenly our speed slowed way down in 8 knots of wind. We figured we must have wrapped something on the keel. Fishing gear? Plastic? Who knows? It was pitch black, so no way to see anything. Long story short, it took us about 1.5 hours, including backing down 5 times, throwing a line with knot on it over the side and dragging it around the keel 10 times, and “flossing” back and forth with the knotted line along the leading edge of the keel, like a knife of sorts before we finally felt our speed was back up to normal. No idea what it was, or which of the methods worked, but it took awhile and it wasn’t fast. We spent the rest of the night trying to catch back up to Limitless.
Sunrise has given us a whole different set of conditions. Not so much upwind, close-hauled anymore. Now we have had several varieties of reaching. Reaching with the jib on the outboard lead, reaching with the Code 0, reaching with the A3, and back to the jib. All good fun and it seemed pretty fast. The plan is to actually turn to the west tomorrow and start aiming towards Hawaii. For now, we keep heading south to get around this crazy high pressure that is so, so far south and east.
Speaking of crazy, we spent the afternoon trying to outrun a squall. This squall was tracking from west to east (wrong direction for a Hawaii race!) and we were desperate to get in front of it and stay in the sweet outflow that was giving us a good 5 knot wind speed boost, rather than cross behind it and slat around in less than 5 knots of wind. In was all hands on deck (that would be 4 hands) for an hour or so while we poured on the coals to go as fast as possible. And we made it. Bit of a wild ride, not always in the exact right direction, but no light air and no slow down.
The sun peaks out once in awhile and it is fairly warm. Shorts and a long sleeve shirt. Pretty nice for day two of Pac Cup. All good otherwise. We are doing good with getting plenty of rest and enjoying the relatively smooth and fast sailing today.
Today started out interesting. During the night we were beating slowly, due south, near Limitless when suddenly our speed slowed way down in 8 knots of wind. We figured we must have wrapped something on the keel. Fishing gear? Plastic? Who knows? It was pitch black, so no way to see anything. Long story short, it took us about 1.5 hours, including backing down 5 times, throwing a line with knot on it over the side and dragging it around the keel 10 times, and “flossing” back and forth with the knotted line along the leading edge of the keel, like a knife of sorts before we finally felt our speed was back up to normal. No idea what it was, or which of the methods worked, but it took awhile and it wasn’t fast. We spent the rest of the night trying to catch back up to Limitless.
Sunrise has given us a whole different set of conditions. Not so much upwind, close-hauled anymore. Now we have had several varieties of reaching. Reaching with the jib on the outboard lead, reaching with the Code 0, reaching with the A3, and back to the jib. All good fun and it seemed pretty fast. The plan is to actually turn to the west tomorrow and start aiming towards Hawaii. For now, we keep heading south to get around this crazy high pressure that is so, so far south and east.
Speaking of crazy, we spent the afternoon trying to outrun a squall. This squall was tracking from west to east (wrong direction for a Hawaii race!) and we were desperate to get in front of it and stay in the sweet outflow that was giving us a good 5 knot wind speed boost, rather than cross behind it and slat around in less than 5 knots of wind. In was all hands on deck (that would be 4 hands) for an hour or so while we poured on the coals to go as fast as possible. And we made it. Bit of a wild ride, not always in the exact right direction, but no light air and no slow down.
The sun peaks out once in awhile and it is fairly warm. Shorts and a long sleeve shirt. Pretty nice for day two of Pac Cup. All good otherwise. We are doing good with getting plenty of rest and enjoying the relatively smooth and fast sailing today.
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