EOD 12 – Adrenaline
July 17, 2022
We are a bit tired. The forecast tonight looks for building breeze to 25 knots, so we decided to take down the A3 that essentially had us holding the reins for dear life these past 3 days. We have the Code Zero up, and It.Is.Awesome. We may not lose a finger after all!
In all seriousness, we did plan to switch down, given the breeze and that we expect to be racing until the wee hours of the morning. We’ve had a reef in the main and were so happy that it was easy peasy to pull down going downwind. The sea state has been steadily growing, and the surfcoaster we’ve been riding has been a lot of (tiring) fun. I think I remember seeing 16 or 17 knots on one of the rides, but it wouldn’t surprise me if we later saw much higher speeds. The wipeouts are less fun than the surfing.
Justin took a video yesterday where we were both in the cockpit, doing our hand-off maneuver at the helm. He was narrating it and said, “here we are on our romantic cruise to Hawaii.” We both cracked up because there are so many adjectives we’d use today to describe the trip, and they’re likely not to be the same as the ones we use tomorrow, after we (hopefully) finish in early morning. It’s how it is though – it’s so dynamic out here that your moods often follow the seastate, the weather, the building breeze as night draws…there’s definitely good, but there is definitely some unsettled feelings that you feel.
Speaking of dark nights, the nearly full moon has been amazing, but so, so missed in early night because it has been inky black. We’ve catapaulted ourselves the last few nights through the dark waiting for that moon to help us see the waves and the kite. I suspect we’re better sailors for the experience to have to feel everything though.
We have 132 miles to go. At 100 miles, we have to contact the race organizers, etc., so it’s starting to feel real!
In all seriousness, we did plan to switch down, given the breeze and that we expect to be racing until the wee hours of the morning. We’ve had a reef in the main and were so happy that it was easy peasy to pull down going downwind. The sea state has been steadily growing, and the surfcoaster we’ve been riding has been a lot of (tiring) fun. I think I remember seeing 16 or 17 knots on one of the rides, but it wouldn’t surprise me if we later saw much higher speeds. The wipeouts are less fun than the surfing.
Justin took a video yesterday where we were both in the cockpit, doing our hand-off maneuver at the helm. He was narrating it and said, “here we are on our romantic cruise to Hawaii.” We both cracked up because there are so many adjectives we’d use today to describe the trip, and they’re likely not to be the same as the ones we use tomorrow, after we (hopefully) finish in early morning. It’s how it is though – it’s so dynamic out here that your moods often follow the seastate, the weather, the building breeze as night draws…there’s definitely good, but there is definitely some unsettled feelings that you feel.
Speaking of dark nights, the nearly full moon has been amazing, but so, so missed in early night because it has been inky black. We’ve catapaulted ourselves the last few nights through the dark waiting for that moon to help us see the waves and the kite. I suspect we’re better sailors for the experience to have to feel everything though.
We have 132 miles to go. At 100 miles, we have to contact the race organizers, etc., so it’s starting to feel real!
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