Turnagain Update 3pm July 9th, 2014
Street Justice
We left you yesterday heading south in sunny skies and smooth seas with laundry drying on the life lines and everyone relatively relaxed.
Shortly after finishing typing up the day's summary, two large storm cells to the North rolled up behind us like goons with socks full of batteries. The storm cells appeared as walls of dark storm cloud and rain radiating black squalls towards us. We had our full monster kite up which we use for light winds to get the boat screaming well beyond its design speed.
An emergency "all hands on deck" was called to get the kite down as quickly as possible. If a squall hit that kite it would surely shred it and severely impact our long-term performance and short-term morale. The crew's response to the pending emergency was stellar with everyone jumping into action and getting it stowed in under a minute. A celebratory tuna sashimi feast was held while everyone was awake but the battle we avoided was the first of many we would face that evening.
By the time we had narrowly escaped the first two storm systems the sky above had filled with thick cloud as far as the eye could see. As the sun set, our grey ceiling darkened to the rawest blackest night we have had to sail under yet. Running blind to our surroundings meant that we would not be able to see approaching storm cells and squalls. It was decided that we would go back to a more conservative sail plan to ride out the night with crew manning each sail in the event we needed an emergency release if we were hit by a surprise squall.
The night sail was our rockiest yet, with fog and heavily variable wind rolling over three meter waves from passing storms on all sides. Every few hours we would walk around a corner into a parking lot full of goons and take a hell of a beating in the dark. As they say in boxing, "It's the ones you don't see coming that hurt the most".
In addition to dodging storms, we passed through several lanes of heavy commercial shipping traffic bound for southern California. This kept the night watch busy on the radio coordinating passes with tankers and container ships, some over a mile long with only a single light to locate them in dense fog. The rain and fog kept us from spotting them at a distance and forced us to make significant deviations from our planned course to create huge allowances for error in avoiding them.
Although we could not see them, our nearest competitors on Passepartout could be heard radioing in to the same traffic we were dodging about an hour after we had passed through. It was good to hear signs from someone else in our race as we have not had any contact with other boats in a few days.
When morning came there were a lot of heavy eyes and deep sighs. Steering through the storms was exhausting and everyone took their lumps at the helm from Mother Nature. Many high fives were exchanged over coffees as day broke. The team survived their most adverse weather to date and more favorable wind and waves have made today a good day to catch up on rest.
From what we have heard, all of the competing boats seem to be chasing the same weather system that will be flowing to the South West. We look forward to bumping heads with familiar faces as we converge on a narrow bridge of wind to Maui with doldrums on both sides. The current forecast leaves few alternative course options. Our plan is to get there fast and get through it before it collapses!
Today's downwind drag race results:
Under Kite: Steve Corcoran - 15.3 knots with a silver medal to Jason Bowman at 12.6 knots
Today I took a survey of what everyone was looking forward to most upon arrival in Maui, here are the results:
Steve C. - I'm looking forward to shaving off my nasty "Magnum P.I." moustache (though, it's quite lovely in my opinion), and having a beer
Travis - an ice cold drink
Steve T. - an ice cold beer
Adam - a Gin Caesar and a beer
Ty - an ice cold pitcher of beer
Darin - two ice cold pitchers of beer
After they gave their answers it was suggested, "How about we grab a burger and go get pissed?" and everyone agreed that was also their answer.
As we continue to log over 200 miles per day, enthusiasm is high and we will continue to do our best against Mother Nature's goon squad. The water is warming up enough for Mahi Mahi, so stay tuned for round two of The Invitational.
Missing you all like crazy,
The boys on Turnagain
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