The last 240 brought to you by caffeine pills and gatorade

Day 15 - Turnagain by a Nose?

Sailing doesn't get any better than this. As we enter the last 24 hours of the race we are a little over 200 miles from the finish line.

Today the team screamed forward and shattered its previous record by logging 220 miles today. We have clear sunny skies, steady wind, and serious competition keeping us on our toes. After fifteen days and well over 3000 miles under our belt, all that is left is a drag-race to the finish line that will come down to boats crossing within minutes of each other. <queue up Kenny Loggins - Highway to the Danger Zone>

The crew of Turnagain is on red-alert for this last push as we watch the odometer count down to zero. We are keeping our biggest flying sails up around the clock to keep the boat moving in the double digits and the crew is on a strict diet of caffeine pills and Gatorade.

Last night we powered through another matrix of warm rain storms that forced us to steer back and forth violently as we tried to maintain a frantic pace under heavy clouds. Everything went really well aside from getting knocked around a bit and soaked, so, not much to report there.

If you read yesterday's blog, it sounded like we put our rig through its paces, however some of our competitors have experienced more significant damage. According to last night's fleet report:

" Passepartout lost a second kite as well as a steering cable
" Alegria lost its third kite of the race
" Kinetic has wrapped their prop with some sort of debris
" Bedlam II blew a spinnaker halyard block

These minor setbacks have not hindered any of the boats and they are charging hard for the finish. We are very happy to hear that all crews are in great shape.

In previous posts we have requested "a beer" when we get to the dock and spoken about how much we have missed the taste of "a beer". We would like to formally revise all previous statements to "several, ice cold beers".

We send our best wishes to all our friends and loved ones who we will be seeing very shortly!

The boys on Turnagain