July 16 - The Invitational is back on!

Moments after posting last night's blog entry, after baking in extremely light breeze for the bulk of the afternoon, the team shifted into recreation mode. Adam kicked out the back table and started dealing cards. Travis dropped the fishing hook in the water. And the rest of the team assembled around the table for a few hands of cards while we waited for the wind to pick up. Ty was steering half-heartedly to keep some shape in the sails in the occasional whispers of wind. 

Then everything happened, all at once. 

Ty went downstairs to check on how dinner was coming, leaving Adam with two hands of cards to play while steering the boat with his foot. The wind filled from behind slightly, bucking the boat into first gear. All of a sudden everyone's attention snapped towards the fishing reel perched on the stern pulpit that screamed to life. Something had bit the other end and began to violently swim away from the boat as fast as it could. Everyone dropped their cards and Travis bolted across the deck for the reel to slow it down before it ran out of line. 

The rest of the team scrambled to their battle stations as the sails filled with a pronounced "whoompf!" and the boat lurched to speed. Cards began to fly everywhere as if someone had taken a leaf blower and shot it across the table while Travis ignored the chaos around him and began to reel the beast in. The fish breached the water around fifty feet behind us, a beautiful turquoise and yellow striped Mahi Mahi, around two feet long, snapping and writhing in the air. 

The boat exploded in excitement. The Invitational was back on! 

Adam tried to keep speed down on the boat in sync with Travis while the rest of the team kept the boat together and then assembled for the traditional photo shoot with the fish as soon as it was on deck. 

For those keeping track at home, here is the leader board for The Invitational:
1st - Travis - 22 lbs - Mahi Mahi
2nd - Darin - 18 lbs - Big Eye Tuna
3rd - Adam - 15 lbs - Big Eye Tuna 

Following that gift from the sea, King Neptune continued to smile on us as the breeze continued to build from behind. We put up huge sails to insure that we took advantage of every puff we were offered. As evening arrived we plowed on in huge wind and waves and started our first heavy weather run at night, in very poor visibility, with our biggest and fastest sails up. The benefit of doing this is to maximize the miles we can clock on the home stretch. Everyone on board is getting anxious to see their loved ones as quickly as possible! 

The downside of such an aggressive move is that it makes you very vulnerable and you need to have your crew work operating like a Swiss watch or someone or something could be seriously injured. Ty took the helm for the first two hours of the night run as the wind built up to a speed that required three sailors on deck that knew exactly what was going on, ready to spike the kite at a moment's notice. As the sun disappeared, Ty and Steve T. took the first shift running blind in heavy seas and did a great job of demonstrating the stability of the current rig while getting the boat screaming to Maui. The helm was then passed off to Adam, Darin and Jason for the second four-hour shift in absolute darkness. We were highly overpowered but making huge gains. 

Then it all fell apart. 

A light mist of rain blanketed the crew on deck from a passing storm cell (that we had no idea we had sailed under), and about two seconds later, out of nowhere, a massive squall came over our rear quarter on the port side, pinning the boat on its ear with the kite in the water. Daren and Jason responded to Adam's attempts to drive the boat downwind and regain control flawlessly. The boat was back up in moments and under full control without out damage to person or property. Needless to say our hearts were pounding a mile a minute. 

Travis came on deck to make sure everything was ok. After briefly checking things out he commended the crew for getting things back in order so quickly and asked if it was time to drop the kite and put up a more conservative sail. The crew thought that they could handle the odd squall.  As Travis was about head back down to sleep I remember looking at the wind-meter and seeing it ramping from fifteen knots to twenty-five knots, a clear sign that we were about to get walloped again and so yelled "SQUALL!". I am not sure if I even finished the word before the second squall gave us a much harder kick than the first. I am not sure what the peak wind speed of the second squall was but it was well into the thirties and put a humble calmness into the crew on deck. Again, there was no yelling and the crew was able to quickly get the helm back in control. 

Moments later Steve C. popped his head above deck to see what was going on. After a very brief discussion it was agreed that we would drop the sail and move to white sails until the visibility increased or daylight broke. We can handle squalls, but only if we can see them coming. 

The aggressive tactics of the night are paying in spades and we will be very close to clocking 200 miles today, if not more. Our competitors did not choose to ride as dangerously as we did last night and it has helped drive the distance between us and them a little bit deeper.
We now have less than 600 miles to go and favorable winds from behind that we have been waiting for! Maui should be visible in the next couple of days and we are eager to celebrate our hard-earned achievements! 

Missing you all like crazy, 

The boys on Turnagain

Harvest Moon

Today marks our third consecutive day of pounding the boat into the wind towards Maui while we wait patiently for King Neptune to deliver the downwind breeze that was promised in the promotional materials.

As you may have noticed from pining over our progress on the race tracker, we have been able to slowly bank left onto a course that will put us right through the finish line. We would have rolled hotter earlier and turned more abruptly, but all the fishing gear on the back throws the boat into a four-wheel drift if we kick the wheel over too hard.

We now have well over 2,100 miles in the bag and less than 800 to go. With winds from behind, we can easily slay 200 miles in a day which puts our arrival in Maui around four days away. Fortunately, the forecast lines up with that <fingers crossed, knock on wood, rub rabbits foot> and we should have winds that will continue to make the boat sing for the remainder of this epic voyage. The aroma of cold beer and fresh burgers that is blowing our way from Hawaii has completely enveloped the cockpit and the minds of the crew. Editor's Note: We also miss our families and loved ones.

The cloud formations on the horizon that have haunted the clear nights we have been sailing through recently have been nothing short of breathtaking. However, yesterday's Harvest Moon was an experience that made the entire trip worthwhile. A few hours after the sun had set, the stars had assembled in their usual places with an unknown constellation off of the South end of the big dipper marking our standard course. The moonrise slowly blew out the stars as it rose over our left shoulder and illuminated the densely humid air around us, soaking the ocean in an almost daylight orange glow. As our eyes adjusted to the light, it was almost uncomfortable and we were a bit overwhelmed with what we were experiencing. Please add a Harvest Moon over the mid-Pacific to your bucket lists.

On the culinary front, Darin is continuing to deliver top notch meals and doing a Spartan job accommodating the gluten and wheat allergies of some of the softer crew members. To take some of the weight off of Darin, Travis baked the crew a few loaves of fresh bread which curbed the crew's growing thirst for carbs and staved off a mutiny for at least a few more hours.

After a brief hiatus, The Invitational is back on. Although nothing got reeled into the boat, Adam hooked the first Mahi Mahi of the trip and it damn-near tore his arm off before shaking itself loose. The lure of choice seems to be the Kit-Kat wrapper slash gigantic hook combo. An attempt was made to use an Oh! Henry wrapper-based lure yesterday but the aquatic life of the mid-Pacific only seem to have time for the cookie crunch of Kit-Kat.

After much deliberation, the judges have voted in a couple more white-guy shower jams for our mix tape:
The Black Eyed Peas - My Humps
Mark Morrison - Return of the Mack
Berlin - Take My Breath Away (Theme from Top Gun)

We continue to push forward taking every advantage to create as much water between us and the boats trailing us in our division as possible (as of this writing). We will need to beat several boats by close to a full day to place ahead of them (with correction factors). The upside of the way things are shaping up is that we will be hitting the dock at the same time as the bulk of the other fleet. We are very much looking forward to trading war stories with the other boats and showing our families our terrible tans! (dry-roasted to the ankle and Snow White from the knee to the neck)

On a very positive note, the crew of Anduril is flying to Maui for the post-race festivities after technical difficulties with their steering system forced them to head to San Francisco. We are very thankful to hear that the crew and boat avoided injury and we look forward to celebrating with them!

Missing you all like crazy,

The boys on Turnagain