Fun last night - 7/16 am message from Andy

I had a great time driving last night until midnight. it was pretty fun. There was enough moon to see by and we could just surf these long swells in the moonlight and hunt for some squalls. Partially cloudy, patches of brilliant stars, and an occasional light rain from squalls. Most of the time I have to concentrate about not falling off the edge of a wave, not plowing the bow into a wave, avoiding blowing up the spinnaker, avoiding collapsing the spinnaker, finding the perfect surf, heading the perfect angle, keeping my hands from blistering, willing the boom to stay put, begging the tell-tail to stay put, keeping the stern from being pooped, wondering if we need to change the spinnaker, move the pole trim the sheets, wondering if people are getting enough sleep, etc. ect. Not a lot of time for contemplating the larger meaning of life, but lots of time to loose concentration and have the boom swing across and become a literal widow maker. After loosing concentration a couple times you have to hand it over. When things are difficult it can be as often as every 20 minutes, but when the sea cooperates we can helm for hours in a tight little rhythm. Both are fun, but the former is petty scary.

Bad news: We are going to have to bury Captain America. This morning, during breakfast, it blew-up after a small pop while Andrew was driving. The thing was totally shredded and half flying half drowning in front of the boat. Everyone on deck threw their breakfast (oatmeal and/or cold cereal) overboard and sprung into action. I woke up Bob, put on my life jacket and went on deck to see what we could salvage. We actually gathered it up pretty quickly and avoided wrapping it around the keel and launched a second spinnaker within a few minutes. We even had a debrief were it was noted that our biggest mistake was not taking a picture of the carnage. Our deck work is getting pretty tight and teamwork really does feel like no work.

We are sad to see Captain America go, she was our best behaved spinnaker and now we only have our Monster and our little shoot. We have 420 miles to go and our pleased with our position. I hope Neptune favors us.

Love you.