Message from: Willard Bell

Hello Westward Fans!

As of the time of the writing of this post, we are within (hopefully) a day of finishing...and boy do we have some stories. Currently, we're sitting in light air trying to get all the speed out of the old girl we can. It's hot on deck, so whenever we can, we're involved in projects down below. Jon and Alli just cleaned out the icebox and sent a "gift" up to Graham and Mara to offer to Poseidon. (We hope he likes it, because we could use just a smidgen more breeze.) We are glad that we're not crossing the equator for the first time, because King Neptune would have come on board to intiate the Pollywogs (Alli, Mara, Jon, and Graham) into the ranks of Shellbacks. To do this, he would have used whatever it was that just got thrown overboard for the fish. Yuck.

If you've ever spent more than a week at sea on 50 feet of water with your family, you might be able to imagine what life on board is like right now. We are laughing...a lot. It's mostly puns, but we're also really getting good at the knock-knock jokes.

Not only are the jokes rolling (we're planning on taking our show on the road), but delusions have set in. The other night, when Graham was sound asleep down below, Jon swore he saw Graham sitting on the cabin top. Graham, upon seeing the life jackets and tethers we have hanging on a line in the main cabin, reached out to shake hands a tether (who he possibly could have been introducing himself to on this boat is a mystery). The foward cabin, where the girls are sleeping, has a low overhead. The other night, convinced she was on deck for a fictional sail change, Mara bonked her head pretty good (she's ok!). Alli woke up last night trimming the lee cloth (the cloth that prevents sleeping crew from rolling out of their bunks) for maximum speed (we're not sure if it helped).

All in all, life is good. We spent the night within sight of Dorade, but the wind speed and angle favors her hull shape and sail plan more, so she has begun to pull away. We also saw the largest boat in the fleet, Ragamuffin, sail by us last night. It's good for us that it's taken so long for this to happen. Our crew work is good and we can do a spinnaker change (complete with packing the old one) in about 10 minutes.

We all feel so lucky to have this experience and when we cross the finish line, it'll be bittersweet. We are fortunate that the six of us will be able to have these shared memories and can't wait to share more in person with you all when we see you. We understand that our rockstar shore crew of Shauneen, Lauren, and Rosey Bell, and Chuck Livingstone, and Claire Martin are in Honolulu getting the party ready. We can't wait to see them.

Depending on weather conditions tomorrow, this might be the last blog post from sea. Stay tuned, though, because we'll keep you updated on what the finish was like, the post-race fesitivities, and there will be pictures from our time at sea.

Aloha!
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