Aloha Westward Fans!
It's Saturday just before noon Westward time (which is the same as PDT), so just before 9am Hawaii Standard Time. The sun is out and and sky is blue and the only thing we'd change is just a little more breeze. We have about 160 miles to our finish. We had been thinking we might finish early Sunday morning, but the breeze has really lightened up over the last 12 hours or so, so we are thinking later than that at this point. This is probably more welcome news for Howard and Wendy Suite, who are gracious enough to be our Hawaiian hosts, along with the rest of our welcome crew than it is for us here on Westward (we are ALL ready for a cheeseburger and something cold to drink), but we're happy to be in striking distance. The latest position reports have us faring ok (15th overall and 3rd in class), but we could really use all your wind thoughts to get our big beauty to Diamond Head! Since it's not a work day at home, we're not sure if this means you have MORE time to do the wind dance or will be spending LESS time procrastinating at work, but either way, we could use you!
We've had some beautiful sailing over the last couple of days, surfing and romping along happily. One of the most beautiful times out here is night. Especially the last two nights. We've had starry skies and a beautiful moon river to sail down. When it's quiet and you can hear the sound of the boat sailing through the water and see the Milky Way, it's a good reminder of how lucky we are to be here and what a tiny speck on a tiny speck of the galaxy this whole life really is. It's humbling and peaceful.
While beautiful, it's also challenging. At night, especially when it's dark, all you can see is the red lights of the sailing instruments. Just five dots of red that you look at to make sure you're going the right way and that you're doing what you can to keep your sails full. Sometimes, this leads to full on vertigo and even hallucinations. We have a brace on the top of the cabin for Westward's dinghy (which is a guppy named Scratches) and it's usually on the deck, but it doesn't come racing with us. Sometimes, at night, Two Shackles' brain will fill in the whole guppy.
Night can also bring a lot of excitement, usually in the form of squalls. Last night was no exception. An impressive amount of rain was dropped on Westward's deck (and due to some slow porthole closing inside the cabin). This late in the race, normal things are way more exciting at night. After the squalls passed last nigh, Zack spotted something abeam of Westward, then forward, then behind and concluded the only legitimate thing: We'd found a ghost ship! After a fair amount of excitement and commotion, Tubs concluded that it was not, in fact, a mythological vessel, but a fishing ship driving in a straight line while Westward floundered in the dying breeze.
Given that there is less than 10 knots of breeze on deck, this next bit of information seems almost absurd. We have gotten very good at spinnaker repairs here on Westward. We have a bit of a mismatch between the shape of our downwind sails (the spinnakers) and the bow of our boat. Because of this, there is a fair amount of chafing and a fair amount of attempts to stop the chafing (think 2x4's and lots of tape and line). All told, the probability of riping some sails made of light material is pretty high. Two Shackle Alli has gotten a lot of practice repairing these various rips (we're up to six repairs on three sails) and is thinking of switching professions (final decisions to come on that soon).
As we get closer to Honolulu, we start to see some of the other finishers sailing along. Some will pass us (the bigger boats), hopefully some we'll pass, but either way it's pretty exciting. After only seeing each other and this boat for the past 12 days, seeing other life is pretty exciting. We've got a big boy just astern of us now. They'll pass us soon and hopefully be waiting to catch our docklines and keep us hydrated once we get in!
All is well aboard Westward, stay tuned as we get closer to the finish. Once we're in cell service, there may even be some pictures!
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