Sailing with the new, blue-white spinnaker up was such a treat. Moderate winds at under 10 kn, and a rather flat sea let us drive fast, close to hull speed *), which is some 8.5 knots for Cirrus. However, the night was so much lighter in wind than the day, that we came out only with an under 7 kn average for the day.

Fortunately the conditions were slow for everyone, and we ended as 1st in division and 3rd overall! Looking at the tracks of all the other boats it seems that from tomorrow onwards we may be the most northerly boat of the fleet, although we are already way below rhumb line. The presumed southerly advantage has not panned out for the other boats, and we certainly hope it never will. But, we are sticking to our strategy, and if it fails we'll make up the explanatory stories at the bar in Kaneohe. The Pacific High hasn't settled in yet - kind of late this year - , so even the fast boats starting today must resort to taking chances. Once the Pacific High does settle into place, some people will be surprised. We hope it is not us.

Dress code has changed considerably. We are into shorts and T-shirts, and put lots of sunscreen on to protect from the sun. Largely blue skies with some patches of clouds. Even the night was warm, and foul weather clothing was put on more by tradition than by real need. The night sky opened almost completely offering a wonderful look at the stars. There was a bit of haze in the air, so the stars were not visible as crisp as e.g. in the high mountains like the Sierra, but it was a treat nevertheless. We drove along the direction of the milky way. Briefly we could see a satellite crossing the sky. Today it is hot again, a bright, sunny day, but wind is down to under 5 kn, making sailing very slow.

Yesterday at noon was the last time we saw another racer, who later also disappeared from sight. After the roll call we realized that several boats were in the vicinity of 10 nm around us, but surprisingly we could not see them, not even during the night, where the mast top lights make the boats more visible. From our sitting and standing positions on Cirrus the horizon is about 4-5 nm away; the height of a sailboat and its mast may theoretically allow to see them up to 8 - 10 miles. So now everybody is gone, and we may see them again only in the harbor in Hawaii. We are alone on our disc of 5 miles diameter of water around us.

Well, not quite alone. Some commotion came up yesterday afternoon when two big ships became visible at the horizon, and - needless to say - on collision course with us. They would have to give right-of-way to a sailboat, but would they? and are they even seeing us? Maybe their Otto is driving them, and nobody is on the bridge. Wouldn't be the first time. We hailed them on the radio, and it seemed they were eventually putting their pedal to the metal and sped by about a mile in front of us. Quite a sight to see such a big ship so near. It is rare to see them, though. In 2004 we didn't meet a single big ship on our tracks.

Still remember the "Gilligan's Gooseneck" story from 2004? It happened again. Almost. Suddenly the boom broke off the gooseneck. Fortunately the wind was very low, and the boom was not that difficult to keep under control. The damage was limited to a broken cotter pin. After several hundred bucks in repair, a 20 cent piece was failing! I think we have it under control now, but it was scary for a few moments.

Aloha,
Ulli

*) Hull speed: Basically the maximum speed which any boat can go limited by its hydrodynamic properties. To go any faster, the boat would have to go into surfing mode, which Cirrus cannot do under typical conditions, because she is too heavy. And we may not wish for those conditions, when even Cirrus can surf!

position at 1220 PDT: 32N30, 130W42, COG: 240M, SOG: 4.7kn