Well, the event of the day was definitely the breaking of the boom. We are doing quite fine since then, except that, as already mentioned, the rolling of the boat is really becoming a nuisance. We haven't addressed that part yet, but the mainsail had been packed nicely and stowed away. We do not see a chance to raise it again during this race.

I have successfully send a picture to our pit-crew ashore. Hopefully they will post it soon if they haven't done so already.

Surprisingly we fared well even against our competitors and actually moved up in our division to third place! And that despite 9 hours of driving with only the spinnaker. In fact, the distance-traveled advantage of the fastest boat in our division against us was only 10 miles! I told all the fleet during this morning's roll call that we lost the boom and experienced better speed without the main sail and suggested they all should take their main sails down. Do you think anyone wanted? Now they can't complain; we have given away our secret in public. If they don't take advice, it is their fault. Would I love to cross the finish line ahead of some of them...

Considering our limping-along with only one sail, we have changed our strategy. We are now willing to go dead-down-wind if needed - made easier by having only one sail - and have chosen the direct Great Circle route to the finish line. This is the shortest path, and as we see it, the only chance we may have against the others. Since a big High is forming almost due north of Hawaii - maybe "the" Pacific High, but probably not - we also do not see a real disadvantage in a more northerly route. This weather isn't anywhere near the typical summer pattern, but at least that part is now a bit in our favor.

The broken boom is not the first damage which happened on the boat during this race, but the other stuff was almost so mundane, I didn't found it worth mentioning. The wind speed and wind angle meters broke in the first day out. We now guess the wind speed largely from the look of the waves. For angle we have to look up at the mast to the arrow mounted atop the mast. You get a sore neck from staring up, you look directly into the blinding sun, and you are unable to distinguish between an angle of 110deg or 140deg, which typically is an important difference, and so we miss the instrument. The traveler got partially ripped up by the main sheet, and was put back as good as we could. The gooseneck pin broke, as we had mentioned, a block on the boom was ripped out by the spinnaker and lost to the sea - including the shekels ;-) which went with them. The last dorade (a vent for the inside) got ripped out by a swirling line, which required us to close that hole completely to avoid taking in water, eliminating the last ventilation from down below, making it worse than it already was. Dave came up with a great idea and formed new dorades from the aluminum trays which Valerie had used for preparing and keeping the food. Alas, during the boom breaking episode we trampled them back to sheet metal.

We did not see another racer, but one more ship had passed us, this time on our stern. It sure is overcrowded on the Pacific these days. A little squid had jumped out of the sea and landed on our dodger, where it dried to death. Except for some few birds no other wildlife visible.

Aloha,
Ulli

position at 1300 PDT: 29N00, 137W24, COG: 252M, SOG: 7.3kn