Parking Lot in Paradise…
Man, it’s nice out here. A couple gorgeous days and nights of sailing. The blue skies had some pretty spectacular cloud formations, a full 360 degrees around us. The water has the shade of aqua that you only seem to get when you are out in the deep blue. And it’s some three miles deep around here, according to the charts. The only unfortunate thing is that this tranquil scene is in the middle of our racecourse!
Yep, another frustratingly slow day for our team out here in the 2015 Transpac. We are stuck to the south of most of our fleet, with no real opportunity to get north. We have been in a completely different wind pattern, with breeze much farther west and lighter than the boats above us. We managed to hang in there ok on Monday, gaining on four boats while losing against three. But last night was a different story. We parked the boat for three hours in a dead calm sea. Not a breath of wind anywhere. And then barely moved for the rest of the night. So it’s not looking pretty for Team Hula Girl at the moment. The good news is that we have not even reached the halfway point (so there is a lot of time to catch up). The bad news is that we have not even reached the halfway point (the first half of the race is taking a whopping 7 days!!!).
Despite the challenges and the emails to friends and family pushing back hotel dates and travel plans, everyone aboard is doing great. Honestly, I am truly impressed at the positive attitudes with which everyone is greeting the unfortunate aspects of the race which are out of our control. The laughter from the cockpit last night as we drifter was deafening out here in the middle of the ocean. Bjug said his stomach was hurting this morning from laughing so hard… so we might be slow, and we might be off the pace of our fleet a bit, but is still pretty sweet. This sailing thing is ok….
All are well onboard. David is driving at the moment, Steve trimming spinnaker, Bruce on the grinder. Chris is the watch captain on deck. We actually just hooked into a little squall and got a welcome boost of wind, with a little rain. It will do the boys good… they needed a shower! Besides, it actually feels pretty good to have a quick break from the sun. And it’s doing Hula Girl good, scooting along at 12 knots, at least for the moment. It’s a good sign that the mess we were stuck in is breaking down and we could possibly be in the tradewinds…. say it ain’t so!
More soon…
Wayne Zittel and the Hulagains
