Transpac Day 3

Dear all,

We just completed day 4 of the Transpac and have now sailed about 950-nm since the start; about 1,150-nm to go. We continue to have a great time and all is well. In the wee hours of this morning we suffered from less wind for a few hours, but it is back and we are again flying under somewhat overcast, but otherwise magnificence conditions. We again rarely go below 11-knots and routinely surf into the high teens in 15-19-knots of wind under full main and our big A2 asymmetrical spinnaker. Seas remain relatively flat at 4-6-feet, so we routinely plane faster than the waves on kind of a roller coaster ride with all shouting excitement. I think some will arrive Honolulu hoarse!

We've continue to have some interesting contacts:

- I have to correct my report from yesterday afternoon. It was Rio-100 that blew through our lee yesterday. She went from horizon to horizon during the afternoon and her presence in the midst of our division was reported by others in this morning's Transpac fleet position report. Regretfully, we learned she hit something during the night that took off her port rudder. She made some sort emergency repairs and they are back racing now, which is great to hear.
- Other boats are reporting hitting fishing nets and junk in the water and having to back down to free themselves. We periodically see tubs and other plastic junk. We even saw a clothes hamper! Two days ago I hit something while driving at night with a nice plastic-like thunk. In fact, as I write this we just passed within a boat length of a mass of fish netting!
- The leading boat overall, the Andrews-70 Pyewacket, which is owned by Walt Disney's nephew, is visible a few miles to the south and behind us. So, it gives some comfort we are on the right track.
- Further correction to yesterday afternoon's report: Medicine Man and the Santa Cruz-70's are slowly catching us and largely coming down our track. The legendary 68-foot Merlin, whose Transpacfirst-to-finish record stood for 20-years, is catching us just a bit to the North, so we are on the look-out for her.
- We remain on par or ahead of the Santa Cruz 50 and 52 boats, which is because of our ability to plane, something they are not capable of achieving. They only are this far down course because of the first two days and they could leverage their 25% to 30% larger size. Nevertheless, exciting for us.
- The 0800 daily reports indicate that overall the Division 2 boats (70-footers) are doing best overall with Division 3 next best, our division.

It is still a long race to go and positions are expected to continue to change.

Thank you for your great support. For those who just joined this email distribution, please don't respond to this email or send us emails as it risks choking the Satellite phone data transmission.

Credit - John Raymont