Transpac Day 5

Dear all,

We just completed day 5 of the Transpac and have now sailed about 1150-nm since the start; about 1,050-nm to go, so we are just past the midway point. When we zoom out on the boat's Chartplotter, we now first see Hawaii then mainland USA. We continue to have a great time and all is well and everyone is healthy.

Last night we ran into a light streak and lost some ground to our division leaders who were further South and carried better breeze. Nevertheless, we continue to do well in the fleet standings. The wind is back this afternoon in the 15-20 knot range and we are again flying under somewhat overcast, but otherwise magnificence conditions. Seas are bigger now and so some of our surfing is quite fun. 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. Under these conditions we are routinely plane into the +14-knot range and when surfing to +19-knots on occasion. Quite thrilling and in the last hours we seem to be doing better relative to our division leaders. In fact, we were reported as only 71-nm behind Locomotive, the Division 5 leader, who started Monday to our Wednesday start. That is probably the division we should have been assigned since we rate slower than its fast boat; oh well, next time!

We've continue to have some interesting contacts:

- The junk tour continues from fish nets to balls and plastic tubs.
- The leading boat overall, the Andrews-70 Pyewacket, is a few miles ahead of us now. So, it gives some comfort we are on the right track.
- The balance of 70-foot boats have generally caught us and are largely coming down our track. We watched as Merlin passed over us a few miles to the North, but it took her all night as we can sail as fast or faster once we start to plane.
- We remain on par or ahead of the Division 2 Santa Cruz 50 and 52 boats, which is because of our ability to plane, something they are not capable of achieving.
- The 0800 daily report from the Race Committee continues 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.
 

Credit - John Raymont