Adventures at Sea

It's wonderful to be on a boat where everything works! And if it breaks, Kimber, Alejandro,or Lad can fix it. I'm halfway decent at downwind driving, so I can keep the boat steady while they do what they need to do to set up the spinnaker, wing out the jib, trouble shoot one of two auto steering machines, or write blog posts. Lad makes navigation look easy (since the system was set up by Bill Myers, it is easy!) and we are on course for the partys in Kaneohe. Lad is great at team building and making sure we all get plenty of rest, food, and hydration, and that Shadowside is organized and clean. We are all loving sailing on a ketch--it track so well down wind, the motion is really comfortable (Kimber just said she hates the galley. That may be for any galley under way, so she's strapping in right now to the West Marine kitchen strap.) Fortunately, Alejandro is a chef so we have had iron chef meals from the great provisions organized by Donna. I do want to note that we made such good time the first day because Kimber and Alejandro were all over making the appropriate sail adjustments as conditions changed--reefing, furling, raising and lowering sails as needed in bumpy conditions. Thanks so much for all your comments. We love our ground crew! This is a dream come true for all of us, and it's great to listen to each other's stories on night watch and get to know each other. Cheers, Kathy

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Day 6 and no flying fish

1:17am on 7/16. Our position is currently N 31.26 W 133.35. We are cruising along on a beam reach at 7.2 knots COG 251. Its been overcast and mild temperatures as we head toward the half way point. The moon tonight would occasionally make an appearance and shine a brilliant light on the otherwise black sea. Ill be excited when the clouds part and we have some sunshine and stars. We changed sail configuration a few times today to adapt to some shifty wind. We didn't fly the kite today and instead chose to continue with our downwind set of wing and wing. Shadowside is a heavy boat and takes the waves like a champ. She has a very sea kindly motion and all the crew are always excited for off watch hours to fall fast asleep, even in the middle of the day we sleep like babies. There is a radio hour everyday at 5:00 where all the boats in the fleet an check in and hear undated info and get the latest standings. Regrettably three boats have left our division which leaves only 4 boats to compete against. We are still listed at last place but not by a big margin AND these standings do not account for corrected time. So we have a chance of winning some accolades at the awards ceremony. The crew just keeps chugging along with our watch schedules and reminding each other to drink water and eat some snacks. I wouldn't want to be with a better group of people. Everyone is working together, and given that we are living in a space as big as most of your home kitchens, we are keeping our good humor and rallying together when we need to quickly respond to something happening on deck.
Kathy heard there was a revolution happening in Turkey, but other than that, we are oblivious to what is taking place on land. Our world revolves around the wind, waves and what to eat for dinner.

Until the next witching hour.
Kimber signing off

p.s. Respond to the blog. We really love hearing from you.

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