So we've had a great day of sailing and have covered the most miles toward Hawaii yet. We are currently 1,100 miles from mai tai madness...and the natives are restless!

Today, we were introduced to the tradition of a half way beer. Now I have always been a fan of the cleansing beer, but I've never met a half way beer. As we are on a dry boat, I was quite pleased to be handed an ice cold Heineken with my sandwich this afternoon to celebrate us hitting the half way mark.

On board we have Andrew Lewis (Junior), Matt Gravis, and Ty Pryne three professional sailors, Ty and Junior are from Waikiki and we are delivering them to their families. Junior and Matt are full time professional sailors and travel the globe racing boats. Junior recently completed the Volvo Round the World race and they both he and Matt were involved in the Americas Cup.

The three of them speak a different language and we thought we would introduce you to a new dictionary, the professional sailors dictionary. Here are some examples:

Piss Fit; ability to consume massive amounts of alcohol and still function. As example, Joe is incredibly piss fit, I hate going drinking with that guy. Translation, it's gonna get ugly tonight.

Mushi Mushi; all purpose phrase, it's a noun, a verb, an adverb and adjective. Hey Johnny mushi mushi it's your watch...in other words get the freak out of bed. Or hey baby do you wanna mushi mushi? Guessing this does not need translation.

Sh*t Fight; technical term used when things don't go right. This morning we wrapped the spinnaker in a gybe, it was a real sh*t fight. Translation we spent a good deal of time yelling and screaming at ropes and sails this morning.

Looking like yet another dark night with cloud cover and no moon - driving into the black hole yet again.

Aloha!
Jim

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So last night our Navigator said we needed to gybe (turn) away from Hawaii and head South, not West. This was met with a chorus of "what have you been smoking?" The issue was that we were running into a re-forming high pressure zone which has less wind. So we turned, knowing that we would be losing ground to the fleet but hoping to find more wind and gain on the fleet in the long-run. This morning's position report confirmed that we had in fact, "taken one for the team" as we are now second in class.

Last night we were in the convergence of a high pressure and low pressure zone which has the effect of making the water go vertical as two opposing currents meet each other. It was an uncomfortable night as we sailed in an ocean that resembled a washing machine on the rinse cycle. Not great for sleeping.

My morning watch starts at 5:00 and this morning this happy time was greeted by a thunderstorm courtesy of Cosme. Later on as I was driving we were met by a school of flying fish who were presumably fleeing some other fish with bigger teeth. Most of the fish went in front or behind us but a few went ping, ping, ping into the side of the boat. You can't help but wonder if flying fish Fred said to flying fish Phil "whoooaa dude, who put up the freaking wall?"

Currently we are moving VERY nicely in fresh breeze, crossing our fingers that we are in more wind than our fleet and that our strategy will work. In the meantime, the monster boats are chasing us as we flee like flying fish, hoping that as they pass they throw us some chocolate bars.

Jim

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Good Morning!

If you have been watching the weather you know hurricane Cosme is headed to Hawaii. This morning Cosme has been downgraded to a tropical storm. This came from the low pressure area we have been watching.

We are sailing in 15 - 17 knots of wind and having a great time. The sky is cloudy with occasional light showers. We are chasing Cosme which is 600 miles away with the hope of getting more breeze...but we want to be careful what we wish for. Rest assured that while we are racing, and wind is good, we will be reasonably prudent about chasing a tropical storm!

Aloha!
Jim

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