Moisture is the essence of wetness, and wetness is the essence of beauty
16 August 2012 | 475 nm to SF
Brad
Did you get the Zoolander reference?
Well, we're happy to have rid ourselves of some moisture (and beauty?!) today, as the humidity seems to be lower, the sun's presence was at least discernible for a while through the overcast, and we took advantage of both to hang out foulies and take feet out of boots. The leather on the outside of my Durbarry boots is not dry (is it ever?), but the woven tops and insides are. The dorade scoops are back on for a while, but the interior still hasn't quite recovered yet. The wind is getting variable as predicted, though I'm surprised that it's still registering 9ish knots as it looks to be swinging over our left shoulders on its way to SW. Impatience has us motorsailing, with Ray (Ray Marine) doing the driving now. Can you believe that we've barely touched the helm in over a week? Even through the worst of the wind and swells, Otto (Otto Helm) hung in like a trooper and kept us pointing in the right direction. Vince talked me off the ledge as I threatened to hand steer through the gusts over 25 knots, and it turned out not to be necessary.
We've crossed both the 3/4 way point and the 500 mile post today, and I'm starting to feel like a horse to a barn. Kim can attest to the fact that I got the same way toward the end of the PacCup. Never say never, but I feel like we're over the major humps, so now it's a matter of clocking the miles and punching the clock. We still have at least one sporting leg left, but I don't see that damping our spirits as we'll be on the home stretch. Current predictions are pointing to a Monday morning arrival, but we have a lot of dead air to traverse too.
We had oatmeal for breakfast as the receding swell made everyone more adventurous, and topped that off with fish tacos for lunch. Now it's time to clean up for another two-day stretch....