Man, not sure how Sweet Okole is posting those distances. They are flying. So is Aero and Limitless.

Not to take anything away from the boats beating us, but this has been a tough race for elan. Not any one major issue, but a string of issues that kept us all pretty exhausted. Most significant issues are blown spinnakers (4 of 5) and lost wind instrumentation. Pretty lucky we're doing as well as we are. We're down to about 400 miles to go. Right now, we have sunny skies and great breeze with following seas, so hard to complain as we surf down huge waves. Hope to finish sometime friday mid-day.

jack

OK. It's been a while. Everyone must be wondering why we're getting crushed by limitless. Well, they're not making any mistakes, and unfortunately we've made a few. Everyone is a-ok, unless you are a sinnaker, in which case you're not doing so well. Over the last 36 hours we lost our main workhorse kites, and now down to speciality kites, which are working great, but sub-optimal for the conditions. We're hanging tough, but unless limitless makes similar mistakes, they are going to be very hard to catch.

It unfortunately has not been sunny at all. Seeing a glimpse of blue sky right now, otherwise heavy overcast and cloudy.

Out for now. Only a few days to catchup.

I'm new to blogosphere so bear with me. Jack said our fans were looking for a new voice--tired of the same old analysis--so I'm here to tell the story of when people stop being nice, and start getting real. Real World 52: Pac Cup 2016.

This team has the singular focus of a hungry pack of wolves galloping after a tiring deer. The deer starts fast but the wolves are smarter, better conditioned and have strength in numbers. They keep the intensity but are playing the long game with high confidence that sooner or later, that deer is just going to lay down and accept its fate.

This wolf pack is focused on Limitless. They had an impressive 1st 24 hours but there lead has dropped at a steady rate ever since. By tomorrow's position report we should be even.

This group of people is a natural team but to keep us humming at peak performance we have to remember a few things:

First and foremost, Jack needs sleep. Two things happen when he's tired: 1) he starts to question our ace navigator's tactics and 2) his driving performance suffers. Jack is our best driver and we have to make sure we are getting as much as we can from him when he's on the tiller. Keeping Jack rested means we go fast in the right direction. Jack tired means panicked consultations with the navigator at 3AM.

Second, John is only allowed to tell three jokes per shift. And none at all when Jack Duncan is on watch because it leads to an uncontrolled positive feedback loop, the result of which is driving 20 degrees in the wrong direction.

Third, Jack Duncan needs a BM reminder every two days.

Fourth, Rebecca is annoyingly good at sailing and pretty much always right about everything. But we have to make her think she's wrong about at least one thing a day or John's starts driving 20 degrees in the wrong direction again.

And finally, there's Zac. Despite the fact that he looks like he stepped out of a Helly Hanson catalog, he keeps checking his shirt for the slightlest odor and searching the boat high and low for a hand mirror to check his hair. Fortunately, Jack keeps us light so we have no primping supplies available to distract Zac from driving.

Ace

We are still under solid cloud cover as we sail towards hawaii. We have starting seeing signs of more tropical life - a few flying fish, a huge school of dolphins, and almost everyone has given up boots and foul weather gear.

We have had dark nights - either grey with a moon behind clouds or nothing at all after the moon sets. This makes for difficult night driving as we turn more downwind. That said, we have had some beautiful speed runs at night and if you can stay focused it's kind of the most fun thing in the world.

In other news, the boat smells awful.

R

ok. day 3, warm out. temp changed fast. cranking away. We had a solid 24 hrs from Thurs to Fri morning. We did 219 miles, averaged 9.1 knots. Unfortunately so did Limitless, but I think we got a few miles back on them based on course positions. Currently about 10 miles behind in terms of distance to finish. Also, a little ahead on distance to Sweet Okole, but we owe them 2 hrs. Will be tough to make all that up.

We are now in the deep downwind section. Can be tough, but hopefully some opportunuties with boatspeed, especially in high winds.

Going for the home made enchiladas tonight. Everyone's fired up for them.

elan

Breakfast for Zac, fresh squid. Washed up on a wave. I know it looks good, but not sure it tasted that good.

Decent night. Solid breeze and awesome surfing waves. Sweek Okole (I think that means Sweet Car Seat in Hawaiin) is not to be seen, although their masthead could be seen when it was dark. I hope we pulled a little.

We'll find out our position in a few hours. Hopefully hanging close.We're setup in a pretty good location, but there are great conditions and some really good sailors out here, so going to be tough to claw back.

I heard the D and E class started Thursday in 35knts of breeze in the ocean. Ouch! I hope Dylan and Rufus faired ok. Much worse than the conditions we had, on a much smaller boat.

It got warm. over the last 8 hours the temp probably increased 20 deg. I think that means we're in the tradewinds. kite up charging along, no events to speak of. gertting a little more comfortable too.

OK. Pretty mellow night. Put kite up around 6 or 7 am. Probaly put 7-8 miles on sweet okole since then. They still are barely in sight behind us, and still have a jib. we have sagged a little, but I think we're going 1-2 knots faster and 5 degrees lower. working hard - 3 on shift to help plane more often. we'll do that until wind goes back more.

Limitless continues to set pace. They are about 10 miles closer to finish than we are, but much further south. I think we have about 1 hour to catch up, which we're hopefully doing right now. The race estimator predicts they will beat us by 7hrs, but I don't see it. We'll see how the next 24 hrs go.

Everyone on boat is doing great. No sun, so no power. We may have to either go dark or worse, run the engine. Getting warmer too. Ventured outside without 20 layers of (wet) clothing.

later, jack

OK. Settling into a routine. Sunny and windy today, which is allowing us to dry out a bit. Also, waves a lot more favorable, so queaziness has gone away for everyone.

Just got first position reports. Seem to be doing ok. Sweet Okole is about 1/2 mile to weather and 1/4 mile behind us. Seems like we both have the same plan. Bullet just a few miles behind, which in this wind is < 30 minutes.

A few boats had a tough night last night, losing their rigs. Also, just heard that Velocity (J-42 from div B) dropped out and returning home.

We seem pretty dialed in right now. Wind starting to move back, target setting a kite at dawn tomorrow, assuming tonight is as much of a sh#$show as last night. We'll see. Boat also holding up. Lost our windvane last night somehow, but that's the only thing broken so far. We're keeping our fingers crossed.

Hope to be out of site of other boats soon, esecially Sweet Okole. more later. Will try to get pic working.

wow. 1 day down and what a day. flukey light wind at start, but then big winds from then on out.

i thought this boat was waterproof. wrong we are compleely soaked everywhere.

we reefed at 7pm when the breeze hit 30. held 8-10knt through the night, in between puking sessions. water coming over the bow non-stop. flooded cockpit severl time. had a close encounter with sweek okole at about 3pm . morning now. sun is up and solar panel is cranking. we will be charged by noon fully. hopefully the sun will dry some stuff out too.

time to get rid of the reef.

everyone's doing great. all things considered.