Good Morning!

We had another night of driving into a black hole. Great crew work, bad jokes and a stellar tactical call (let's gybe and I mean NOW) have catapulted is into FIRST PLACE! Right now, the first three boats in the fleet standings are from Northern California; us, and our friends on Chipango - Santa Cruz, and Kokopelli from San Francisco. We would love to see a Nor Cal sweep, but the big fast boats have just recently left Long Beach and will be breathing down our necks any day now.

It's still a LONG way to the beach. We have to start playing some defense now and protect our lead. This could get very interesting due to the uncertainty of what Cosme will do to the wind patterns near Hawaii.

Will there be trades? Will the wind build? Will there be wind or just a huge vacuum?

Lots of wild cards ahead which will provide challenging tactical decisions.

Life on board is pretty simple. You eat, sleep, hydrate, pull on a rope or drive the bus. The day is divided into these activities. Along with watching for sea life and listening to bad jokes. Today we will be half way to Hawaii and the worst news is that we are out of chocolate. If somebody would please arrange for an air drop I'm craving an Almond Joy and some M & M's...and we now have zero. Apparently Ty's view of "I have way too much candy for these guys" and what we are capable of eating are ocean's apart.

Aloha!
Jim