Aloha, We decided a day or so ago to take a defensive position on Darby. This is the safe route, but did end up delaying our expected arrival. We now have our old friend Turnagain on our hip as well. Late last night we received a request from Race Committe to possibly extend assistance to a Pac Cup boat in distress that had been dismasted near us (50 NM). They wanted diesel, we couldn't help with that. Much discussion ensued about what to do but I believe Ion was in a better position to assist and I believe did so. Good on them, we congratulate them on their effort if that is indeed what happened and we hope all is well onboard the dismasted yacht.

So Miles has a bunch of odd noises that we cannot solve. Sometime the wheels when turned quicky make a whistling sound. We have all accused the other guy of whistling. Then there is the dolphin squeaks, also courtesy of the steering system. These can really only he heard on deck, below it is a different story. In the two rear quarterberths there exists a ghostly whisper of a female voice, which we swear sounds like she is looking for a price check on a crappy supermarket PA system. Everyone has heard it. Perhaps not Tony, he sleeps on the settee a lot. Then we have Andrew's favourite- what he refers to as the "damn Chinese fireworks". We have spend over a week searching this one out to no avail but are now convinced it is deck or frame movement from the torque of these big seas. It is quite loud and the name is accurate, poor guy has been driven nuts with this one. The worst, by far, is the sound of the kite sheet being eased under load. When the kite flies it is very hard to sleep. The sound is unbearably loud belowdecks- to the point where we strategically try to pick a winch above (port or starboard cabin top) to put it over the other guy's cabin. The sheet ease is usually predicated by the driver yelling "ease" as the boat starts to round up. Then grinding as the correction happens. Oh the good times...Finally the worst one, the sound of stuff crashing all over the place when the boat does indeed round up. From below what you hear is water rushing, then the boat heeling, then "ohhhhhhhh sh*****t" from above. From above you hear stuff crashing and "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!" ring out in unison from all below.

See ya'll soon.