Fasten your seatbelts

I don't know where to start. I am stting at the nav desk, seat belted in, we are heeled over, rolling about at a beam reach. I have to hold teh keyboard down so it doesn't fly off the table. My hands are soaked with sea water and abit sticky. Please forgive typos!


We had a great start and a wonderful send off from the home dock and from our friends on Another Girl.
We saw humback whales outdside the Gate.

We have yet to see any light winds. It is blowy - 22-32 knots and the swell is big - 10 foot or so. Sea spray flies over the deck and douses those in the cockpit. Driving last night after the moon dipped below the horizon was a real challenge. Our boat speed has been phenomenal. It's crazy to be ging 14-17 knots with :"whit"e sails (they are really grey these days). Randall hit the fun meter at 20 and hten, Jasper took the helm - the boat started humming and then he started alughing like a madman. Total white out sea spray - but you could make out the instrument dsiaply that read 25 knots!!!

Our team is in good spirits despite teh damp and lumpy conditions. We are dreaming of warmer weather. David Parker sent us off with some amazing chicken mushroom risotto and ratatouille. yUm!
We haven't tucked into the go fast cookies from Robin and Gail or Fred PAxton's infamous brownies, yet.

We saw out frist albatross (the smaller brown ones) and a strom ptrel and some crazy big dolphins jumping high out of hte waves. Due to the wind and swell, the rubbish sightings have been minium,al (harder to see). I did see a big telephone pole-sized log.

While it is loud and noisy on deck, it is relatively qiet, dry, and comnfortable downbelow. This is a completetly differnet experidfnce than doublhandingf ona Farr36!!!

We haven't been out here long enough for insightful blogging - more to come!

PeaceOut, ShanaCruz50 and the Adrenalin Junkies
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