Captains Blog Sea Date July 10, 2009

Captains Blog Sea Date July,10, 2009
Current Position: Lat. 21.50 Long. 141.49
Miles travailed in 24 hours: 190NM
Distance to go: 896 NM
Average boat Speed: 7.9k
wind: NNE 12k
Water temp: 82.0 F

Wow so yesterday was a busy, on edge type of day. I got off watch at at 1500 wrote the bog and laid in my bunk, Chase came down to wake me up. Richard and he wanted me to have a look at a squall line ahead of us, yep it was a squall line. i told them to try and hold our course, but to fall off if it got to be to much. That squall line was not to bad, but it set the tone for the rest of the evening. a few hours latter, after dinner, Mom and Richard were on watch, Mike was on deck getting ready to relive Richard when we took a round up. it was a sad moment in time watching the quilt kite take its last flogging. i must say she went quietly and with out a fight. if you were not looking at the kite you would have never know that she had blown out. We worked quickly, mike got on the foredeck and spiked the pole while mom was on the helm and Richard and i hulled her down below. Richard grabbed one of the new Sobstad's, and we went up with that one. it went pretty smooth, we didn't even wake Chase up.
Mike and my mom sailed for about 2 hours with that kite, they went through a few squalls and took a few knock downs, but were doing pretty good for awhile. when i came on deck to relive my Mom, the wind had picked up and i counted 5 squalls coming down on us. i don't think we had the kite set up right, or it was not the right kite for our wind and course, because it made a lot of noise, i mean on top of it being new sure, but the foot made a lot of noise. there for it got the name Opu Wala'au, roughly translated to belly talks to much. After a few more round ups, the sound of the rig shuttering, the noise of the spinnaker piercing my brain, and my mother standing in the companionway ringing her hands, it was time to try a different sail. So we got out the black, red and white spin (still have a name for that one), Mike got on the bow, mom was in the pit, i was at the helm and Richard was pole and sheet. that change out went off with out a hitch. we must be really good because Chase slept through that one too.
it took some time to find our groove but it all worked out very well. I got relived from my watch by Richard, about two hours latter Chase and Richard took a little round up, when Chase got the boat back on course the final snap of the kite filling blew the sheet shackle off the kite. Mom was half dressed to go on watch, Mike flew out of his bunk, Richard and Chase were already on deck so i sat in the hatch way while the crew worked out the situation. it went something like this, Mike took the blown sheet attached to the pole clue, blew the after guy, mom dropped the spin on deck while Richard hulled down on the new sheet/after guy, Mike acted like a human spin bag, all the lines got reattached properly, and back up it went. something like that. I have to say what a good job Mike did on the foredeck last night, there were no screw ups, and that's a good thing. Chase did a good job on the helm too, he is still learning and does not get pissy when i take the helm for an hour and a half at a time.
This morning Mike asked if he could fish, he said he really wanted to beat something to death. i can definitely get behind that, but i don't care to do the clean up. i told him so long as he did all the work he could kill any fish he wanted. So we put out my pink and white with a sunrise inner skirt double hook lure my big brother Phillip, the fish whisper, made for me. i guess it had been out for about 5 hours then we got a strike!!! Mike pulled in a whopper of a Mahi Mahi. he is calling full four and a half pounder. as my mom said there is something to be said for a fish that try's to eat a hook that is a little more then half the size of its body. after Mike cleaned the fish all the meat could have fit in a sandwich size zip lock. we are stoked, it is the perfect size for us to have for dinner.
I think that is all we have for now. From here on out i will be posting at the top of the blog distance to go. that is how many mile we have to sail till we get to our party. keep an eye on that mile count down, it will help you to prepare the things you might want to bring to the party. oh i don't know, things like a bottle of booze you might want to suck down the
luge, or a few leis. don't bother with food we've got that covered. the party is at the WYC there will be more info to come. if you would like to help set up please give Julie Downes a call, her number is on the comments list somewhere. cool beans. LA

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