Day 4

The fourth day brings just a bit more wind. Although the GRIB files continue to predict 14 kts of wind, we've had more like 18-24 kts all night. We had paita with fresh baked bread for dinner! As the wind continued to clock yesterday, we put in our first jibe yesterday in the short twilight as we approach the declination of the sun. Sounds beautiful, eh? Too bad our execution was as rusty as the sky.

(WARNING PG-13: SAILING FIASCO ANALYSIS)
I won't go into all the details ( jaws wouldn't open, dropped the new guy, struggled to get the guy back in, put it in backwards, poled back against the forgotten baby stay ) but after 3 or 4 minutes we completed the jibe. Did I mention it was supposed to be in the twilight lull? No, it was blowing 22 kts. Jim M. did a great job of keeping the boat going straight as the unpoled kite did everything it could to lead us into a ditch. As we took stock of our success (nothing broken !), overheard in the cockpit: "Its great to have that watertight feeling! You couldn't have penetrated me with a knitting needle... using a sledge hammer... with lube!"

The night was pretty awesome. At midnight, we crossed the Tropic of Cancer as we flew along at 11+ kts, with big swells that we couldn't see in the darkness. The stars were out, which helped, but you weren't sure when something would whack you about, so we all drove with some amount of white knuckles. We all did great though, and no round ups, no round downs, and no serious spinnaker wraps. JB and DG tied for the fastest surf at 16.0 kts.

Sea life update: Just one squid that Jill was cruel enough to show me, before tossing overboard. Gotta be quicker.