As recorded by her gallant Captain and crew.
Up the minute news and information on the Racing Yacht Coyote and her continuing journeys!
Well, looks like the spinnaker may be put away for a while…. At check in today, boats talked about “heading for the barn”, which also makes sense to us. We have been heading high just in case of severe weather, but it looks like it is going to go flat tomorrow and Wednesday. Jim Quanci of Green Buffalo confirmed that they are heading for the lightship, so we to have laid that as our course, and are making 7.75 knots SOG. We are officially right in the middle of Gale Alley now, winds are 18-27 knots true, waves are 6-9 feet with whitecaps everywhere. Wind is whistling thru the rigging (well roaring). We have had a few squalls, lots of cloud cover, it seems we are sailing into something interesting…. We are reaching under double reefed main and 135% jib„„strike that - we just changed down to a #3 expecting the wind to continue to back, which will allow easier and faster sailing. Our AIS died today. On some frequencies the SSB blows fuses in the AIS, turns out it blew more than a fuse. I have tried to remember to shut off the AIS circuit before broadcasting, but i forget. To those of you with AIS, you may want to shut them down during HF communications. The crew has kept up the speed! We have averaged 7.25 Knots (SOG) all last night and today. We have reefed, un-reefed, and reefed again as the wind velocity and sea state changes. We passed 2000 miles traveled on the return trip today, with 291 miles to go as of 1630 (4:30pm)! We are flying home! Boy the miles seem easy once you have passed half way! The menu today was more of the same, fried rice and ham for lunch with popcorn and candy for desert (we saw a good movie about 5 people sailing back from Hawaii..we could feel the spray and taste the salt…) dinner was Connie’s chili, with s’mores for dessert! (We each get 3, it’s the simple things isn’t it) Loose or gain weight? The answer is clear. Brushing teeth takes extreme effort as the boat is pounding thru the seas, getting dressed 3 times a day, takes a lot of work, everything from eating, cooking, driving, to moving about is like walking on walls which are moving, so even though we have lots of intake of great food, the energy expended during the day exceeds the intake….. 240 miles to go! Coyote
