Day 6 Report 3

blog post Tuesday 4:40 pm

Ahoy from the funship Cipango, breeze is up and the boat is fast. Crew
work is in sync and mellow, that's a good thing. JB and Kevin have been
keeping you all up to date with all the stuff with the boat, but I want
to express our thanks and appreciation to all those that have helped to
get Cipango and her crew ready. The wives and girlfriends who keep the
homefronts running so their guys can do this in the first place and who
are the center of most of conversations deserve some special attention
when we all get back together. Renee, Connie and Carly for dragging the
Cipango trailer all the way back to Santa Rosa, I'm sure they had plenty
to keep them busy for the long drive. Thanks to Lindsay for getting all
the accomodatioins in Hawaii set up for us, we'll all be ready to get
off this beautiful yaght when it hits the dock I'm sure. Tony Barra for
getting the referidgeration working properly, and yes Tony it is still
working perfectly, no frozen beer. Thanks to John on the M/V THUNDER our
gracious host who took all our friends and families to the start line,
it looked like everyone was having a good time. And finally thanks to
the Bartons for putting this campaign together and inviting us to share
in this adventure across the Pacific.
Now just a bit of info that hasn't been shared yet, for those who saw
the start you know we led the pack away from the start line. It seems
that Criminal Mischief had an over early start and had to go back for
the penalty turn, well she is pretty fast and almost caught us before
the west end of Catalina Island, which is the only mark on this course.
We had a tacking duel up the beach with her and made it around the point
first once agian, last time (2007) we laid the mark off the start line
and led the pack around the point as well. From there we all spend the
next few days setting up our position on the course we think will work
best for us, which brings us to where we are, at this point we are
basically on what we call the slot car track. we are commited to our
strategy and it is a sprint to the finish. Our fleeet standings dropped
as soon as the big boats started because they had more breeze and are
expected to finish ahead of us based on their ratings.....we will see.
Well it is time to feed the crew and I seem to be the one they look to
for food.
More posts to come from the crew later.
Love you NAY.

John