Our first day!

Our race started today at 1:00pm Canary time (7:00am in Oklahoma). The start
was interesting. There were 225 boats all around and trying to position to
cross the starting line in the right position at the right time. There were
also a lot of other boats watching and taking pictures.

Serge, David, and Jim were all getting the sails up and ready. Bob and I
were playing tunes on our sousaphones. We were in the middle of a
rip-roaring rendition of "In the Mood" when the other three started yelling
and running around. We had a rope stuck somewhere it shouldn't be right at
1:00.

Anyway Bob and I played a while longer and then actually helped sail.

So far today we have used 5 different sails. The main sail (full up, first
and second reef), the gennaker (big jib), the solent (little jib), a huge
spinnaker, and an even bigger spinnaker. The wind, starting at 10-12 knots,
has been as low as 2-3 knots and as high as 35 knots. All in the fist 3
hours.

Currently we are sailing upwind heading 200 (south southwest) about 60
degees off the wind. The wind speed is about 25 knots and our boat speed is
about 9 knots.

By Mike