Racing With Dummies! (Transpac Edition, Day 6)

by Mike

Today we began by turning left. This involved another spinnaker jibe. The wind was light and that lowered the chance of us tearing
up the sail by ripping it up in the air. It also increased the chance that the sail would fall in the water and get ripped to shreds
by the boat.

This spinnaker is asymmetrical. That means that it has a top, a front bottom corner, and a back bottom corner. During the jibe we
leave the top and front lower ropes alone. In a jibe we turn across the wind so it blows directly over the back of the boat in the
middle of the turn.

The back corner of the spinnaker is tied to the back of the boat on one side. That means that we have to take the back bottom corner
of the spinnaker all the way around the front of the boat, and successfully tie it to the other back corner of the boat. Since the
boat is 52 feet long, that means that the back tip of the sail needs to be moved about 100 feet or so.

In this case, since we were turning left, we needed to pull the sail to the right side. So we tied a 120' rope (or so) to the back
corner and wrapped it all the way around the front of the boat. Then when turning, we simply pulled that rope about 100' and let the
other rope tied to the back of the sail out about 100'.

And bingo, we were going a better direction. We were weaving generally southwest by south. But it was still slow going. After that,
we didn't move the sails much. Except for about 45 minutes in the middle of the afternoon when the spinnaker decided to wrap itself
several times around the front guy wires. Those things are sure hard to get untangled.

Keeping Busy on the Minnow:
Last night I slept about 8 hours straight. Not even a bathroom interruption (so there … I'm not so old as you thought!).

Therefore, I started out the day full of energy. Spinnaker jibing, being an arduous task, built up quite an appetite. So being peppy
and hungry all at the same time, I decided to cook. I started with bacon and eggs. Then I baked another cake (since Bob ate most of
the last one). Then I noticed that the bananas were getting squishy so I made some banana bread.

Then, due to large quantities of crumbs everywhere (I had to taste the stuff), I vacuumed the floors. I skipped Bob's side of the
boat since he was asleep. Next I broke out the piano and played awhile. All of the piano books are in a drawer under Bob's bed so I
spared him; I only played what I could remember from memory. That didn't take as long as it used to.

Great Predictions:
After Bob got up and we dined we started looking at the other boat positions. That's not particularly motivational when there are so
many boats ahead of us. Then we made predictions as to when we would get there, and how many boats would be there when we got there.

Bob guessed Thursday and 51 boats. Being a much more optimistic fellow, I guessed Wednesday and 41 boats. Now I have to worry about
Bob turning the boat the wrong way when I'm asleep if we are getting there too fast.

Daily Cuisine:
Around noon Bob offered to make a "Bob's Gourmet Tuna Fish Sandwich" which I gladly accepted, being that I was busy reading and didn
't want to get up. It was scrumptious.

In the evening I baked some potatoes to go along with a nice chef's salad. Unfortunately the lettuce was smelly so there was no
salad. I had two baked potatoes. Bob only had one since he said he is watching his figure. It would be too depressing for me to look
at my figure.

Fishing report:
Day 6 and not a single bite. Bob even asked for fishing tips on the radio during the 7:00p radio chat. No one was willing to help.

Arts and Entertainment:
During my baking session this morning I watched "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country." Kirk was the hero, Spock showed a speck of
human emotion, and Bones was funny.

It's fun to read about people sailing when we are sailing. Francis Chichester made it back to England. He shattered the record of
the previous fastest solo circumnavigation in a sailboat (Vito Dumas back in WWII) by completing it in about half the time. He
returned to a hero's welcome and got knighted by the queen (I think this was about the same time that the Beatles got knighted). In
the first half of the book he spent a lot of time complaining about equipment and stuff. He sounded like an Englishman. I found the
second half of the book more pleasing, and more interesting, to read.

With piano books available I serenaded Bob with some Bach and Beethoven. I'm not sure Beethoven intended his piano sonatas to go at
the speed I play them. I may go slow but I don't lack for enthusiasm!