Perfect sailing for leg 5 to Fernandina

The start of Leg 5 was in about 8 knots from the Southeast allowing for a spinnaker run. This was a big advantageous once again for the 20's. We had an amazing start, even though we started 1 minute behind on second row we got up to the lead pack almost immediately and hung in with them for a while and then jibed into shore. When we came back to some of the lead 20's we had caught up a lot and only lost a bit to them over the course of the day.

We saw some new types of sealife today including a manta ray the side of our trampoline, a few more turtles, and a couple small sharks. It's really cool to see so much sealife through this race.

Team Pepod had a 33 minute lead on us going into yesterday and we've now cut into that lead by about 18 minutes. We have been going lower and just as fast as them downwind the last two days and hope that can allow us to gain another 15 minutes on tomorrow's 120 mile leg which start has been moved up to 8AM.

We picked off 1 boat right before the finish today while we were double trap spin reaching the last 15 miles and finished 7th.

Off to dinner now!

We made it to Daytona

Not in quite the best placing as we have been the last few days, but not too bad, 12th place. It was really ideal Nacra 20 conditions with light winds upwind and dead downwind and a low jib reach around the exclusion zone that was too low for us to carry our spinnakers.

We battled it out all day with Team Pepod, the other F18 Infusion and ended up being them by 9:59, for the first time so far this race.

After being dropped off Cape Canaveral we decided to keep going out, we were too far behind to see that the leaders had jibed in and didn't feel like it was the right move. We ended up going nearly 20 miles off shore, we lost sight of land for several hours. It's really hard to trust an arrow on a GPS when you look where it's pointing and there is nothing there! Going around Cape Canaveral it was very light winds and it slowly picked up as we got closer to Daytona. Unfortunately we found out upon arriving on the beach that the wind had filled on shore much sooner.

Unfortunately our teammates on Team Seacats White have retired from the race due to damage... this is very dissapointing as they are great guys and this is the 2nd year in a row this has happened.

Tomorrow we are off to Fernandina, one of my favorite stops of this race. If the conditions are like they were at the finish today it will be a great run.

Below are pictures of our finish in Cocoa Beach Yesterday.

6th place again into Cocoa Beach

The day started off with a launch through pretty big breaking surf but perfect wind to get through it flawlessly. We started off double trap 2 sail reaching and eventually the wind shifted allowing us to put the spinnaker up and sail single trapezed. At these angles, for the first half of the leg the 20's were at an advantage and we lost a couple of them.

Halfway through the leg we were jib reaching out and spinnaker reaching back in as long as we could as the 20's were powering through on a jib reach parrallel to the shore. We were holding off Team Seacats Orange but they were coming on strong, in an attempt to hold them off a bit longer we launched the spinnaker and double trapezed, this didn't last long as our hull buried sending us both around the bow in what the guys on Seacats Orange claimed was a "9 pointer" with both rudders way clear out of the water and everything!

We righted the boat in about a minute and started to grind back at them but in that little time they had already pulled way ahead, almost to the horizon. Later in the day the wind clocked a bit favoring us for a spinnaker double trap tight reach and it allowed us to grind down some boats in front of us. The last 15 miles or so we used the lifts off shore to our advantage and hugged the coast on a very tight and on the edge spinnaker reach allowing us inside of an ahead of Seacats Orange and Team AHPC who was jib reaching as they had broken their spinnaker halyard.

We pulled into Cocoa Beach at 4:20, 6.5 hours from the start, amazing speed for 90+ miles especially when last year we got in at 2:30AM!

BIG thanks to Harken's Scott Norman who showed up to the start today and supplied us with a brand new lower mainsheet block to replace the one which the ratchet had gone out on on day 1!

Tomorrow we're headed to Daytona, this leg will drop us about 15 miles offshore and possibly out of site of land at points after rounding Cape Canaveral.

Close call photo sequence at Jupiter finish!

SOMEHOW we saved this! But lost 5th place in the process.

sooo ugly!! And only the 2nd time this kite has been flown!

Last minute chart inspection

Looking over the charts before the start in Hollywood

Inched out for 6th place into Jupiter

After managing to get out decently of the surf at Hollywood, at which apparently was a fairly wild start (we were way to flustered with everything going on to pay attention)... we turned North and never looked back.

Blasting through 4-8 foot waves on a jib reach we were in 7th place right after the start, we were getting pounded by some waves and getting airborn off others. Within a few miles one boat ahead flipped and we zoomed by them, we then continued to roll 2 more Nacra 20's and open up about a 1/8th of a mile gap on Team Royal Yellow, we held that position for nearly 50 miles but when the wind shifted right and lightened up it put them in a great opportunity to use the 20's power to get by us just 10 miles from the finish. Soon after they passed us we were able to put the spinnaker up and hang on to them a little bit but not catch them. The last 10 miles was torture as the next 20, Trey Brown was able to start reeling us in. To make the last jibe into the finish we were pressured to jibe early and get inside him which was a BIG mistake. We understood the layline and ended up getting into the surfline sooner than expected and being forced to jibe while surfing breaking waves. During the 2nd jib we were hit broadside by a wave and completely onto our side, somehow we managed to save it and bear off just in time for Trey to be right next to us. Without the power the power in our spinnaker Trey slid in front of us to beat us by just 2 seconds!

We ended up just 15 minutes behind the leaders, finishing about 10 minutes before 2, 65 miles in under 4 hours... not too shabby.

Picture sequence from our awesome finish in Hollywood

7th on leg 1

We started off the day with a great start right behind Mischa and held with him for a few miles until he began to pull away.

Battling upwind breeze of about 12-15 on the nose and confused sea state we were averaging between 9-12 knots. Hiccups today included our mainsheet ratchet giving out 10 miles into the 76 mile leg and running aground twice.

We were right up in the lead pack for the first 30 miles or so but struggled a bit from then on and lost touch with them.

We hit the beach in 7th place, about 15 minutes behind the boat in front of us. After running the boat really far onto the beach we were told "nice landing" by several people... apparently we ran the boat up at least twice as far as anyone else... it was pretty awesome... we were probably 50 feet above the tide line.

Tybee starts tomorrow!

Well we spent all day doing a bit more boat work, tricking the boat out for distance racing to get any edge we can.

We also got out for a quick sail in which time we tested out our brand new North spinnaker. We are very happy with how it performed and it should be a good sail choice for the week. It's interesting since it's a bit different shape than our old Performance Sails spinnaker in the it has a fuller shape which will change our sailing angles a bit. It definitely has plenty of power though as we had the hull easily out of the water while the Nacra 20 behind us did not.

The forecast for tomorrow is for low teens building to mid to high teens mid day. However, i've heard conflicting reports that it will be windier. Either way, wind from the East / Northeast will make for a fast sail which means we will get in time to go to dinner at Taverna Opa in Hollywood!

Stay tuned for another update tomorrow evening, maybe even in the morning.

Tybee starts tomorrow!

Well we spent all day doing a bit more boat work, tricking the boat out for distance racing to get any edge we can.

We also got out for a quick sail in which time we tested out our brand new North spinnaker. We are very happy with how it performed and it should be a good sail choice for the week. It's interesting since it's a bit different shape than our old Performance Sails spinnaker in the it has a fuller shape which will change our sailing angles a bit. It definitely has plenty of power though as we had the hull easily out of the water while the Nacra 20 behind us did not.

The forecast for tomorrow is for low teens building to mid to high teens mid day. However, i've heard conflicting reports that it will be windier. Either way, wind from the East / Northeast will make for a fast sail which means we will get in time to go to dinner at Taverna Opa in Hollywood!

Stay tuned for another update tomorrow evening, maybe even in the morning.

Tybee starts tomorrow!

Well we spent all day doing a bit more boat work, tricking the boat out for distance racing to get any edge we can.

We also got out for a quick sail in which time we tested out our brand new North spinnaker. We are very happy with how it performed and it should be a good sail choice for the week. It's interesting since it's a bit different shape than our old Performance Sails spinnaker in the it has a fuller shape which will change our sailing angles a bit. It definitely has plenty of power though as we had the hull easily out of the water while the Nacra 20 behind us did not.

The forecast for tomorrow is for low teens building to mid to high teens mid day. However, i've heard conflicting reports that it will be windier. Either way, wind from the East / Northeast will make for a fast sail which means we will get in time to go to dinner at Taverna Opa in Hollywood!

Stay tuned for another update tomorrow evening, maybe even in the morning.