Still Racing Along - Kids and All

We are in a race for sure, whatever will keep the sails trimmed and us moving as fast as possible.  We also have the Winters betting on days of travel.

A word about our net.  There are a few PanPacific nets out there.  We didn't really fit into any of the categories.  One you have to check in daily.  They plot your course and look out for you.  If you don't check in, after 2-3 days they put out a "missing persons" report.  We don't want that at all!  We don't guarantee regular check in.  We may be asleep, busy, crying in the background, or just forget to check in.  We enjoy the interaction and help if needed, but don't want to be obligated to check in.

So our single hander, Harry on Maulua, reported this morning that his water-maker was broke. He said he had plenty of beer and wine to drink, so not to worry.  He thinks he has the part if he can find it and get it done while underway.  He suggested not coming near him since he's cut out bathing as his way to save what water he does have.  Fortunately he has a boat 7 miles from him, which has been pacing him for the past day or more.  So if he needs water or help, it's not far.

We heard from another kid boat this morning.  It's an Aussie 58-foot cat with an 8-year-old girl onboard.  They left about a week ahead of us.  They gave coordinates and we plotted them.  They are further north, but well west of us, had some great winds to start their trip.  They are about 1200 miles west of us, but 120 miles north of us.  His quote, "It's a bloody long way!"  Someone should have told him!  See how we're feeling another week from now.

So my bet was 19 days, Courage can't recall, he was either 21 or 23 days officially for this passage.  Despite our slow start, I was looking OK.  Today at the end of day 6 (10 am), we were 800 miles into the trip.  Leaving the Galapagos it was 2900 miles.  That's almost 1/3 of the way in 1/3 of the time (18 days is 3 times what we've done).  So as long as we kept a 7-knot average from here on out, I would win (and we hit land sooner).  7-knot average is definitely possible, so I was feeling good, but today we averaged closer to 6 knots with lighter winds, flatter seas, rare rain and a beautiful sky.  So it was a lovely day, but not really keeping with my plan.  Hard to make plans out here!!

On net check-ins, we had surpassed our 52-foot boat, Jean Marie, who's been out here now 32 days from Panama.  We are 60 miles west of them despite being 60 miles east of them yesterday!  They are also about 120 miles north of us, so have to come both south and west to get to the islands we're all aiming on.

We hear we may have calm seas for a few days, and then renewed wind.  Guess we should enjoy the calm, do a couple of projects to be ready for the wind and waves with the fresh winds in a few days.  It is hard to do tasks when you are rocking and bouncing (again nothing like a mono-hull, but still sometimes hard to do things underway).  I cleared out some rotting fruits/veggies and other housekeeping things so that we are good to go for another week or so.  Still have tons of watermelons to go, had a nice ripe pineapple today, about 2-3 bananas each, which we are going to have to finish in the next day or two.  Still with fresh tomatoes and bell peppers with our fish tacos for dinner too, feeling pretty lucky overall for all the fresh stuff we have in this tropical environment.

Intrepid is coming along nicely with some basic French, each of the kids know some words and to count to ten.  I was reviewing a French book after lunch when Cassidy came up and pointed out Valiant.  We made bread for lunch and left the flour on the counter.  Valiant apparently had been playing in the flour and putting it on the bread that was left and all over the counter and finger painting.  He was REALLY happy!  All I could do was take a picture at this point; the damage was done.

So life here isn't so different than on land, especially if you bring kids.  You make them meals, teach them stuff, wonder why they cut their hair and finger paint in flour, etc.  It's not exactly sun tanning on the decks with the wind blowing gently in your hair and the waves lapping on the bow.  Matter of fact, we finally got to open our hatches a little today, even our bedroom ones which we've had closed for 2 days because we were taking on waves over the bow and into our room.  And the dinner table was actually dry at dinnertime due to less rain today.  Nothing broke and had to be Mickey-Moused (well, the rope holding our hydro-generator in place was getting frayed.  Fortunately Courage noticed it and tied it on with another line also so we don't just drop it into the water and lose it.)  For some reason our Delorme (satellite tracker) turned off today, which it does periodically, maybe interrupted power?  We turned it back on.  Not to worry if it's not tracking for a bit.  It does that.  If there were an issue, we have an EPIRB, which would send off a signal, we would not be depending on the satellite tracker.

Good night all from somewhere in the South Pacific.
7 degrees south, 104 degrees west specifically, 2050 miles to go . . .

Shannon

Day 6 of the Race -

We left on the lucky 13th around 10 am. So this is the beginning of day 6.  We are just passing a 52-foot mono-hull that left Panama 31 days ago.  Our total underway time since leaving Panama, (and the rest of the racing fleet), is about 16 days.  They are concerned about a rumored countercurrent, so they are unwilling to come down to the wind.

 

Now, as I have mentioned before we tow a water generator.  It pops out of the water in a giant white foamy trail when we hit 10 knots.  Now the only issue is when you tow a lure and the generator at the same time.  Well it took Shannon a good hour to get that old mess untwisted. The good news is that the water generator produces more than enough power for everything including the freezer, if we travel over 7 knots.

The wind has been found, and to give credit where credit is due, Bigfoot did send us a gigantic grid file that took a good half hour to download.  With a short message telling us we needed to head south to the wind.  And warning us that he was going to continue sending these giant files until we followed his direction.  So here goes 'thank you Loyal for getting us into the wind'.  (No more big files please).

Beautiful sailing today with blue waves crested with white foam.  And the sun is shining through Trade Wind clouds.  These are the days that memories are made of. 

We still do though take an occasional wave though over/across the bow.

Good times!!!!

Courage

Steadily Moving Along

We checked into the net this morning.  It seems we've taken a definitive lead.  We are all at similar latitudes now, so it's easier to compare.  We are both furthest west and furthest south.  We are at about 6 1/2 latitude south and understand that the trades will be down near 7 by later today.  So we are keeping a slightly southward course as we go.  We are basically following the "rum line" at this point.  That's apparently a nautical term for beeline or straight line.  I'm not sure how rum and straight line came to be synonyms. 

Overall though, we are keeping around 7-8 knots right now, which is a 200-mile day.  Hoping to keep up this pace.  Seas are pretty flat, but every now and again we get a wave that looks like nothing and really rocks us.  It is strange how it all happens.  But in general it seems to be smoothing out some. 

We have heard rumors of stronger winds coming in the next few days, so should probably enjoy the calmer seas while we can.  There was one boat that checked in this morning, a 52 foot mono-hull which is going straight from Panama to the Marquesas.  They've been out for 31 days and are about even with us!!  They are up at 5 1/2 latitude and heard about strong counter-currents down here and some boat came down, then went back up due to the currents, so are staying further north.  Problem is, there's not much wind up there!!  I can only say, I'm not jealous.  I believe we'll be passing them today.

We haven't been seeing a lot of wildlife like dolphins, whale sharks, orcas, etc.  We have been seeing a lot of flying fish.  Yesterday and again this morning we had a few that had landed on the trampolines overnight.  I don't know if they come through the ropes holding up the trampoline, I doubt they can make it over the lifelines with the netting.  The kids do a thorough examination of them, pulling their wings out and checking them out.  At about 9 pm last night Courage went out to do a check and came back with a live squid.  It was a little one, but very alive.   We played with it in a pan of salt water for a bit, and then threw him back in.  He was setting off his jets and grabbing with his tentacles.  They are such interesting creatures.

This morning I noticed that the bridle was hanging in the water.  The bridle is a rope with a hook on the end that attaches to the two hulls and the anchor chain so that we get an even pull.  We hang it on the ropes that suspend the trampolines while we are underway.  It has had some barnacles on it since it's underwater most of the time.  Apparently the barnacles have finally worn through the ropes we hang it on and it had sheered the ropes and fallen in the water.  We retied the trampolines up and made a new tie down for the bridle.

Our hydro generator is making a funny noise when we go faster.  Maybe the bearings are rubbing?  It's been very nice since solar is usually our big contributor and it's been overcast.  This morning our batteries were in great shape.  Hope it's not going out, but we did get it used for a great price.  We've already got our money's worth out of it, but would love for it to keep working!!!

I'm still deciding what to do about Vitality's hair.  She's clearly right handed and chopped off a good chunk of her left side of her hair.  She has a few strands here and there surviving.  The back is still a little bit long.  Most of the bangs are gone.  Sooo . .. Do I a) shave her head, knowing we have about 20 days before we encounter the public and hope it grows some, b) give her a mullet, which is basically what she did, buzzed up front, but leave the longer stuff in the back, or c)  leave it as it is and try to comb over her remaining strands?

That's about it from this end.  Not a lot going on, we are doing well.  We're still calculating and betting on days of travel still.  I predicted 19 days before we left, knowing this was a very optimistic crossing.  I'm still pushing for that goal.  I think Courage said early 20's, up to bout 24 days.  We are mid-day 6 we left April 13th at 10 am.  We won't be 1/3 of the way by 10am tomorrow (end of day 6), but I believe the slow part is behind us.  That's my plan.  See how it goes.  Keeps us busy speculating.

Shannon

The Race is still on - Day 5

This morning there were 3 different types of flying fish lying on the bow netting, and this evening there was a perfectly alive squid on the deck. There sure is a lot of life out here! Pretty much anytime you look over the waves you can see a flying fish skipping over the waves.

Looks like we finally found the wind, which sure is good. We also got positions of most of the other boats, they are still all within 100 miles of us, and so it looks like the race is still on. Not sure if Kurt Hughes is going to understand if we lose to a production catamaran.

So yesterday Vitality presented herself with these strange baldish spots on her head. A few minutes later Innocence brought a handful of hair, a pair of scissors, and a pillow. Apparently Vitality had her own hair cutting party. Not sure how we are going to fix it, as she cut it right down to the scalp.

And the great adventure continues. . . .

Courage

Hello Trade Winds - Day 4

Day 1 was good wind, day 2 and 3 not so much, so we headed south for better wind.  Think we made it.  Today we've been doing great, moving usually about an average of 8 knots (200 mile day).  Of course this wasn't direct toward our target, still somewhat southbound to stay in the trades, but moving well in any direction.  We crossed the 5th latitude and 6th today.  Our weather prediction anticipates the trades moving down to the 7th latitude by tomorrow, so we are trying to move both south and west.  We hit up to 12 knots surfing down a wave, but have hit 10 easily a few times. This afternoon we turned more west bound so that we are on track toward the Marquesas.  Currently it is about 2400 miles to go.  When we left the Galapagos, it was 2900 miles at the start.  I believe it's about 3300 miles from Panama.

For the past few days it's seemed that we were alone out here, nothing and no one in sight.  This morning there was a mono-hull behind us.  He's a 40-foot mono-hull named Maulaua or something who is single-handing, just a guy named Harry.  He called us this morning on the VHF radio and came in super clear.  Will be fun to meet him in the Marquesas if the paths cross.  We also checked into the ham net at 8 am and could actually hear the other boats.  The other times we've checked in, we really didn't hear too well.  We got the GPS coordinates of 2 of the other kid catamarans as well as some others out there.  One kid boat was directly east of us about 30 miles. The other was more south and more east.  The third doesn't have a ham radio, so we don't have a location on them.  It was fun seeing a boat and hearing from the other boats.

This morning was beautiful, this afternoon rain much of the day.  I've been collecting it.  The cockpit was really nice this morning for breakfast, we dropped some tarps and it was nice and calm despite strong winds outside.  For dinner, it was a nice breeze, but problem is it still leaks, so it was wet and rainy inside at dinnertime.  We have caulking, I'm hoping that one day when it's sunny we can get up there and try to seal it up.  We've had rain most days though.  We've had some waves coming over the bow.  More so they are hitting sideways and splashing up.  They pound the bottom of the boat sometimes also and we have a high bridge deck.  I can't imagine what it's like in those smaller catamarans that are closer to the water.  They must be having some serious pounding I imagine.  I think we are adjusting better here to the movement.

Cassidy is making banana bread now for dessert.  We had tuna tonight and again tomorrow, then we'll need to fish, but not sure how it's going to go.  We can't reel them in at these good speeds, so we may not be able to fish for a while as long as we stay in the trade winds.

Batteries held out well today despite no solar all afternoon.  Moving over 6 knots we are collecting wind and hydropower nicely.  This morning the hydro-generator, which we tow on the starboard side was somehow nicely wound up with a fishing line we had on the port side.  This was the kid's line, not super serious fishing.  I gave each of the boys a "genuine Rapallo" lure upon departure, so they really wanted to get them in the water.  So, the lines were centered behind the boat entangled up to the dinghy.  Courage pulled them in and I sat and untangled them while the oats cooked for breakfast.  They came apart pretty nicely, just took some time.  We got the hydro-generator straight back in the water as we were moving nicely and that meant we were missing out on some nice power.  We've still been running the fridge a couple of times a day for the fish and some veggies in it.  Nice to have that option, but takes some work to keep it powered.

Our boom Mickey Mouse is holding up so far.  Bilge pumps keep running, as the waves hit us, the back flow valves let some water in, then it pumps it back out.  So, I guess they are good to have, but they seem like they are creating their own work.  Caught a fishing line on the starboard side, maybe rudder, or maybe prop.  Moving too well to go check it out, we pulled it in, cut one side, but couldn't get it free, so hope to not use the starboard motor if possible until we are able to go down and dive on it and clear the line.  On the nice side, we've given so many lures; it was nice to bring a few serious hooks and lead lines back onboard.

Not super eventful otherwise, just hanging out here.  Kids are learning a little French, we're trying.  They learned a few words; today we covered "Je veux" (I want) so that they can make a sentence.  I want 4 boats; I want 2 apples, etc.  They can count to 10 comfortably, so we use numbers a lot in talking to build their confidence.  Hopefully they can have a few basic skills in French so that they can talk it basically, understand it, and therefore learn by immersion from their basic skills.  Not sure, we'll see how it works.  They didn't learn as much Spanish as I'd like them to have.

That's about it from here, hoping to stay in the wind, hoping to stay in the lead of the race, and overall enjoying our trip.  Was fun to have some interactions with other boats.  Still taking bets on how long our journey is.  We've gone 500 miles in 4 days roughly.  We have 2400 miles to go.  Make a betting square and offer tuna steaks as a prize??

Going to eat banana bread, then off to bed for many of us!

Shannon

Day 3 at Sea -

The ocean out here is a beautiful blue. But for some reason when I was looking at the water behind the starboard rudder there were two greenish trails waving in our wake.  Maybe down about 2 feet.  It looked like green rope!  And the reason that it looked like green rope is that it was, and still is.  Apparently we sailed over a portion of a lost drift line.  We caught about 70 feet of it. Now the only problem is that even with all the sails down we move just over a knot, and with the waves, it does not seem like a good time to try to dive and remove it.  So I have cut the rope off short, just in case we need the motor, and will address it when it is safe.  Also somehow we lost one of the long battens from the main - -one of the 14' battens.  I'm not sure how it got totally out without anyone noticing anything.

The children are having a ball with all the bouncing of the boat. They use the upward force to launch themselves from the hull onto the trampoline.  I took some video.  I guess the goal is to get launched high enough to hit the Genoa, then to land without getting hurt.  So far so good!

We are still trying to either find wind, or calm seas.  Sometimes we just spinnaker downwind to smooth things out.  That is until we remember that this is a race!!

Courage

Life at Sea

We are doing well here. Started day 1 with some super winds and probably a 30# tuna. Since then the wind has dwindled some. We've been getting some rain, which we haven't really seen for awhile, so that's been nice. Cockpit and clothing are a bit wet though and it's humid when the hatches are closed. But it rains for maybe an hour, and then we can open all up again, so it's refreshing. I collected about 30 gallons in our drum and used it to wash kids and a load of laundry today. That was nice.

Our power hasn't been holding up so well. Yesterday was cloudy and minimal wind and we weren't moving very fast, so limited power from solar, the wind turbines don't add much until we hit 12 knots of wind, the hydro generator only contributes at about 6 knots of boat speed, which we were rarely hitting. And it was rainy, so we didn't go outside much, I have a bit of a cold, as do most of the kids, so it was a lazy day resting and recovering with the TV on watching Myth Busters for a few hours, so that didn't help our power issues. And, we are keeping the fridge cold to keep all of our fresh fish edible for a couple more days. Finally this morning we turned on the generator and water maker for an hour to boost our power. Good thing for so much redundancy!! Of course, nothing critical would have happened anyway, but it's nice to have some power once in awhile. Today we are doing better, some sun this afternoon, wind of 12-13 knots, and moving 5-7 knots, so all of our power makers are contributing again.

We are also still getting our "sea legs". Somehow I think it means getting your balance at sea, but most cruisers refer to the seasickness more so than the balance issues. Today we all seem to be improving on our colds as well as our nausea. Some rain this morning, but nice fresh air and outdoor play this afternoon. During naptime Vitality apparently took it upon herself to give herself a haircut. So, apparently she joined the Shellback Club where you shave as you cross the equator. Most of the port side of her head is missing hair. I don't see much of a recovery possible, I think she's going to get a buzz cut. Maybe the longer the trip the better so she can grow it back in before we get to public!

Now about to sit down to some pan seared tuna steaks, last of our broccoli, and brown rice for dinner. After this we'll move onto our carrots, they have been holding out well in the fridge. Finally probably potatoes, then if needed we can move to our canned veggies. Hopefully by then we've arrived and found some local supplies. Cassidy has been making a nice bread for lunch each day, we down it as fast as we can as soon as it comes out of the oven. It doesn't last an hour. Our stalk of bananas finally worked out. We've had trouble ripening them in the past, but this one turned nice green/yellow, didn't brown and bruise or go from unripe to rotten overnight somehow. We have a second bundle hanging from the dinghy davit on the other side. We are almost finished with the first stalk just as stalk #2 is ripening. Yeah, this one is working! We are eating watermelon every day as we bought 12 before we left. The pineapples are still a bit green, so haven't tapped into them yet. Those will be nice for next week or so. Really sweet ones from this farm we found. Made some nice brownies for dessert also. So when we feel like eating, we are eating well! Kids haven’t had any issues, their colds made them a little less hungry, but they seem to have come past that already. Cassidy is also a great asset, as she doesn't get seasick.

We have been heading on the hypotenuse of the triangle, basically straight to the islands (as the wind allows). But now, we are heading south to try to get to the trade winds. It's 180 miles south, so we didn't want to go totally out of our way to do it, but we weren't really moving well the other way. Hopefully we can get down and hit some nice winds, double our current winds, and get moving. We left the same day as 3 other kid boats who are all on catamarans also, so definitely going to be a race and comparing notes when we arrive. We saw them on our AIS tracker for the first day, which was really fun, but now they are gone and have been since day 1. Bummer. I was enjoying getting to track them and follow where we all were, so now we don't know where anyone else is, but maybe one day it will come up again. It should if they have their AIS transmitters on. We have a receiver, but not a transmitter.

Courage covered the boom becoming disconnected from the mast it sounds like. That wasn't so good. Good thing we got that put back together. Not sure how Loyal is the big guns, then I come along and things get Mickey Moused! But such is life. We couldn't get the regular pin in, but we got a 4 inch bolt in there which should hold it - - almost the same girth.

Not sure I'd love doing this in a mono-hull, definitely a catamaran for me! Our rocking is nothing compared to a mono-hull, we can cook and eat and play, etc. When we're on deck working on something, we can stand up straight and just do it. Much nicer I think.

Off for dinner,
Shannon

Galapagos Adventure - According to Cassidy

The past three weeks at the Galapagos were AMaZiNg! There is no other way to describe such a memorable stop. Between the penguins, tsunami, giant tortoises, volcanoes, flamingos, parties, ferry rides, and crazy people, I don't even know where to begin. I guess our arrival seems like a good place to start. After ten days of only seeing land on the GPS, we (especially the sea sick mother) were stoked to see the shadow on the horizon. 

Once we arrived at anchorage, we were immediately greeted by the craziest (and best) group of people I have ever met. They’re called *drum roll* 'The Kid Boats'. And the reason they are crazy is because kids are crazy, and the adults have obviously all been driven to insanity in close quarters - - - Simple as that.  Non-the-less, this awesome group welcomed us with open arms, disco parties, fish fries, and Dungeon and Dragon smack downs (obviously the coolest people ever). 

Our third day there was probably the most eventful, for me at least. It started with a 10-mile hike with most of the 'Kid Boats' up Volcan Sierra Negra. It was an early, cold, foggy morning, but that turned out to be the perfect scenario for hiking up a mountain in the humid tropics. On the way up, we noticed the smaller things: Galapagos birds, Galapagos bushes, dozens of Galapagos caterpillars, Galapagos flowers, and a few other Galapagos things. And by the time our slightly overgrown dirty trail turned into rocky, roly-poly, lava rocks, the morning fog had cleared. The view was amazing. Well, as long as you enjoy miles of black rock, craters, lava tunnels, lava tunnel cave-ins, and cacti. We stopped for lunch at the end of the trail, a place, I might add, with no bathrooms or places to hide. Our hike back was a little sunnier and this time we could see through the fog and into the huge caldera. We all made it back to the bus tired, laughing, and probably a little hysteric (Did I mention there were lots of kids on the hike?). We cooled off with an ice cream stop in town. Over all it was a memorable day. And then the panicked lady over the VHF called about a tsunami warning and made our April Fools even more eventful.  At 8:00 pm, the anchorage of Puerto Villa-whatever-its-called, Isla Isabella had evacuated for 20 miles out. We had our own secret ways of getting information and after hearing about a 5-foot tsunami wave; we figured that 2 miles out would be more than enough. The whole thing was called off before 11:00 and we decided to head back into the anchorage.  I guess it was Mother Nature’s way of celebrating April Fools...   Personally, I think I'll just stick to shaking up soda cans.

The next morning Courage and I took a ferry to Santa Cruz for a day trip. We found some super yummy pastries, stocked up, called it lunch, and rented a cab to tour the island. It was nice, he showed us the hospital, university, community center, and tortoise reserve, but over all, I think I preferred Isla Isabella. 

The two weeks after that is all kind of a blur of awesomeness. One day we went on a tour to the 'Wall of Tears'. It was perfect to hike to a tourist attraction, then hop back into the air-conditioned cab, and drive to the next place. We stopped at about half a dozen places along the way. Another day, we went to the flamingo lagoon. From there, we walked to the giant tortoise reserve (super cool) and down a long boardwalk across another flamingo lagoon and into town. We ended up visiting the tortoise reserve a few more times because the kids loved it so much. It was basically a circular pathway that went from pen to pen of gigantic tortoises the size of a desk to little eggs no bigger than an orange. We spent a few mornings at 'Concha De Perla' as well. The natives call it a small lagoon, but in all truth it was a huge tide pool because it connected to the ocean at high tide. The water was always clear and if you’re lucky, you could swim with a seal or a marine iguana.  My parents went on tunnel dives and cave sightseeing excursions while I stayed with the kids. The farm was also a place of interest. The kids loved it because of all the ducklings and the adults loved the fresh food. Besides all that, we spent our days kayaking and body surfing on shore with the other 'Kid Boats'. In the evenings I was either invited to a game of Dungeons and Dragons or we had the anchorage on our boat for a disco party.

It wasn't just the tours and parties that made our Galapagos stop one of my favorite. I loved going out at night with a flashlight and seeing the two-foot, baby sharks (including hammerhead) circling the anchorage. And the fact that most of the animals only live in the Galapagos and some people might never get to experience the wonders of the Galapagos. Unlike most people, I can truthfully say that I have swam with penguins, turtles, rays, whale sharks, sharks, and annoying, squishy things (AKA my siblings). And I love every second of it!

. . . .Except the schoolwork,

Cassidy

Day 2 on the open ocean -

It is a lumpy one!  The wind seems to have just petered out. Now for us, bouncy is nothing like a mono-hull, it is just like a roly-poly anchorage. Our biggest concern is of course that the other boats are beating!!!

So last night around 3:00am there started this unusual sound. Kind of like when you rub a balloon with your hand. So after a brief search it was determined that there were no balloons being rubbed, but the boom had become disconnected from the mast.  Not so good. Cassidy and I tried to get it hooked back up, but with the rolling of the boat, and the movement of the boat, (the sail was still up) it was not happening.  So we called in the big guns, but Loyal must have been sound asleep because he never showed.  Fortunately though with Shannon's help we were able to Mickey Mouse it together.  Then enjoy the lunar eclipse, and back to bed!

We now are in cloudy weather, with light rain every few hours. We are running just under spinnaker.

Courage

Day 1 Leaving the Galapagos

Beautiful day. Started out with some nice rain to wash the boat, then a pleasant 10 knots of wind to push us along. We have been with spinnaker and main all day, with our speed varying with the wind. There is a large pleasant swell coming out of the Southeast, and some smaller swells coming from a variety of other directions.

We caught another giant Yellow Tail. This one was about 3.5' long and gave us around 20 pounds of delicious meat. Looks like we will not be fishing for another week. This one was not a giant fighter, nor as big as the last one, but still giant!

Everyone is doing great, and we are all making predictions as to how long it is going to take! My guess is around 23 days, with time off for great wind days! 

There are 3 other catamarans leaving today also, and two larger catamarans that have already left, so the race is on!

Until tomorrow!!
Courage