Sunday, July 20, 2008

Hula Girl - 30° 38' N 131° 24' W - Pacific Cup

Allie Cayard
Saturday, July 19, 2008

It's been a rough first 48 hours. Compared to our 48 hour training, the weather has been cold and quite windy and we have yet to see much sea life. This morning our spinnaker halyard broke with four people on deck. Two more crew quickly rushed up to retrieve the kite out of the water. The port winch is chewing up our spin sheets so we had Mo quickly repair them as we don't have many sheets out here in the open ocean.

We are still adjusting to the watch times, especially me as I haven't slept for about 40 of the 48 hours. The food isn't all that bad. Most of us enjoy what Mark likes to call "the reds" which means anything like pasta with red sauce, lasagna, and spaghetti with meat balls.

The weather is starting to get warmer now that we went over the ridge. Cloudy skies still remain, but the sun and the moon manage to poke their way through every now and then. It's an amazing feeling of being in the ocean and not seeing land or anyone in sight. You get a feeling of how big our world truly is.

The Hula Girl is no five star hotel. As I mentioned, I had gotten no sleep until just a while ago due to the thrashing of the boat against the waves. Also the boys are really starting to smell. I had the honor of washing their dirty, sweaty socks today because I couldn't stand the smell. One good thing about having all these boys with me is I get to hear a lot of good jokes, some at my expense, but they still manage to keep the smiles aboard. I am partaking in the physical activities such as trimming and grinding from which I have bruises all over, sore ribs, traps, and back, but it's all worth it in the end to get to Hawaii!

I'm going into my bunk now for four hours of sleep, then back up for the 2200-0200 shift.

Allie

Cayard Sailing Website