Time Warp - Day 3 -- Happy Birthday!

What a start! I mean not the start of the rally -- that was pretty cool too. But what a start to the crossing!! We have been ripping down the African coast in 15-20k all last night and this morning. Yesterday we logged 180 nm; today 170 nm!!! We are just smokin'!! It has been a fun ride. And since there hasn't been any reaching, no seasickness either!!!I ran the SSB radio net yesterday for the first time for everyone and that went pretty well. At least the other net controllers will be able to learn from all of my mistakes!! :-) It was pretty fun because I cued up "Let's do the Time Warp again" on the iPod and blasted that across the airwaves as the intro to the net! I am sooo incorrigible!!Yesterday Tim and Will caught a fish but it was not a keeper so they threw it back. This morning. read more...

Time Warp - Day 1 -- The Start

Sun. morning arrived with overcast skies and light rain.But the rain quickly cleared out and gave way dryness.I awoke, like I had the past couple days, totally amped.But, like the previous days, I quickly realized the futility of that exercised and told myself to take a chill pill and enjoy the ride!So while the crew was ashore taking care of last-minute items, I rocked to the soundtrack of the "Rocky Horror Picture Show"!!(They give hyperactive kids speed to calm them down, and this strategy works for me!!)We followed some of the big sleds out of the harbor and it was really touching to see our French friends on Trifon waving us farewell.All of us have received so many well wishes from our friends and family.On behalf of everyone aboard, THANKS!!!It means a lot to each of us.My plan for. read more...

Time Warp - Day 4 -- Motoring through the strategy

After three days of incredible sailing, today (Wed.) was rather anticlimatic. We have been motoring all day since 0700, doing about 6k in a southerly direction. But we have used the time well. Each of the crew has had a chance for some 'quiet time' to collect thoughts. Sailing across a vast ocean provides exactly this opportunity -- an opportunity to get to know yourself better; to figure out what makes you tick, and why. So the change of pace has been quite refreshing.Can we go sailing now?!!! :-) After motoring the past 10 hours, I have done all of the soul searching I need to do for now! I am ready to set the kite again and slide on down to St. Lucia!But before we can get to St. Lucia, we gotta get south. That's because there is a huge hole developing immediately to the west of us.. read more...

Time Warp - Day 6 -- Working south

    On paper, our position continues to suck!  We have deliberately worked south.  But St. Lucia is west.  So after 6 days of sailing, we have really only made 2,300 nm towards our ultimate goal.  But sailing is sometimes not about going directly in the direction you would like to.  Sometimes the quickest way isn't necessarily the shortest.    We are banking this is one of those times!    Some of the boats in our class are headed west more directly towards St. Lucia.  In fact, I was emailed that we have reached the illustrious status of 20th out 20 boats inclass....and 166 in our division (out of approximately 170! The way we see it, things can only get better! :-)  In fact, we think we. read more...

Time Warp - Day 8 -- The Atlantic "It's Not a Race" Rally for Cruisers

It's not a race. It's snot!! :-)Well, here we are hung out to dry. We are the southernmost (and most likely easternmost) boat of the 169 boats in the cruising division of this year's ARC. We will either end up being heroes or zeroes. Right now it looks more like the latter! We are where everyone wants to be. Yet if they knew what we know, they wouldn't want to be here! See, the wind has died to a paltry 3-8k. And sailor's ain't happy unless (until) they are sailing! Worse, the forecast is for less wind tomorrow! Meanwhile, our competition in this 'rally' are up north. I don't know what they have for wind, but it has to be better than this! So as you can tell, Day 8 will be a test of our mettle. We put a plan together, we are executing the plan, and now it is time to wait and see what the. read more...