400 Miles NE of New Zealand 26 Oct 2010 29.3259S 177.4896E

You can call us Zanyatta! We’re still ahead of the two catamarans, but only by a little bit. It takes some air to get 20 tons of steel and stuff moving. If the wind dies down, they’ll have the advantage on us. But it’s fun while it lasts. Frank is on deck hand steering and doing micro adjustments to the sails, in order to convert every nano-knot of wind into boat speed for Silver Lining. He’s really amazing at sail trim. Whenever he comes on deck, he’ll take in or let out on one of the four sails, sometimes only an inch or two, and you can feel the autopilot relax a little and stop zigging and zagging fighting the push or pull of one of the four sails. He just intuits, which one needs attention when, or whether a course adjustment will do the trick. I won’t even have realized there was a wind shift or a wind speed increase which has changed the presentation of the sails to the wind, and he’ll go straight to the one that needs a flatter or fuller belly. On my own watch when there’s a shift that’s too obvious to ignore, I’ll often try to adjust course or sail trim a little, but I get the same feeling I get when I start to mess up a water color from fussing too much with the sky or the trees – the sails start vibrating too much, the autopilot starts fighting back and getting all swervy, and I wish I could just get a clean sheet of paper and start over. So if we loose ground to those catamarans hot on our heals, it’s probably happening between midnight and 4 in the morning; the dogwatch trim is for the dogs.

This is paradise for Frank though. If any of you still need reasons as to why we did this, just come on board and watch his glee, not just when we trade positions over the radio with the boats around us, or when he does our noon position (today was a 190 mile noon-to-noon day), but his whole demeanor and being thrives with this wind, this boat, this place, this now. I appreciate the beauty and the contemplative space, and the speed, power and grace of the boat; but I do get a bit annoyed when I have to dry out the pages of “the Girl with the Dragon Tatoo,” because a rogue wave just jumped into my lap as I was calmly reading, minding my own business. I did nothing to that wave to deserve a dousing, she just hopped in my lap, like an uninvited cat, a very wet cat – la garse. For Frank, there is no downside to a day like today. There’s not much more gratifying in life than witnessing your loved ones follow their passions and having the space and time to follow your own.

At our current speed, our ETA is only 2 days away, but lighter winds are predicted as we approach land, so it’ll likely be 3-4 days.

xoxomo

P.S. We just got the call “Albatross” from the cockpit, we haven’t seen Albatross since leaving Baja. Our current latitude is almost equivalent to San Diego, we’re grappling with the new and strange sensation of long pants and shirts, and even polar fleece under our foul weather gear at night. It’ll be strange to have my fall birthday with spring buds, new lambs, and tulips when we arrive, I usually get pumpkins, straw and dried corn decorations.