Fwd: Day 2 - Passing the Farallones!!

What a change of pace bobbing around the Farallones most of the night and a maybe all day today. The incredible thing about being our here with no wind and flat seas is you see and hear all of the ocean life in this sancutary. Its very unnerving to be ghosting along in the wee hours of the night hearing whales breathing and snorting right along side the boat. It reminded Mark Howe of a story about a previous Pacific cup race where in similar conditions a whale come along side and sneezed! Yes spewing green lung matter 20 feet in the air with perfect trajectory to land right on the boat... Can you imagine being sneezed on by a whale. He said it took them 7 days to get rid of the stench and slime. Splitting the north and south Islands also this reminded us of the Low Speed Chase tragedy and we took a moment to pay our respects and ask for guidance and safe passage. We were greeted with 3.5 knots of breeze that allowed us to sail through the islands without incidence.

We did have some electrical issues last night. The tri color mast lights flickered on and off so we used the back-up deck lights (which consume more power). Rune thinks its a bad connection in the power panel as a result of a lot of work being done over the last few months to hook up new equipment. He is going to work on it today. I may have to go up the mast if he can't fix it. Or maybe one of the unsuspecting younger spry youngsters.

We hope everyone is doing the Tiki wind dance at home because we need it badly. Right now we don't see any significant wind in our coordinates and know that it maybe until Thursday before the wind fills in. This could be a long race or should I say ocean passage in these conditions... good news is Aloha spirit is alive and well. The young guys are playing a thumb piano creating music that is well matched to our becalmed ocean playground.

Love and hugs to Kelly, family and friends. Thanks for the e-mail messages.

PS. I know the race standings looks bad for Tiki stuck in the windless death hole zone. We will get our mojo going once we get out of here! We might get a whale to tow us out of here :)

Cheers for now Cap't G and crew