Date: Fri 15 Aug 2008 - 10:07:46 PDT
To: <olson911@SailPix.com>
Photo at the start St Francis YC in San Francisco.
For those who are interested
Race summary
The race began in light conditions once we were outside the Golden Gate. It took nearly half a day to reach the Farrallones Islands, 25 miles west of Golden Gate. The wind picked
up after that with a windy close reach for a day or so, Then it became calm again so we headed south to get back into the wind. This maneuver got us ahead of Rubicon III. We then entered the trade winds, which were the strongest I have experienced of the three races I have been in--especially the squalls which came one after another at night with high wind gusts up to 35 knots. Two especially nasty squalls rolled the boat on its beam ends, once when Tony was at the helm and once when I was steering. In both cases we had to let the spinnaker run free to right the boat. The roll down when I was at the helm caused enough water to wash over me that my automatic life jacket inflated.
Our aggressive sailing eventually lengthens our lead to 74 miles over Rubicon III. We finished the race at 10:44 HST on 28 July at the Kaneohe YC on the Island of Oahu. Total distance is 2070 nautical miles.
The crew, though exhausted was in good spirits but not ready to take on this adventure on anytime soon. We attended the parties at the club. Plus Sixteen served us well; due to the high winds we blew out two spinnakers of the 5 on board.
Paul Disario
559 273 9549
