From The Deck Of Prospector 0030z 06 July 2015

A Magical Day

Today was about as good a day as you can have ocean racing.  The clouds lifted, the sun came out, the air temperature dropped, the water temperature dropped, the air dried out and someone turned the waves off.

It was shorts, tee shirts, sunglasses and sunscreen for the Prospector crew as we enjoyed the spectacular improvement in the weather.  We spent the day running down wind gybing back and forth to head east north east. 

The big boat was nice and flat and we took advantage of the relative calm to tend to some maintenance that had been hard to do over the last couple of days.  We also brought out all our damp gear, our cushions and sleeping bags, turning Prospector in to a bit of a floating clothes line, to take advantage of what NOAA used to call excellent drying conditions.

The crew enjoyed dinner on deck, Mexican Chicken and Rice, specially doctored by Colette to freeze dried perfection.  Our night watch raccoons will make short work of the leftovers.  Scotty, the leader of the raccoon den, keeps a spork in his pocket overnight so he can be quick on the draw with the left overs.  Last night he crushed the leftover Colette enhanced beef stroganoff, allegedly enjoying a beef stroganoff sandwich.  Colette’s freeze dried beef stroganoff is our favorite crew meal, and is the closest thing to a July 4th hamburger we carry.  Colette packed on board a surprise July 4th treat, individual mini apple pies, that we devoured for our pm snack.

The great weather was a welcome respite for the crew and our yacht.  It was an unexpected treat and we made the most of it.  We are glad to be leaving the Gulf Stream and its maddeningly unpredictable currents and frequent squalls.  But, the respite is going to be short lived.  We are working to get ourselves north to hook up with the southern edge of a big low pressure system moving our way.  Yes, you read that right, we are intentionally sailing towards bad weather.  This weather feature is going to dominate most of what is left of the race.  We are going to play a bit of chicken with it, getting as close as we can to its southern side to pick up and ride the strong southwesterly winds it should provide.  The chicken part is not getting so close that the ride will be miserable.  Either way the fair weather we so enjoyed today is going to end.