VIC MAUI 2018 - POST #8

Day 11 - July 11th,  " Sailing by the Stars "
31 deg 10.0’ N 151 deg 10.9’ W

Yesterday was ‘Latin tunes day’. With the sun shining all day and a pleasant breeze, our hearts were light even though we were slower than we hoped. We enjoyed a day in paradise!

The night was no less spectacular. A starlit sky, the milky way and pleasant wind. Mars and Saturn rising on our port side and Venus descending on our starboard side was a beautiful sight. For the first time we had a visual reference at night making it so much more pleasurable to sail. Pick a star near a shroud or a spreader and sail towards it.   At 1 am the wind finally veered enough, and we put a spinnaker up making for a fantastic run down the milky way.  But it would not be the 2018 Vic Maui if clouds weren’t covering the sky soon thereafter and the next watch was greeted with rain.

We woke up to a grey sky and rain, but at least a decent wind blew allowing us to carry the spinnaker for a while longer. Sadly, the wind backed not long into the morning and we were back on white sails. As one of our competitors said: “Beating all the way to Maui – living the dream baby!”.  To brighten the day flying fish made an appearance jumping all around our boat. They apparently do this to avoid predators such as the Mahi Mahi.
It sure looks that by the time we are done we would have sailed some 2,000 NM into the wind. A different experience…..

Aboard Salient spirits are high though. We focus on driving fast and sail trim. And there is always time for a good joke. Whether we laugh about ‘life at 30 degrees’ or try to make up songs about ‘soggy pants’ everybody is having much fun.

We can’t say enough about the delightful food we eat: Yesterday’s dinner was Indian Curry and today Chicken Manhattan was on the menu. Throughout the day there are delicious snacks such as chocolate, cookies, home made smoked salmon and we still have plenty of apples & oranges.

Life on deck is often wet and down below it is like a Turkish bath: Humid and hot making sleeping harder. With just over 650 NM to go, we don’t mind too much and are looking forward to Mai Tai's!!

Until tomorrow – Salient out.