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Makena - Nov 22 PW reporting



November 22, 2014
Makena: Lagoon 620 Crossing the Atlantic

Position at noon
17° 08.6' N
34° 31.0' W

Fish On! That was the call late this afternoon. More about that to follow.

No grumpy sunrise this morning. Light fluffy cumulus clouds dotted the sky as the sun crested the horizon. Pale orange and yellow greeted us for a great day of sailing. The wind had gone light with lots of 10-13 knots. With the swell that ran from the Northeast, we had the wind blown out of the sail on every wave. The massive main would backwind and slam from side to side, literally shaking the entire boat. We ended up dropping the mainsail and running under maximum sail area forward. The gennaker was sheeted to starboard and the genoa to port. Flying wing and wing, dead downwind we were able to make the slightly southerly course that we had to make sooner or later.

The sailing was incredibly quiet and we had a really relaxing day. Everyone caught up on their rest, books came out and we even had a little exercise session on the flybridge. Not a single squall hit us, though we saw a few pass by and blacken the sky to the north and south of us.

Fish on! The starboard reel barked and came to life, peeling off line at a crazy pace. As we ran to take our positions to bring in the second line, drop the sails and head more to wind, the port reel took off screaming. We were glad to have the main already down, the gennaker furled nicely and we left just enough of the genoa out to maintain steerage. We knew we had good sized fish as the stiff rods were bent to 90 degrees. Philippe pulling in the port rig, Luc on the starboard. We gaffed the first fish and with a big heave pulled aboard a 30 pound Wahoo. Luc was still battling his fish, arms burning as he slowly gained on the second fish. As it came into view behind the boat, we were very stoked to see this fish. Stern lifelines down because we knew that this one was not going to be lifted over the side of the boat. I gaffed and brought the fish around to the stern and with a big tug, pulled the 40+ lb Wahoo onto the boat. Wahooooooooooooo.

Right at nightfall, we closed in on Incredible Elk. She was sailing close to rhumb line and we were dipping south. For several hours, we closed on each other, not knowing who would pass ahead. At the last position report, Incredible Elk was 0.1 nautical miles ahead of us. By the time we crossed, we passed a handful of boatlengths astern.

Archer was still about 10 miles ahead having jibed and dipping south of the rhumb line. It is amazing that after 600 miles of sailing that the first three boats in the Multihull fleet are within 10 miles of each other.

Earlier in the day, Luc prepared a secret pressure cooker meal. We gathered around the table at dinner time waiting anxiously to see what it was. The crew was not let down when the braised tuna, cooked in a red wine sauce was presented. Accompanied by rice and haricots. Big congrats to Luc on this meal.

[Submitted by SB for PW Nov 23. Photos on facebook!]





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