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GEM - SE wind woes - thank God for Superman and Garrison Keilor



We have had strong SE winds for several days now and the sea state and winds create a very uncomfortable slow march to the finish line ;-( Crew is tired of beating and being beaten but with 270 miles to go we are motorsailing to the mark with an ETA Wed afternoon. You may have noticed the zig zag in our track last night, we tried to get more east of the rhumb line hoping that the winds would shift to East/SE but as of 10:30 this am that hasn’t happened. Since we have plenty of fuel left (~60 % in both tanks) and are running on one engine we can follow this strategy as uncomfortable as it is. The other boats around us, Lucky Strike, Abigail and Club Carp appear to be tacking. We suspect they are low on fuel. I am confident that we’ll win the ‘Most Motoring” award :-)

Yesterday right after posting a blog the outhaul on main broke around noon with a mighty BANG. It seems like all the failures happen on Craig’s watch…. The crew response was fantastic and we repaired it within 30 minutes, we then kept the second reef in to reduce the load on it. Today the winds are lighter and we shook out the reef, the repair seems to be holding. Jim “Superman” Underwood again showed true grit and determination in completing the repair. Jim is one of the real ‘Salty Dog’s’. Membership in this elite club requires making 7 of these trips. At the departure dinner, Jim and the others were asked to stand to rousing applause. Jim and Steve Black who founded this rally were good golfing buddies and Jim has a steady patois of stories that keep us entertained. All of them are generally triggered by some situation on the boat.

Craig and Grant have noticed a strong resemblance to GK both in tone and style. We find ourselves in Ocean Wobegon and it’s kept our spirits up. Laughter is the best medicine for the soul.

GEM at sea, 22 degrees, 40.448 minutes N, 66 degrees, 2.853 minutes W.

Craig, Grant, Jay, Jim and Vin


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