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Sweet Caroline - Day 1 - The Race is ON - Early Start



We were officially notified by the Rally HQ that the race could begin anytime after 12:01am on Wednesday, November 11. We checked tides and current and reviewed watch schedule and planned our leave for 2am. We were making our last safety check before dark last night and identified that the starboard bow light was defective. This was after Jeff had already done rewiring to correct the port bow light, earlier in the week. This one was a defective light, though. We were able to get to West Marine and get a new one before they closed (thanks to Uber). Then all hands on deck to make this last repair - and we were in business. Let's go to bed before something else goes wrong. We had an early pretty simple dinner and called it a night.

Today is the day - Kirk, Grey and I got us off about 2:23am and timed it pretty well to reach the tunnel about the time the sun rose - 6:43am (EST). Sunrise was awesome - we were headed right into it. Varying wind in the morning since we had several turns, but we sailed the whole way. I went back to bed so I could be ready for the 6am shift, we decided to go ahead and switch to the Atlantic timezone so we could get on our normal watch schedule.

Not too many issues today - just had an issue with the watermaker - the salinity probe failed, but we were able to call tech support and get it in bypass mode until we get to the BVI. This allowed us to continue to make water, and just taste it to make sure the salinity is good with each batch. Jeff and I did the troubleshooting on this one. We have a new probe on the way.




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