Moonstruck - A Personal Best for Moonstruck!

November 23rd 2009
Distance traveled: 178 Nautical Miles (at noon UTC)
Distance to go: 2,700 Nautical Miles (est.)
Position: 26.41N 17.11W

A PERSONAL BEST FOR MOONSTRUCK!
Two hundred and twenty yachts crossed the line yesterday at 1pm UTC. Half immediately set spinnakers and headed off down the coast of Gran Canaria while the other half including ourselves headed offshore to pick up more wind. It took a while to settle down at sea after 6 weeks in the marina. The wind built during the day and night to around 30kts from astern before dropping to the more pleasant 20-25 knots that we are experiencing now. Our first 24 hour run was a personal best for Moonstruck of 186 Nautical Miles!

At night the stars are spectacular but are nearly matched by the numerous lights of other yachts surrounding us. Collision is a real possibility in the early days and radar is not much use in differentiating these small yachts from background scatter. The saving grace is that most of them are headed the same way as us so closing speeds are fairly small. Alan's log

LIFE IS A CARNIVAL!

While Moonstruck is having a personal best day, conditions on-board are far from ideal, and a little closer to ordeal. Today is a Bone-breaker in my lily-livered estimation, holding on (for dear life, sometimes) is essential. We are getting hit on the beam by some pretty enormous waves, so we're getting tossed around hard out here. Cooking is a challenge, but it's the least I can do to keep the crew happy. For breakfast I cooked bacon, eggs, and toasted baguettes with butter and strawberry jam and real coffee in the French press, but believe me it was like cooking inside a carnival ride, if you get the visual. Trying to pour steaming hot coffee, while getting slammed from one side of the galley to the other isn't for the faint of heart. Later I had to medicate Lauren with Sturgeron, I hope it works. She is now sound asleep curled up in her nest. Joan's log