The World’s Longest Yacht Race – Heather’s First Update

A black sea merges with a black sky and is spattered with more stars than I have ever seen in my life! It is truly magnificent and makes me feel small.

The race start in San Francisco was just wonderful! Each boat moving in closer and closer for a good position…it almost looked as though the boats were going to hit each other being so close, it was intense! We sailed under the central span of the Golden Gate Bridge and I said goodbye to California.

It was a strange feeling… we watched as the boats dispersed and eventually disappeared off into the distance. It was interesting to go to bed with land in sight off our port side and a couple of boats around. When we awoke, there was no land, no boats…just us in the middle of the ocean.

My watch is in the middle of a 10pm-2am shift. I’m sitting down below in the Navigation Station, after just finishing a log entry. The sea is relatively calm, and we are able to fly the spinnaker, which is a large sail, as big as a tennis court, that catches the wind from behind and propels us forward.

We are somewhere off the coast of Baja California, Mexico. Our biggest concern for this race is staying in front of Visit Finland, which has the most impact for us in the overall Race stats. Another consideration is that as we near the tropics, the wind is expected to die down. We will sail hard and try to stay at the lead of the fleet.

As for now, duty calls: I need to get back on deck to take over trimming the spinnaker.