words from the crew

Aloha Family and Friends,

The "Urban Renewal crew is enjoying a glorious day on the water. The sun is glistening off the deep blue water, white billowy clouds dotting the horizon and a breeze NE 5-11. Sounds like a good afternoon for a bucket bath off the bow??? It smells like the time. This mornings breakfast was bacon and egg burritos, very tasty. Thanks to Rocky and Randy.

We are still competitive within our class. "Boys Night Out" is still the theme, but we are paying attention to details. Are goals are clearly defined. We'll let you know the results after the awards are presented??? We have 1175 nm to the finish line.

Our exact location is: N31*45.684 W139*06.625
Boat speed is 7.7 mph, but has been slower through out the day.
Swells are 1-2 meters

We changed spinnakers this morning. Now we are flying a .6 oz. spinnaker, the wind has been moderate at best. This has been the slowest going since we left S.F. But, we are all in shorts and t-shirts, the foulies aren't put away for good, yet. Once again, "Life is Good". Except for the fishing....the lines are getting rinsed off behind the boat. No fish seem to be interested. We have plenty of tuna aboard, ugh!! Tomorrow evening we should be half way home. At which time we will BBQ steaks and perhaps a little vino rosso to augment the menu selection.

(John)

Les' comments: Had to do the dishes last night, tough duty on a green boat like urban, we toss our "potato starch" biodegradable bowl and sugar cane bagass forks go over as well-boys don't like the old way of doing dishes. the pots are done the old way but Don stepped up to that chore. With the light wind today we discovered a new field of information on the gps. we now get a number called VMG or 'velocity made good (to the finish line). so we can go at 6 knots right at the line or head up to make the boat go faster and see if we get there faster going faster higher by comparing the vmg on each point. we are already high of the fleet, about on the original rum line from SF. the forecast is for the wind to fill in west of us, north first, so that might work for us. have not seen the Sunday positions but feel it probably did not change to the good at any rate. John, Ellis and Randy have all become excellent helmsmen which really helps spread the driving load. I have been driving for my shift at night since the spinnaker in the dark takes more seat of the pants instinctual steering that only comes from experience. We put up the spinnaker net yesterday, goes between the mast and the headstay to keep the spinnaker from wrapping around the headstay when it collapses. This can be fatal for the spinnaker if it tightens up and can require the spinnaker to be cut away (I've seen it many times}. We still have dry ice and regular ice in the icebox. Cold beer and wine at the end of the day. All Right! Randy's research questions with the dry ice guy have paid off in spades. Gotten a little wordy so enough. Thanks for all the kind emails of encouragement. Aloha, John, Les, Rocky, Don, Ellis and Randy the "Urban Getto gang" (Urban Renewal is a sweet boat, but not the standard of most of the fleets )

Its about time. weather is great, shorts t shirt and a bath. only wish we had more wind now. last night and today has been light. Night driving has been cloudy without stars so concentration is intense, lots of fun! been trying to beat Les'14.9 surfing on waves but well see. we are counting on fish as an integral part of dinner tonight so i am working hard on that now... failure is not an option i know where the can tuna is. talk again soon. Randy

Actually I think we have enough food on board for a month. Plenty of good meals to come. We are not going to be losing weight on this trip like they did on the way over. Rocky