2002

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Ocean Planet Report
Ocean Planet Qualifier Update
Return delivery to Newport, RI USA
July 19, 2002

Pos: 34 39N, 57 38W

Sorry to be late with the updates, but we’ve had a busy couple of days. Right now it is the middle of the night, and I just finished filling in for my Mom for her watch. I was up most of the day beforehand, but she is still seasick and needs a little help.

Let’s see, where did I leave off…..oh yes, we were about to cut through the big front that had established itself between us and Newport. Well it was quite exciting, with a full-on “white squalls” with 40+kt gusts and torrential rain. I was snoozing when the first one hit, which resulted in a torn working jib before I could get up on deck and furl it. So we are down to the staysail and light genoa for upwind work. I hit 17kts with a double reefed main only in the middle of the first squall.

This afternoon we sailed clear of the front, which was spectacular to see, as there was this huge wall cloud structure that I had never seen before. As far as the eye could see, there were these walls or blocks of clouds hanging from an overcast complete with a few funnel clouds, and nearly clear sky on the other side!

Of course now it is really light and we are going upwind with staysail and full main in 4-6kts of wind. I sure miss those downwind trade winds already, but it looks like at least one other front to play with before Newport.

The other thing I miss is some sleep, that’s where I’m headed now…..between floating on both watches, standing in for the sick crew, doing the sail changes, a lot of the cooking, and piles of emails organizing our arrival in Newport, I slept more on my singlehanded trip!! More soon….

Bruce, onboard chef and creator of “Pasta Planeta”
Ocean Planet