Pegasus 77 shows great numbers

Date: Monday, July 15th
Lat: 29 05 North
Lon: 135 13 West
Course over ground: 232 degrees magnetic
Speed over ground: 17 knots

At night there are sparkles everywhere, like magic. The first explorers thought that there was gold in the Pacific Ocean

Because I do the PictureMails, the only way that I get in the pictures is when I eat

The plan to accomplish the impossible, for David to beat Goliath in other words, for Pegasus 77 to beat Zephyrus and Mari-Cha boat for boat seems now remotely possible. That is because we did well in the last 24 hours. The numbers speak for themselves:

Date: 7-14

Date: 7-15

Yesterday we were able to travel more distance and dive south and today we essentially ran parallel tracks at a 231 bearing, 9 miles more than Zephyrus, 21 miles more than Mari-Cha. Now here it is plain and simple: The wind is now at 23 degrees and with this wind direction, we are ahead of our two competitors. But we know that the wind is going to shift right all the way to become easterly trade winds. If this happens before we gain more bearing on Zephyrus and Mari-cha, they will be able to jibe and find themselves ahead of us. But if this shift occurs after we gain some more bearing on them, then we’re ahead.

We must now be very patient and continue to work hard with discipline. We are going to be waiting anxiously for each roll call. Of course, we know that the 30 sailors on-board Mari-Cha and the 20 sailors on-board Zephyrus will be at least as anxious as we are: They were expecting a two horse race and now they have to deal with a flying horse. Fly Pegasus fly!

Pegasus is in your cool shades Richard!

Shark Attack!

At 1AM, we saw some big right shifts. All the way to 60 degrees. That is challenging as Zephyrus and Mari-Cha probably jibed down at us. We are sailing fast and the conditions are perfect: The ocean water temperature is now 68 degrees; although it is overcast, we can catch glimpses of the almost full moon as it sets early in the night, gently sinking on the horizon. This is a beautiful night of sailing. The whole team is pushing hard. I drove the boat for 10 hours today in increments of 1 and 2 hours. Every time that I get into my bunk to catch an hour or two of sleep, I see waves going by. It is like becoming part of the great Pacific Ocean. Quite a privilege.