Saturday June 14th: 20:30 Update
Fast driving at sunset. Very wet and wild. The wind is gusting to 37kts and the seas are huge. We exploded a kite, but were still doing 22kts with main and stay sail alone. Steered the boat for one hour and in these conditions that is about as long as you want to drive. We saw Pyewacket lose a kite. They are about 5 miles behind now from what we can tell. Soon, we’ll lose sight of them as it get dark. This is going to be a wild night. Update on the speed records: Steve: 30.4, Mike: 30.2, Morgan: 30.2, Crusty: 29.8, Philippe: 29.7 kts. Now I’m going to spend a little time trying to switch the computer system around in order to get our navigation software up and running. That will let me dry out a bit. This is clearly record setting pace. We averaged 22 kts over the last 2 hours. Its amazing how well Pegasus 77 handles in these extreme conditions, she just planes down the face of huge waves at a constant heel angle. And we get tossed around by a rogue roller, she just recovers beautifully. That’s a tribute to our great designers Reichel-Pugh. We are going to be jibing in the next 30 minutes as we are on the lay line for Point Conception.