July 20th, 17:00 utc – lat 25 49 N, lon 133 31 W

Both wind strength and wind direction have improved. The Q-scat chart that we downloaded shows more headed pressure ahead. That’s exactly what we are looking for.

Fundamentally, we have 5 days to get to Honolulu to be inside the record. We are about 1375 nautical miles on a Great Circle distance from Honolulu. On a plane, the line that minimizes the distance between any two points is the straight line. On an orange, that minimal distance line is called a Great Circle. Sailboats generally don’t travel Great Circles because their courses are dictated by the wind. Therefore we never get to travel minimal distances as the geometry of our courses is a bit different. So let’s say that we need to travel an extra 200 nautical miles. That would be a sailboat travel distance of 1575 nautical miles. That would mean averaging about 13 knots of boat speed. If we get the wind, we can do it. However we need to get the wind.