DAY 7 - July 16 2019 Part 2

Here is a little update of the crew aboard :

" Girafon is putting the pedal to the metal! 228 nautical miles the last 24 hours, but it’s hard to beat the 55 + ft monsters with our meager 34 ft. The length of their waterline with the wind in their back is pushing them fast forward. Fred is in battle mode, with Simple Minds blaring in the cockpit. Good thing our speakers are waterproof because everything is “smoking” around here with the waves splashing over us most of the time! Our spinnaker "Maxime" is extraordinary: we are under A2, Jib Top and full main right now. We had a great night and our very first real sunset with Moby in the background. Double high during the night: 5 am at the helm, full moon, under spinnaker with Dire Straights and Simple Minds encouraging us... sorry, no Muse! The winds rose to 20 - 22 knots, waves aligned with the boat and Girafon started sprinting to 16 knots, straight on and we really didn’t want to use the brakes! 😂  It has been a while since we sailed with the family and bragged about doing 8 knots at the local bar! We also need to mention a very special and emotional episode. Scott Poe’s wife Cheri had asked us to disperse his ashes in the middle of the Pacific. We chose to do it going fast under spinnaker while the sun was setting on the horizon, and we finally said Good Bye. We did our first Transpac in 2011 with Scott. He was a veteran of 15 Transpac races and taught us a lot. RIP to our Viking: you are still with us, telling us about the Pacific Tradewinds. It is warming up and sleeping in our “cave” without any ventilation is not great. Especially because our “bedroom” is also our storage room, our kitchen and everything else including where we store the trash. (GBC side note:🤢) As far as repairs and maintenance, our foil well is leaking a little and I had to fix a few mechanical problems like the very unhappy serpentine belt, the cooling system and even took a look at the oil levels. My Dad would never believe it! Not much else. One of the spi lines broke, and then we had to stop the boat, jibe and back up because a large plastic bag was caught in the rudder. We are 1,080 nautical miles away from the finish line at Diamond Head and hope to get there Saturday if all goes well. Love, Girafon."

Remember the Girafon team is Sailing for ALS.
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