What a difference a day makes! (you will probably see this comment more than once during this race.)
Yesterday morning we were again dealing with light or nonexistent winds. At times it took over an hour to just get the boat pointing towards Hawaii, while we were drifting in a completely different direction. It didn’t really matter where we were pointing, but it just felt better to try.
And then the wind finally shifted, coming from the north as it’s supposed to. We slowly gained speed throughout the day, and by midnight we were making seven knots (in the right direction!). We hit a top speed of 8.3 kts around 3:00AM. The wind has now slacked a bit, but we are still sailing nicely.
The dry ice has just about vanished, but our appetites are back, so we hope to be able to eat at least most of the crew-prepared food. Last night we had fresh fruit, cheese and salami on crackers, and a delicious Lasagna, courtesy of Dick Holm. This morning, Dick prepared smoked salmon and cream cheese on flatbread. Dick is quite the gourmet!
VALIS is currently third in her division, which is great, but of course it’s still very early in this race.