Yippi Kai Yay!

It's midnight on the 5th day of our voyage and the best way to describe the past 24 hours is Yippi kai yay!! Did you see the pic of the boat instruments? We had a max speed today of 21.3kts and we were consistently surfing at 17+ knots for several hours. But wait, I'm jumping ahead. As I think back over the day and decide what would be important to include in this log I immediately think of the exhilirating speed and the fact that we just clocked our third consecutive 200 mile day (yes, we have covered 600 miles in 3 days) but then I realize there is something more significant. It's the fact that we have achieved these goals and, I'm very happy to report, everyone is doing well. Well rested, well fed and well equipped for the rest of the trip. The fact is that we are doing well because we were well prepared. The speed is exciting but a happy& healthy crew and boat are even more satisfying to me.

Okay, watch out, I'm getting serious for a minute. More log details after this time-out for some well deserved thanks and recognition for our ground crew :)
1. Well prepared food (HUGE!!!! thanks to Monique for all the outstanding hot meals and plentiful food that was pre-cooked and well organized for the trip). Of course we also need to thank Kathi for the cookies and brownies...I'm still torn on whether this is a good thing :)
2. Good boat and designer (Zen is an Atlantic 48 designed by Chris White. The boat was built for this kind of sailing and the designer is extremely supportive) Note: I emailed Chris with a couple questions today and he replied within and hour. Thanks Chris.
3. Good weather forecasting (we used Commanders professional weather service and Ocens weather software on a daily basis to help us prepare for the weather ahead) Note: due to good weather forecasting we jibed and tucked the third reef BEFORE the bad weather hit.

Okay, back to our regularly scheduled program.....Today was the worst weather of our trip. We have seen gusts to 40kts, constant wind speeds over 30 and 10 foot seas for the past 12 hours. It's starting to die down now but it was a full day of reefed sailing. Now don't get crazy, I'm not talking about the "rasta mon" kind of reef, I'm talking about minimizing sail to contend with high wind speeds. We have had 3 reefs in both the main and the jib all day. The shorter sail takes stress off the boat AND the crew. We are expecting light winds later today and may even have to resort to the iron genny to keep us moving. That's all for now...wind is down and I think it is time to add more sail.
-Tom