a female perspective ... by Lashawna

With only a couple days left in this great adventure, a realization occured
to me...I have raced across the Pacific with Team Reinrag four times now as
well as several Cabo Races, but have never contributed to our blog. Being
the only female aboard I figured I might give you the feminine perspective
of living in a 100 sq. ft. petri dish with five stinky boys (I, of course,
smell like roses). First of all, boys have a strange fascination with their
regularity and enjoy sharing information better left unsaid. There is also
the bizarre habit of insulting eachother in a loving sort of way, something
I have not been graciously exempt from. Fortunately, I too know how to say
I love you with four letter words...and, no, I don't mean L-O-V-E. Now that
we are on our 7th day of co-habitation we've really settled into our groove
of sleep, eat, drive, trim. My day goes something like this...wake up at 1
am with a red light in my face saying "Your up"...wiggle out of the "spider
hole" put on all my soggy gear, harness, head lamp...slam a Red Bull...go
on deck, take a face shot of sea water, trim sails for an hour, drive for
an hour, and the last hour of watch usually involves pillaging for snacks.
4 am...crawl back into spider hole, or not, if there's a sail
change...repeat every 3 hrs. All in all it's a good life and there's always
a little angst about the finish of a race. The six of us are spread out
among the East Coast, West Coast and Hawaii and usually only see eachother
to race. But all good things must come to an end the wind is building and I
must go "Hamachi Hunting"

Aloha,
Lush (AKA J-girl)