The power!

What a fantastic night. Starting just before our party.. we did a sail change and a
sail backwards to remove a rubber 2x4 like object that had wrapped around our keel..
we set out for a squall line. Chased it down but didn't quite catch it for 2 hours.
Then after the party, another squall came through.. JJ set a new record boatspeed at
21.2 kts. The wind kept up in the lulls to 19 kts just about all night. We hauled
the mail.

Morning came and we awaited the 0800 position report. OK.. admittedly, the 0800
position report was a bit of a disappointment to us. Clearly our competitors to the
North are just as crazy as we are racing this inspiredly designed yacht at the edge
of destruction all night long. Kudos on them.. and there are still 800 miles to go!

Our day has been perfect. The sun is out in force. (I've got a sunburn through my
shirt). The seas have grown to 2m giving nice launch ramps for surfing. The winds
remain in the 20 kts range. And R2 is just rocketing along. The sheer power is
amazing. She starts off in the 12 kt range and then a gust of wind comes with a nice
ramp and in seconds you are doing 20+ kts.. (I had a record for an hour at 22.1, but
Kevin took it back at 23.1).
The acceleration is immense. I was thinking of trying to calculate the required
power but the nav table is bouncing too much to put pencil to paper.

Where does all that power come from? Sure, its the solar flux that is measured in
megawatts per meter, causing heating of the water, evaporation, and convection of air
masses both vertically causing the squalls and in latitude causing the weather
systems.. But, still the ocean in a squall is a pretty amazing sight to see. And
maybe still more is that through (ok millenia of) naval architechture and sail
design, we apes got it focused down into a 41' boat.

Oh.. and another scatalogical update.. this ape enjoyed the head today!

Data