Cirrus on Day 8

Another mellow day with little wind, lots of sunshine coming from a cloudy sky, low waves, and Cirrus trying to find her way through. A bit of excitement came up, when a squall hit us. Squalls are rain showers, limited to a rather small area, like a mile or so. You can see them coming in the distance as a grey curtain ranging from the water to the clouds. It is well known that they always come only during the night. Except when they come during the day. They move faster than boats like Cirrus and bring with them wind, sometimes lots of it, and rain, sometimes lots of it. And with bad luck you are being crossed by them and then remain parked in the lull behind them. Faster boats can actually sail ahead of them, taking advantage of the good wind. We were hit by one last night, made good speed in refreshing rain, and escaped without being parked. During the day we saw many squalls passing by in the distance and got only a little bit of wind, if any, from them. We accommodated wind shifts due to the squalls with two extra jibes. Overall, performance is again disappointing, though it seems to be improving a little bit this evening.
Standings from last day had only minor changes overall, still 3rd in division, and 1st among the Hawaiian boats, but the pressure is mounting.
With a bit of luck earliest arrival will be on midnight from Sunday July 27 to Monday, or a few hours later. So we are pleased to say that we are back to arrival in the dark, as Pacific Cup sailing used to be, and regret the unfortunate break with that tradition as it happened the last Pacific Cup.
Tina's Diner served meat loaf with - you guessed right - mashed potatoes a la skipper. Bad news: Tina's Diner will be closed for the season! We noticed that a Cosco Diner has opened around the corner, and will have to go there tomorrow.
Strangely we haven't seen any flying fish yet, with the exception of the few poor fellows who lost their tiny lives after jumping onto Cirrus. One of them, who dried out on the foredeck, is shown in the picture.

Aloha, Ulli

position: July 23, 2008, 2135PDT, lat:27n28, lon:146w28, cog250M, sog7.2kn