Day 4 - Bugs

What's the opposite of speed? Because that's what has developed over the
last day. We didn't expect the srong winds early, or the light winds that
control us now. Such is the randomness of the wind that the biggest boats
that started today enjoyed very strong wind, launching them after us at high
speed

Aboard our boat, navigator Steve Steiner and I wrestled with the old
technology of celestial navigation. We have half a dozen GPS receivers
aboard, which give us our position within twenty feet. Neither of us has
done a star sight in a decade. But at the end of the race, each boat is
required to show four successful position fixes by shooting the stars.

So this was our first attempt. The conditions were poor, but clouds can
cover the entire course, and we needed to get our shots in while we could.
Last night, clouds covered about three quarters of the sky, leaving only
scattered openings in which to fund bright navigation stars. I used the
do-the-best-you-can technique of shooting whatever I could see, without
knowing the name of star. Then a little calculator program helps you figure
out the star later. After hours of stuggling to re-learn the calculator
system, we figured out that we had decent shots of Vega and Polaris. We
plotted them on the chart and found out that we were within twenty miles of
our actual position. To us, it was a triumph, even though it was five
thousands times as far away as our GPS receivers cold tell us. We will get
better.

Our fleet position report at 0600 today (Sunday) still had us second in
class and third in fleet. But by tomorrow we will be more scrambled. Wind is
blowing stronger in some areas than in others, and our slow winds today are
likely to drop us back.

Food report: A continuing delight. Pasta Bolognese for dinner, accompanied
by grated Parmesan cheese, a full salad with tomatoes, and for dessert:
homemade lemon cake. If the clement weather continues, this will be my first
race ever where I returned heavier than when I started.

Health report: The Big Cold found a fourth victim. Ashley Perrin laughed
when she went over to the galley sink and found lined up Dayquil, Vitamin C,
NyQuil, and dishwashing liquid.

This is a very congenial crew, and everyone is having a good time. Sounds
like a cliche, but it's true.

Bugs