Moving Day

August 27, 2008
Moving day aboard il mostro
We are always in a dilemma. When practicing, or in this case delivering
the boat across the Atlantic Ocean, we have to learn, with the goal being
keep making the boat and team faster. But, at the same time, if we break
the boat we will have to limp back to Rhode Island or up to Halifax, or
wherever the wind would take a wounded boat in the North Atlantic. That
would be bad, real bad. After all, we do not want to miss the start of
this race. Don’t worry, we aren’t broken. Actually, we’re
anything but. The boat is handling like a dream out here and the crew
is settling into a routine onboard. What I have ringing in my head though
is our illustrious Operations and Shore Team Manager Neil Cox stating
one very specific demand about 2 minutes from pushing us off the dock
in Newport in his best Australian tongue, “Mate, whatever you do,
don’t break the vessel.” We Coxy, it is pretty hard to tame
the monster at times. Navigator Andrew Cape got us nicely situated on
the back side of a cold front and we just knocked off 254 miles in 12
hours. Not quite record pace but pretty quick none the less. And this
is happening all while having “don’t break the vessel”
ringing on our ears. We have had a couple of interesting happenings onboard.
Our media guru Rick“Danger” Deppe wanted to label his clothes
and gear with his initials – including his headlamp. Unfortunately
for Rick, he put on the headlamp prior to the indelible ink drying and
effectively stamped his initials backwards on his forehead. My guess is
that those are there for a few days. He looks like the front of an ambulance.
Anyway, all is good here. We’re getting back into the rhythm again,
one of being wet and eating lousy food. -Kenny.