A Wild Morning

rec'd at 0830 on 7/23
We had a wild morning playing in squalls. Winds would range from 4-25 knots and shift from 40-110 degree magnetic. At o'dark :30 while screaming along at 10 knots right toward the barn I was hit with a 25 knot gust that assisted me in a round-up. Followed shortly after by a near round down. I figured that if the round up had not thrown everyone on the port side to the starboard- well I'll try throwing them back.. it worked! Soon everyone was on deck sorting out the mayhem. It is a good thing we had up the 1 oz kite. Not many sails would have survived the abuse. Unfortunately, we were under-performers and are back in 7th...365 miles to go and running out of runway to make significant gains. We will continue to press hard.

I have just finished my 12th and final diet coke (each was allowed a 12 pack). Scott spent 40minutes trying to make cowboy coffee on the grill- very difficult especially during a squall-the rain was cooling things quicker than the fire could heat things up.. caffeine withdrawals persist. We still should finish on Wed. Linus and Steve repaired the 1/2 oz spinnaker last night and we will see how the make shift repair works. 12-bolts and few feet of spectra line and a stainless steel ring were used to re-create a head. Apparantly-20 kt max is truly the max! This kite is our work horse in anything less then 20 and needs to last another 365 mile. We will fly it only during the day and pay close attention to storm cells. Plenty of food items to eat. Eating mostly energy bars chips and munchy type stuff. Looking forward to finishing....

Team BS