Neville Crichton, Ben Ainslie, Michael Coxon, David Endean, Ryan Godfrey, Stan Honey, Andrew Hutchinson, Phil Jameson, Lance Jenkins, Gavin McPherson, Peter Merrington, Murray Spence, Craig Sattherwaite, Joao Signorini, David Rolfe, Tony Mutter and Alfa’s shore crew, Ian Goldsworthy, must be very pleased with Alfa Romeo’s performance so far.

 

A scan of the information coming off the water (blogs, e-mails, video and phone calls) indicate that the mood is upbeat across the board and everyone is having fun in the surf.

There are reports from some of the smaller boats of being overpowered under their spinnakers, but they also admit that with a little more practice, those at the helm will get better.

Imagine the pleasant surprise that you and your team get when you received the position report for the day and realize that you are leading the fleet on corrected time or winning your division. The crew of Flash had that pleasure on July 9th.

 

Alfa Romeo, Criminal Mischief, Relentless make up the front line and the next group of boats, from various divisions, is in good breeze to the north and hovering around 25º N. 

Now for the glowing reports:

 

From Paul Cayard aboard Flash with his son and daughter included in a seasoned crew from San Francisco and Santa Cruz: “15-20 knots of northeast trades have been the menu for the past two days. Onboard the good ship Flash, everyone drives, regardless of experience. It is nice to see the young guys absorbing so much and smiling so much. The big gybe is coming in the next 20 hours. I have been studying the router and the weather maps together with Jay Crum trying to pick the sweet spot for our approach to Diamond Head.” www.CayardSailing.com

From Roy’s Chasch Mer: “A lot of happy faces today as the sun has come out, the wind is up and the surfing is good! There is nothing quite like the sensation of speed and power when surfing a 50 foot yacht down the face of an open ocean wave at 15+ knots (record so far is 18.6 - fast enough to water ski!!). Chasch Mer's hull literally lifts out of the water and goes!” http://chaschmer.com/blog/Blog.php

And if you want to really see the clouds and squalls and share what it is like to surf a 50 footer in big waves 1,000 miles from Hawaii, check in with Philippe Kahn and Mark “Crusty” Christensen at www.Pegasus.com

The anticipation builds as the Transpac 09 fleet closes in on Hawaii. Transpac 09 is sure to go down as one of the all time great races of the world’s most enduring and greatest ocean race.