In the Groove

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Author: Mark
Date: Nov 25, 2:00am NZT
Location: 30 18 S - 178 13 E
Conditions: 11-13ts @ 130 TWA, 185T COG, 6.7 kts AVG SOG, 1.0m swell
24 HR Avg: 168 NM (We are tracking 1pm - 1pm)

Well, we knew it would happen and it did. The winds have died down significantly. In fact, for six hours (6pm - midnight) we had virtually no wind and motor sailed. Arg. I really hate flicking on the engines, but we did. We are targeting arrival by Friday. If we don't keep the boat moving we will push into Friday night and risk getting hit by the low moving over the North Island Saturday.

We received a couple of questions regarding our sail configuration during this trip. We've been using our mainsail with our new North Sails Code Zero. The Code Zero (not to be confused with the 'Screecher') is our newest sail aboard Field Trip. It is 30% larger than our old North Sails Screecher. This new sail is a significant improvement over the previous sail. Burns (sail designer for Team NZ Americas Cup) at North Sails in Aukland designed the sail based on our requirements. In summary, its not nearly as flat as a traditional screecher, and performs best with AWA 45-110. I'll spare you the technical details. In summary, this sail allows us to really move the boat when reaching or broad reaching in up to 22kts of true wind. We get into a groove that significantly exceeds what we previously could sail under the old screecher or genoa.

The big event today was our 30 minute struggle to land a very large fish. James worked hard on the reel, and we almost landed the fish....but didn't. The fish was a monster, and ended up bending the treble hook off the Rapala lure. Needless to say, we were a disappointed crew. Especially after we re-rigged both rods with black steel leader to prevent losing the lure. Oh well, better luck next time!

There is not much more to report on our trip today. It has been comfortable and uneventful. We'll dip the lures in the water at sunrise and hope for a better fish story with pictures for our next post!

PS

We've been posting more pictures on Facebook. I can only post one pic for each blog entry while sailing.

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