Jonathan McKee
What a difference a day makes! Yesterday was pretty relaxed, except we had to go up the rig to replace a halyard. That is always a challenging time. Harder for GA, he has to go up there and do the work, I just grind and provide support from on deck. If I count to 150 very slowly he is all the way up, it takes about 5 minutes. We have walkie talkies to communicate. At least there are two of us.

After we had a proper masthead halyard we changed from the A1 to the A2, our biggest kite at about the same as the playing area of 2 Tennis Courts!!! By now the wind was 15 to 20 knots with squalls up to 27.
It got a little lighter at sunset then quickly buiilt again to 15 – 25 knots. Last night was pretty hard work. You cant really use the A2 with the Autopilot, except for short periods like tea ceremony, so it was hand steering for 4 to 5 hours straight. The first hour is the hardest, then you kind of get in the zone and dont have to concentrate as hard. Then the last hour gets hard again because you are getting tired. It was a really dark night, raining most of the time, no moon or stars. That makes it harder too. This morning the breeze is still
20+ knots so we are flying, making south in a big hurry. It seems the
tropics are gone now. It is mostly cloudy and starting to get cooler.

It is funny what you think about when you are out here for a long time. Of course your first concern is taking care of the ship and sailing fast and smart. There are thousands of little details involved in that so it takes a lot of mindshare, even in the best of times. But there are also many times when your mind wanders to more contemplative issues. I think a lot about my life and where I have been and how lucky I am. But mostly I think about other people; Libby, Allegra, Nathaniel, my Mom and brothers and sister, and all of my awesome friends. I feel very blessed. It seems strange to have to travel halfway around the world in a carbon sailboat to properly appreciate your friends and loved ones. I guess absence does make the heart grow fonder…

I want to sincerely thank all the many people who have sent us notes of encouragement. We do get them, even if we dont reply (we cant reply to them all!!). It really makes us feel part of something bigger to hear from you all. We draw on your energy and use it to power ourselves forward, especially during hard times. So keep those notes coming, we love them!