Under Bright Blue Hawaiian Skies and a Bright Blue Spinnaker
by Greg Harms, July 9th, 2008
Under bright blue Hawaiian skies and a bright blue spinnaker, Warren Hale sailed his 44 C&C "Turicum" across the finish line for the 5th and most impressive time at 1502.10HST Tuesday. Just 5 hours short of taking over Strum's first position on corrected time, Hale and his crew did a first class race. Rising to every conceivable challenge that Mother Nature can deliver they report winds of 45-50 knots, seas (second spreader) 30 feet high, together with many frustrating periods of dead calm.
The race focus is now on Passepartout and Seeker who are racing hard against each other for the honour of crossing the finish line with bragging rights over the other. But the big prize would be for Seeker to beat Strum for first overall on corrected time, and she needs to cross the line by 0040HST on Thursday morning and will need to sail fast to make it. With light trade winds this may be a tall order, but her secondary objective will be for second place in front of Turicum who owes Seeker 38h 28min 0s. This means Seeker needs to arrive by 0530.10HST to win second place overall.
Black Watch and Red Heather will be concentrating on finishing before race deadline of 2355 HST Thursday.