Get these boys some food!

We spent the day sailing in some mixed conditions. We had nice pressure this morning, and after holding out on a very bad tacking angle through most of the night, it was a relief when we eventually tacked, to find ourselves going over ten knots and pointing straight at Rio. Through the early part of the day we had a couple of really nice scheds against the E's which felt great. However, as I write, we seem to have sailed into a lighter patch, so right now we have weight forward and to leeward. It has been kind of drab and overcast for much of the day but now, as the breeze drops, the sun is coming out! We'll take the wind please.

There has been much discussion on deck today about favorite meals from home and around the world- meat pies from the shop in Keri Keri, New Zealand (Justin), sushi from Willloughby's in Cape Town (Jerry and me), brownies straight out of the oven (Casey). Surprisingly, for this group we actually arrived at a food consensus and decided that if we could have just one meal airlifted to the boat it would be- rotisserie chicken and a nice potato salad, on the side would be bread rolls with fresh butter. For dessert brownies and vanilla ice cream all washed down with every sailor’s favorite, rum and coke.

Our food onboard is slowly running out. With every meal we eat and every slow sched things get just a little worse. We are definitely getting into the dregs, basically all the food we never imagined we would need and just threw in there for an emergency situation, such as the one we are in. We do have a bigger problem with gas though. We have one and a half canisters left. At this point in time we are cutting it close. It's a problem that we identified as early on as a few days out of China and one that we have been managing the whole way. Our current prediction is that the last can of gas will sputter out about twelve hours before we arrive in Rio and we'll be eating cold mashed potatoes and protein for the last little bit. Not too bad all things considered.

- Rick