Capt. and Crew

My family complains that I'm not in any pictures, so here I am next to Roxray. Behind is Mike and Todd is at the helm.

68 hours on the boat so far and we still look pretty good!

Reaching Down the Straights

Mary and Roxray are contributing by keeping Donnybrook flat. We're under Genoa and main while the Tartan in the background is nicely flying a spinnaker,

Sunset Over South Manitou Island

South Manitou Island is one of my favorite places on Lake Michigan. We were fortunate enough to sail by at sunset. Here, Mike enjoys the scene. Roxray is below heating beef stew and beer bread for dinner. Todd is navigating and reviewing strategy for the rest of the race, and I'm making sure everything continues to run well.

This is our last night on the race with an eta of 3:00 Monday afternoon, our target of 72 hours.


It's been a great journey, with more to come.

48 Hour Update

198 total miles sailed and 174 miles from the start! Still sailing nicely. We're in the company of faster boats today.

Our shore support told us we cut Endeavor's lead by half over night. We also passed at least one of our Cruising 2 competitors. We remain optimistic for a strong finish!

Sunday Morning Sunrise

24 Hour Update

At 3:00 pm today we sailed 101 total miles and were 86 miles from start. We're sailing strong again after the rigging problems!

We expect to see some lights on the horizon tonight after losing site of other boats earlier today.

6.5 knots on Donnybrook

What's it like to race up Lake Michigan on Donnybrook? This is one view. It's Saturday and we've sailed over 70 miles. We sailed very well through the night with as many as 22 boats within sight at 1:00 am. At sunrise there were still nearly a dozen visible.

This morning the wind was starting to build after stopping for part of the night. We readied "Blue", our cruising spinnaker. Once up and set, trouble! We had an 18 inch rip! Down came the chute for patching. Once down, the cause of the tear was found: The plastic spreader cover was on the deck.

My first thought was I should go up to put the cover back up. After some thought, I realized Mary and Roxray are both much lighter than me. I asked Mary if she'd volunteer to go up the mast to replace the cover, and she agreed!

After about an hour we had the cover replaced and were underway again. We had some main halyard problems from sending Mary up but they were fixed after another hour or two. Total loss from the adventure: maybe 6 miles.

We're now sailing 6+ knots on the rhumb line. We finished breakfast, pancakes and sausage. Thanks, Todd, for cooking! The crew is exhausted after the all hands event so the auto pilot is steering (benefit of cruising division) while I watch sail trim and tidy up.