And then we were six

The whole crew spent a restless weekend trying to figure out who would round out the Pac Cup team. We had a last minute cancellation (one that we knew might happen but were holding out hope that it wouldn't) and we had to fill in the spot quickly. I guess it is technically possible to sail to Hawaii with 5, but some quick math makes you realize that you get a lot more sleep with 6.

Here's how the progression of possibilities sorted out:

1. Great sailors with whom somebody had sailed
2. Sailors with whom somebody had sailed
3. People we knew who sailed
4. Sailors we'd heard about that might be able to make it
5. Friends who didn't sail but we knew with whom it would be fun to spend 2 weeks sailing

Yep, we got down to number 5 pretty quickly. It's amazing how few people can drop everything and take 2+ weeks off with 1 week notice. I have such a friend, one who is up for anything, and has sailed a few times with me. He doesn't bring a ton of sailing experience but he can fix anything so I won't be so worried about breaking things. And I've spent a lot of time with him so I know I can stand him for 2 weeks. It's Tirso!



So what if he's a Dodger's fan and might not know port from starboard. We have time for some intensive on the job training. The first few days is close hauled, very little sail trim to be done and Valis steers very nicely to windward. He'll get some great experience getting to know the boat. When we turn the corner, you have calm seas and somewhat light winds to get used to reaching and downwind steering. Your first few days of spinnaker sailing are easy to get a hang of that before the swells and trades kick in. At that point he'll have had plenty of ocean miles to have learned the basics and he'll get a crash course (not literally I hope) for the more intense tradewinds sailing. Hell, I need practice before getting to those conditions.

So, we're all set with six and less than a week until we're sailing to Hawaii!!!!!