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We are currently riding the North end of a high pressure system located in the Tasman sea which is keeping the wind fresh and the boat speed up. Yesterday we ticked off 143 nautical miles, not our best day ever, but good for IO. If we keep that speed up we will shave 2 days off this passage. Race IO, please race. It's always a balance of trying to fly enough sail to keep her moving fast but not break things. We are still almost 700 kilometers from land, and to break anything out here, especially the rig would suck is so many ways.
We have been lucky in this respect; we have not broken anything major at all on the trip (knock-on-wood). I actually don't believe in luck, luck is simply opportunity seized and in this case the opportunity to prepare IO to be strong and have lots of new oversized gear has certainly paid off.
We have seen many boats with snapped masts, heard of man-over-boards and even heard about two lost vessels (one with all hands) this year, which remind us that things could go wrong out here fast. I having been climbing and mountaineering for over 15 years, I thought that I had been in remote places. The Pacific brine is simply so vast and movement here is so slow that despite our little radios and beacons which likely offer only a false sense of security, we are simply out here remote and alone. Truly more remote and more alone than anywhere else I have been.
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