Day 13: Champagne sailing!

I am writing this under a spectacular starry night, the most beautiful we have seen yet. The moon is not up. Everything is crystal clear. We see Mars and its orange glow, we see the bright Mercury, we see Jupyter and the Milky Way, We see everything.

This is all at the end of a glorious day, a day characterized by what I called Champagne sailing in an earlier post, We had blue skies, blue waters, a gorgeous sunset. We were on a beautiful starboard tack. We are moving fast. The kind of sailing you would kill for. In terms of Champagne, this is the pinnacle. Think of a Krug millesimé I often enjoy with my friend Christophe!

We are nearing the end of the journey and with this comes a little bit of melancholy. If all goes well, tonight will be my last night shift with Seb F, my fabulous shift-mate . We had our last punch and `apéro’ (see my earlier post for the meaning of the word), and our last dinner earlier today. Every time we do something or something happens, we ask whether it is the last time. It’s a little bittersweet.

We will work hard to arrive tomorrow before sundown. As I am writing this, we have 170 nautical miles to go. It’s seems like a piece of cake given that we already traced 2,200. But it’s not clear whether we will be able to make it by the last daylights. We will see. We’ll work hard.

Speaking of arrival, we have been asked to choose a song that the race committee will play when we cross the finish line. My shipmates are advocating for some ‘chanson Française à texte’ of the kind “Les Copains d’Abord.” I wish we could play something else. I wish we could blast some heavy metal. My top choice would be “Give me all your lovings” by ZZ Top. I want to come in with metal, chrome, leather and blasting guitars. I don’t know what my brothers — both are music lovers — will think of this. I however think I am in the minority.

I want to lie the last moments to the full extend possible so I will sleep on deck tonight. There will be ample time for more comfortable bedding in the near future.

And now, Dear Reader, you are now used to partying words from Seb F, which you will find below.

Ruby,

It would be unfair not to show some tenderness for our proud First 40. As we enjoy the first full star night on the eve of our arrival in Hawaï, I want to pay a respectful tribute to Ruby. She is not the fastest, not the biggest boat of the fleet, but a wonderfully built, prepared and sailed safe haven. I have never had a single doubt on its robustness during our Transpac. She’s has never let us down, she has always forgiven our few mistakes and all in all, we will complete the Transpac 2025 in a very decent race time. Crossing the Pacific Ocean on a 40 footer is not a walk in the park as Emmanuel wrote it on the blog, and it requires a full confidence between the crew and towards our vessel.

So thank you Ruby for taking us safely and rapidly to the finish line.

Séb, onboard Ruby, 150 NM from Diamond’s Head.