Hi all,

The past two days I had the luck and privilege of getting to go sailing on Alfa Romeo-one of the coolest, sweetest, prettiest, and not to mention FASTEST super-maxis in the world of sailing. With winches powered by push buttons, I felt like the smallest grinder in the world as I mainsheet and traveler caddied on board. The first year that Transpac is letting in boats with stored power has allowed Alfa Romeo’s owner Neville Crichton to come back to the Transpac after doing the race 30 years ago! He’s in America now (after more than ten years away) ready to launch an assault on the Transpac race, in particular the race record of 6 days 19 hours, currently held by Hasso Plattner’s Morning Glory. My friend and teacher Stan Honey is the navigator on board, and says if the weather turns out to be anything like the forecasts, they should jump the old record by an easy 10 hours….

Hopefully they have smooth sailing and a fast crossing, and that they stick around on shore so we get to see them when we show up a couple days later on Ragtime! We’re currently getting Ragtime ready and loaded and are going out for a sail this evening with the whole crew, perhaps for the last time before the start on Sunday. Wish us luck!

If you’d like to follow the Transpac, the website is www.transpacrace.com and the race tracking is race.ionearth.com/2009/tpyc/transpac/. And check out my website getsailing.org for more pictures from Alfa Romeo, as well as a new writeup about when I got to sail on the Ericsson support boat at the Boston Volvo Ocean Race stopover!

All the best,

Genny