Nevertheless, I was the first boat to finish, beating Joe by 2 hours 46 minutes 38 seconds.  Pretty close for a 12 day race.  And fun!  I don't think we were ever separated by more than 35 miles for the entire 2,120 mile race.  I got the lead the first night by being the only boat to go north and covered him the rest of the race so he could not get by.  Consequently, I won the following Monohull Division Trophies (there were no multihull entries this time):

SSS First to Finish - Elapsed Time
Latitude 38 / Nelson Marine Perpetual Trophy - First Elapsed Time
Orcon Corporation Perpetual Trophy - First Elapsed Time
Jack London Perpetual Trophy - First to Finish Elapsed Time
Grover Nibour Perpetual Trophy and "keeper"- First ULDB Elapsed Time

Plus I got a flag awarded to all entries and a belt buckle awarded to all finishers. Perpetual means that your name and boat are engraved on them and they are re-awarded to the boat who finishes first next time.  These are typically displayed in the winner's yacht club and I will be giving them to mine (Encinal Yacht Club) for display in a month or two.  I get to keep the SSS trophy and the "keeper" for the ULDB (Ultra Light Displacement Boat) first to finish.

What's really cool is one of the trophies has Steve Fossett's name engraved on it as a past winner and mine will be on there near his.  You may recognize him as the guy to who tried to break the around the world balloon record in 1988 as well as the guy racing Playstation now to break some of the sailing speed records.  He currently holds the Pacific Ocean Singlehanded Record (20 days 9 hours 52 minutes - Yokohama to San Francisco - August, 1996) and  Singlehanded Transpac Multihull Record (1998 - 7 days, 22 hours, 38 minutes aboard his 60' trimaran Lakota)  as well as 9 other records. http://www.fossettchallenge.com/.  Stan Honey, who is the navigator on Playstation, has his name on several of the above trophies.

The other trophies were awarded based on the PCR handicap system (a variant of the PHRF system) and Joe won our division on corrected time.  Joe sailed a great race and won a mental award of his own as he was dismasted 75 miles from the finish in the 1998 race.  Not an easy thing to get over and go back the next time to race again!  Good for Chuck!! As promised everyone who contributed to the program will get a shirt (and a race program). The complete race results are here:   SSS Web Site.   Also, if you didn't follow the race, the site still has Mike Jefferson's daily emails from the race.  True to his usual form, they are a great read. The photo on the left is my first attempt at flying a symmetrical kite by myself.  (OK, technically the second, I wrapped it on the first hoist.)  Check out my new 19', 15 lb., high tech, carbon fiber spinnaker pole made by Malcolm Parks at Advanced Composites. Note the lower batten car on the main is broken from the slatting in light air and big seas.

Here is the giant kite down below waiting to get unwrapped.   I was SO looking forward to this job that I decided to take pictures instead. Just in front of the bulkhead on Starboard where you see the leecloth hanging by one hook and the fan is the bunk in which I slept.  This was a good location as I could wake up and see the analog wind direction meter at the nav station on port without getting up. The big blue bags just inboard of my bunk are more kites.

You can see the laptop (duct taped to the chart table) that I used to get weather faxes.   There is one on there that is about 75% received.

Those of you who have sailed on Santa Cruz 50's will immediately notice the white interior.  I like it so much better than the wood, it is so much brighter.

Here is a view of the nav station.  The big laptop is driving the boat.  It is collecting the apparent wind angle from the instruments (I was unable to get True wind angle and speed, unfortunately) and Stan Honey's S/W is using that to send inputs to the Alpha Spectra autopilot. The little box on the chart table is the email unit.  It is interfaced to the receiver and transmitter electronics box and an antenna mounted in the cockpit. You can also see the VHF and SSB radios.

Here's the fish I caught three days out.  Some of the color is still left (it fades quickly when they die).  I got this after three tuna got away cuz the boat was going too fast (I think the hooks ripped out of their mouths - I felt bad when I figured it out). I took this picture after I washed the splattered blood out of the cockpit and from all over me. That box mounted on the cockpit wall is the hydraulics controls for the vang and backstay.  I put it there so I could make adjustments while driving. The rubber tube around the winch contains a coiled up section of fishing line.  I had the whole deal made for me in Hawaii a few years ago. Well, those are some of the highlights.  Overall, it was a great experience and I am SO glad I made the effort to do it and SO thankful to all of the people who rallied and supported me in all of the various ways.

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-Anna