Eliza's first posting - 7/17/08 13:55 PDT

We are alive and well! It has been a wet and wild three days, the last two with high winds and heavy seas, making for challenging driving, but fun when we can catch the wave and surf a bit. I am tied for the speed record at 11.7 knots, which is fast for this French cruising boat. SO far we are doing pretty well, but it is a long race, and we shall see. We have been sleeping in shifts and wow, what weird dreams I have had. The first night I dreamt we ran into some trees. Don't see that being a problem! Then something wakes you up and do I worry about drowning or an accident - no, just whether we have enough baby wipes (that's how you shower) and did I bring enough coffee? We saw a pod of dolphins on our first day which swam off our bow for about 5 minutes. I was driving then and it was very cool. The first night we saw two other sailboat masthead lights and a cruise ship pass by, but about 5 miles away. While I was asleep this morning, the crew saw another sailboat, but other than that, no one and nothing is in sight except the wild blue ocean. It is a bit wet and will be through today, then we hope to put the spinnaker up and the ride will be a little more stable and dry (we hope). I must now put my foul weather gear on and take over driving. I hope you can see the small distance we have gone so far on the tracker. Will write again in a few days or so. I hope you are all well. I thought of each of you the night before last as I was sitting on deck at 4AM amazed at how I ended up there.