Countdown Time

41 hours to go.  I'll be ready.  I just need to relax, and that ain't easy.

We all went to Spaghetti Factory last night (it was a nice building, but
the pasta was almost inedible). Ramos was telling us to take it easy,
that stress consumes energy and we need out energy.

Ramos says relax. Easy to say. Easy to believe. Hard to put into practice.

It didn't help when Lorna gave us the weather forecast: east wind, and
8 foot swells. Which, for non-Hawaiians, translates to waves with a
16-foot face on the open ocean.

I've never been in water like that before, much less raced in it.

Patti sent out this revised forecast this morning:

Good morning... Checked again this morning & the
small craft advisory will continue until Monday
morning. If the winds lay down a bit, even Saturday
evening, Sunday morning the seas will have calmed a
little. Weather pattern here is calmer in the evening
& night, wind picks up in the afternoons. Since the
wind is from the East, Oahu offers no "lee". So the
course should take you into Oahu around Koko Head.
Don't get pushed up against the point & have to work
your way out. Tide will be pushing to land on a
rising tide. There will be no releif up against land
until Sandy's & Haunama Bay. Then the wind, current
and swell (E) should push you along the island.

So ok. We do this for fun. We do this for love. And once we're in the
water I'll be fine. Terrified, maybe, but fine.

It's making it through the next day and a half that will be the challenge.
Mentally I'm already gone.

All five of us novices are in the crew, though. That feels good. It'll be
nice to be with the guys I started this with. It's hard to believe that we
actually made it to this point. Eli is out with an injury, which sucks;
otherwise it's all of us. We have Ray steering, plus Twayne - a guy
from Outrigger who we haven't met yet. The ninth will be either Ramos,
Rodney, or Geoff. Our guess is Rod.