Race Day 2 Sunday, July 17

07-17-11 Sunday morning is beautiful as we continue to sail North looking to head toward the Manitou Passage and arrive around 2100 hrs. Wind is building and we are sailing downwind with the wind on the back quarter on Stb tack running 8knots with building seas.
James T and I aare starting to look at large cells starting to come towrd us out of Wisconsin at arounf 1800 hrs. Looks like we are in for a tough night.
A great Cassarole comes out of Beef Lasagnia, bread and salad.....Nyanza always eats well. Thanks too the Julia and her sister. After dinner shifts go back to normal and we continue to watch the big front moving very fast across lake Michigan.
Nyanza cuts inside the Passage at 2200 hours and starts toward grays reef.
As the front approaches Nyanza strips to a number three and talks about a Reef, still not seeing a lot of wind in most of the cells. When it hit at about 2345 we could not get the reef in, luck for Nyanza we had a batcar Main track system and we quickly dropped the whole main losing a batten. Intensity was upwards of 50knots plus and blew for about 10 minutes....duration was interesting and quite long....this is whaats new about these cell storms ,they are getting more intense and longer in duration. You need to be ready!We were!