One of the fun parts of this race is learning about each other’s lives in ways that you never could otherwise.  You live in close quarters for nine months.  Eleven guys crammed into, quite literally, a shoe.  Here are just a few simple ones:

For example, I know that Erle Williams takes his job with the J Boat ‘Ranger’ so personally that he could feel the collision that they had with Velsheda yesterday at the Antigua Classic Regatta from here.

I know that Shannon Falcone likes to night time kiteboard back in Antigua. Sounds like a tough life doesn't it?  

I know that Casey Smith is possessed about dune buggy-style cars and has put together his own engine in his garage and is searching desperately for a chassis to go with it to drive around Newport in style.

Justin Ferris went home over the last break and went sailing.  Think about that for a minute.  Thing is, he went sailing on his new 30' version of a Volvo 70, that is painted purple.  

Andrew Cape gets IT jobs on the side when he isn't sailing.  

Sidney Gavignet has a mural of a Phoenix painted on his back.  

Rob Salthouse can fix just about anything on a boat - whatever kind of boat it is.  

Bob Greenhalgh is passionate about deep sea fishing and puts a photo of himself with some big fish up as a screensaver on all our computers.  

Ricky Deppe has a very interesting sense of what makes a movie good and what doesn't.  

And Michi Mueller - the quiet one, has a competitive a streak as anyone I have met.  First one to the nav station every three hours to see how we are doing - won't talk about it though.  Oh yeah, and his new born daughter will be meeting him on the dock in Boston - a very special moment that will be.

They are a bunch of good guys that will be part of this ‘Monster Club’ for the rest of our days.

As for the race?  Oh yes, we are heading northwest still in search of a little more wind.  The boats to the west of us have capitalised on a bit more breeze in the past 24 hours.  We have to do something about that soon.  We think we’ll be able to claim the miles back soon but time will only tell.  The drag race continues.

Kenny Read - skipper