Xpression Post Mortem

This was my second LongPac on Xpression. The boat was perfectly prepared. Trying to work my way West whenever I could, instead of going North worked out well to get to the offshore breeze. My injuries from a bad fall 3 days prior started to act up. My elbow with stitches kept hitting things and my bruised ribs made it impossible to sleep on a moving boat when the breeze picked up. It started to be rough out. Xpression dealt with it well and the new sails were very well suited for the conditions. I decided to turn around when my 30 min naps would only last 2 min waking up from the pain in my ribs. Also my elbow started bleeding through my shirt and was in bad shape.
Maybe next time...

Lessons learned:
- Feeling physical "not bad" on shore can mean "very bad" offshore..
- Use sunscreen, even when overcast..
- One offshore race this year (SSS Farallones) was not enough offshore time before the Longpac..
- Make sure to store bananas properly and they don't end up under your feet and smooshed all over the boat..
- AIS not always great. A few boats did have a transponder so they will show up on your AIS receiver, good to compare speed, etc. Bad if you try to sleep and set's off your AIS alarm many times...
- The tracking website made it very entertaining/interesting for friends and family. Great job in getting that set-up for this race.
- AJ and crew did a fantastic job organizing the race and makes a difference in the overall experience. Thanks!

That sound like a painful experience! Hope you heal up quickly on shore...

I learned the same banana lesson on Transpac... I put a gear hammock full of fruit up on the windward side of the v-berth, and it slapped against the hull at every wave and beat the bananas into mush which got splattered everywhere. Oranges and grapefruit were fine though.