The wake of the boat glowing a phosphorescent green with bright sparkles as the boat powers down a tradewind swell at night with the spinnaker up. Perhaps this is why we do this. It's the delights of a PopTart at 2 in the morning after dragging the spinnaker out of the water. Or maybe it is the thrill of being head down in the engine compartment bleeding the fuel system so you can charge batteries, while the boat rolls 25 degrees to each side. He reports that the boat has never sailed so fast before.
Heroic deeds are often the response to limited options.
The fleet seems pretty happy right now. The race is very tight, on a boat for boat basis, with many competitors only a few miles apart in distance to the finish. The southern boats seem to be in a low wind situation at the moment, while the northern boats are running before 20 knots True wind and a possible cold front. Today the fleet was running dead downwind in big lumpy seas and 15-20 knots true wind speed. Most boats were running poled out jibs to windward, many also flew another jib to leeward, some poled, some free.