Friday, June 19, 2015

Day 1 - June 19 Agile Sailing

Day 1 Friday Afternoon/Evening – A Sail Retrospective

In software development we often use a methodology called "Agile Development". Agile is a process that simply recognizes that the time you know the least about any project is before you start. The process allows small teams to work on small incremental phases called sprints. Each sprint typically last 1-2 weeks.

At the end of each incremental step the team meets to discuss what went well and want improvements they can make to their process. This review is called a retrospective.

The same process held true aboard Mahina Kai on Thursday evening despite completing two different weather briefing and learning that the remnants'' of tropical storm Bill may combine with another low to create some snotty weather Sunday evening as we would likely enter the Gulf Stream. The Crew of Mahina Kai still wasn't sure how to proceed. When the meteorologist says multiple times that it will be a "lively" sail and the "fastest" trip to Bermuda, that causes us some concern as we contemplate the start of the race.

Should we use our heavy weather jib designed for high winds or our much larger genoa that has the power to get Mahina Kai to Bermuda quickly. Thursday evening the crew made the choice to put on the heavy weather jib. We were the only boat to cross the starting line with such a small sail.

As the afternoon wore on, the winds became very light in Buzzards Bay. Mahina Kai was simply not making the pace she needed to get to Bermuda. The rest of the feet was also struggling with light winds including the Spirit of Bermuda. However, they were inching along faster than us.

Before dinner Friday evening Mahina Kai had a "Retrospective", we decided to replace the storm jib with the larger Genoa. We are now cruising along comfortable on our way at a proper speed.

Fare Winds

s/v Mahina Kai

#SVMahinaKai #MBR2015


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2 comments:

  1. Hello to captains and crew. We've been enjoying tracking your progress from here at the home port. Today we are getting the remnants of TS Bill. Hopefully you are far enough south/east to miss most of it. We'll be watching for the Instragam photos of you all singing around the guitar while the dolphins follow by your side. Your doing a great job, enjoy the ride and we'll see you soon!

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  2. Ahoy Captians and Crew. We continue to monitor your progress on the YB app. From what we can tell all is well. Looking forward to seeing your first tweet or FB post. Really looking forward to seeing you all in Bermuda! Your doing a great job!

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