The good news...

After a good day's rest, other positive thoughts about LongPac come to mind.

• I had never done long-distance (eg. over several days) single-handed sailing and I loved it - I feel that I need to do a lot more of this going forward...particularly if I want to prepare my next LongPac and potentially TransPac.
  
• Learned the importance of 'banking' sleep, you never know when a storm might hit and when you won't be able to sleep for a while - so I will better managed to strength/sleep next time. Also, single-handed sailors I noticed were not driving all the time, even when they were not sleeping which allows for more endurance (which is what I lacked this race because of the lack of autopilot), maneuvres go smoother, etc...
  
• Have two tasks in front of me: figure out a way to get power at night for the autopilot to run at least for 4 hours and figure out alternative ways of self-steering Elise if the main autopilot fails
• I had more spinnaker/surfing downwind fun this time around even though I didn't go all the way than with Heather when we did go all the way because of some flimsy winds last time
• I got to learn how to steer her upwind with no weight on the rail (I was about to take down the #3 and put the storm jib in place) and how she behaved in 25-30 knots of wind - pretty well, I was able to keep her pretty flat but in gusts the headsail would still make her round up a little
• Nathan's suggestion to have a 3rd reefing point in the cruising main (the one we take of short-handed races) is a great one
• I realize how tiring single-handed racing is (I already had developed a lot of admiration for single-handed racers, so there's much room for me to admire them even more!) and how much physical preparation beforehand is helpful. It's really about endurance. The sailing was OK this time around. The sailor was not. And you need both to win a race.
• I saw dolphins and two whales...and God, it was such a beautiful starry night the second night out there. Just beautiful.