Archive for July 2014
Day 11 Post By Jon
Repetition
Day 11 8:00 A.M. (682 Nautical Miles (NM) from Hawaii)
176 NM Made Good to Hawaii over the past 24 Hours.
Day 11 4:00 P.M. (627 NM from Hawaii)
We are steadily getting closer and making decent progress. The new starboard tack is working out well for us. On the most part we are heading directly for Hawaii which means our speed and velocity made good are the same. The seas are moderate and less confused as before and following. The winds are holding nicely at around 15 knots so we are able to sail with our largest spinnaker and full main. Unlike early this morning when John was at the helm, just about ready to go off the helm at 5:00 A.M. when we were hit by a wind gust to 25 and he lost control of the helm. Nico and I were with him and we had blown the boomvang immediate with no relief, we then let the guy out so the spinnaker pole was all the way forward without touching the forestay. We then started to ease both the main and spinnaker sheets still with no relief. At this point there is nothing left to do but hope the wind lessens and the rudder is able to catch hold. We waiter, and waited, and then I could feel the boat slowly fall off but still not out of the woods. At this point if the wind stayed the same or increases we were stuck, however Mother Nature must have had her fun because to our relief the wind decreased just enough to allow us to fully recover. As we were resetting all of the lines Juan was struck with a disturbing thought. It was his turn at the helm next and there is nothing worse out here than to be the helmsman during a major knock down. First off it is a helpless feeling because you are no longer in control. Second it is very demanding because you are constantly fighting the tiller to compensate for the boat wanting to either lay down or become a wind vane pointing into the wind with flogging sails and thrashing lines everywhere or worse yet roll down rather than up. Not being one to keep his opinions to himself Juan, rather strongly suggested that the crew through in a reef. Typically Juan’s suggestions are usually met without a lot of enthusiasm by his crew mates but this time it was completely different where they all responded with a resounding yes. The only issue was that we had to use one of the starboard wenches that was currently occupied by the spinnaker sheet under an incredible amout of load. Juan attempted to help Nico move the line but when it became obvious that Juan was making matters worse by tying to wrap a clockwise wench (BTW they all are) counter clockwise he decided to set back and watch in amazement Nico do his thing. Seems dyslexia may be another Juanism! Under a reefed main Juan was able to complete his turn at the helm with only one minor roundup.
I headed this entry “Repetition” for a reason after reading Nico’s last entry (not sure if it is posted yet). He is correct when he said that our days are basically 8 hours long; four hours on watch and four hours off watch. The repetition sets in with this constant 4 hours on 4 hours off routine with very little change unless there is a sail change or a knockdown. The only non-repetitive part is what you do on your off time when you are not sleeping because even under these extreme conditions you typically do not need to sleep half the time. This give you some time to yourself that I have been referring to as “Me Time”. Some of the crew, like me, read and work on the computer either blogging or navigating. Some do sleep more, I’m amazed at how easy David falls asleep. Some cook and some clean up, all wanting to contribute. Today was one of the few days with no overcast skies so there was a parade of 5 naked men taking turns showering. Kent brought a 5 gal. sun shower filled with sea water, providing a marvelous warm shower. Nico and David went the macho route and simply used a bucket dipped in the sea and dumped it over their heads. Juan wasn’t quite up to that exhilarating of an experience and John said he will give it a couple of degrees first.
It is important to note that repetition is not synonymous with boredom. We all look forward to our one hour stints at the helm, we look forward to our rest time and we look forward to our Me Time. How can you get bored sailing with a crew of great guys trying to make Avion go as fast as possible, in a setting comprised of beautiful seascapes, determining and taking your best judged course while competing against some of the best sailors in the area. This was the adventure I signed up for and it is the adventure being delivered.
Day 11 11:20 P.M. (576 NM To Hawaii)
The weather is benign, Kent is at the helm and David is his sidekick so I thought I would finish this post before waking Tom up at Midnight. What a difference a day makes. We currently in 12 to 14 knot winds, calm following seas and entering the next phase of the race; trade winds and dodging squals. We have the smaller spinnaker, a small jib, and the jib top all on deck and rigged if needed during the night. We do not see any cumulus cloud formations on the horizon so we think we can go with the largest spinnaker. I will be ready for an All Hands On Deck order if it comes while I’m asleep.
The good news is that my hand held GPS is finally showing an estimated ETA based on a running average of velocity made good. It seems it is limited to 100 hours, I never had a race where my next mark was that far away so I didn’t know that particular limitation. It shows about 95 hours; that should put us in about this time Tuesday the 14th day. I will include this figure in my headings along with nautical miles to go. We do have friends and family arriving tomorrow to be there for our finish so they would probably like to know.
July 18, 2014 Gybe Ho! Life on Port
Well after nine days on starboard tack we have gybed over onto port tack. What that means is that our entire world has gone from leaning to the left, to leaning to the right. This may seem trivial at first but a few things are different. While for nine days we have all been strengthening our left arm while we drive, we now have to learn to drive with our right hand. For those of us sleeping on the low side we are now on the high side which means relearning how to sleep. It also means that the kitchen is now on the high side, dirty dishes have become much more likely to take trips across the boat. Also most of the kitchen cupboards are now on the high side making things like getting bowls and tea out has become a bit hazardous. We are now flying a symmetric spinnaker and going more directly down the waves and more directly to Hawaii this makes thee driving much more exciting as we are surfing down waves making the boat go much faster but the margin for error much smaller! Another notable change that is not a result of life leaning the other way but coincidently happened the same day is the food! Up until now we have had frozen casseroles made by Kent and his wife, usually something smothered in cheese and delicious, or frozen stews from Dragers. 2 days ago the last of the dry Ice sublimated and yesterday we ate the last casserole, chicken enchiladas! We are now resorted to nonperishable foods, which many boats resort to pre prepared dehydrated meals. Of course, with my upbringing being so centered around food, this was never going to fly! Before we left I volunteered to take charge of the nonperishable meals, reading researching and looking into every gourmet backpacking website I could get my hands on, as well as interrogating anyone who had ideas to share! I found recipes adapted them to what our needs were and assembled them into meal bags. The goal, we wanted minimal cooking as we knew the focus would be sailing and sleep. Once all the bags were filled with dehydrated veggies beans rice quinoa and potato flakes I looked at the bags and told myself there is no way that is enough food for 6 so I added a bit more to each thinking we could eat leftovers f or lunch. Well after making the first bag I think we have enough food for 15! I guess we won’t starve! I like to think what I made is better than what REI sells but that is up to the rest of the crew to decide. Until next time
Nico
18 Juillette 2014 Empanage! La vie Sur Babord
Apres neuf jours sur tribord on viens d’empanner et on est sur babord. Ce que ca veut dire c’est que notre monde qui pancher a gauche maintenant panche a droite. Ca ne semblerrais pas comme une grande affair, mais ca change quelque chose. Pendant neuf jours on a barrer avec la main gauche, et maintenent on doit re apprendre a barrer avec la main droite. Pour ceux de nous qui dormais sur le coter bas on se retrouve du coter hour et doit reaprerndre a dormir. Ca veut aussi dire que maintenet la cusinne est du coter haut, et la vaissaile et la norriture se decide de traverser le bateaux de temps en temps. La on a mis le spi symmetric et on vas plus dans le direction des vagues et plus directement ver Hawaii! Ca fait que de barrer est beaucoup plus interassant et aussi la marge pour erreur es largement reduit! Un autre changement qui viens de se passer mais n’a reins n’avoir avec l’empanange c’estt la norriture! Jusque a present on manger des plats fait d’avance par un equipier Kent et sa famme, normalment quelque chose couvert de fromage et delicieux. Il y a deux jours le reste de la glace sec (traduction direct) s’evapore et heir on a manger le dernier plat preparer Enchiladas de poulet! Maintenent on et reduit a de la norrriture non perible ce que pour la plut part des bateaux veut dire des sachet de repas deshydate. Bien sur comme j’ai ete elever bien francais, ca ca n’aurais jamais passer. Avant de partir je me suis inscrit a m’occuper des plat non perrible. J’ai lu, rechercher, demander a tout le monde qui avait fait quelque choes comme ca, et rechercher tout les recetter de randonner que je pouvais trouver. J’ais pris des recettes, J’ai adapter pour nos besoins et j’ai 10 sac de repas en sac zip lock. Le bute, de ne pas a avoir a cusinier comme on savais que on aller etre occuper a naviguer et dormir. Une fois finis j’ai regarder les sac j’ai demendeer a ma mere et mes amis et j decider que ce n’etait pas possible que il y avais asser pour 6 personnes dans chacq sac don j’en ai rajouter en pensant que on mangerais es rester au dejeuer. Et bien sur apr avoirs fait le premier dinner on en a asser pour nourrier 15! Au moins on ne deperiras pas! Apres tout ca pour ne pas a avoir a cusinier je prernds les rester d’auter repas et j’ajoute je mange et je cusine, et j’adore ca! On se demennde d’ou je tiens ca! A la Prochainne
Nico
12:30pm, Fri July 18
A few notables: coming on deck at about 11pm to a fairly clear sky, no moon yet, and breath taking stars. The milky way is hard to describe at sea. Nico saw a shooting star that broke into 2 pieces, I missed that one.
Lightning under clouds a few miles off last night, that was attention grabbing. The discussion on the roll call on the radio this morning was that the thing to do is put handheld satphone, GPS and VHFs in the oven, the metal box will likely protect them from induced currents in case of a strike. Nothing close to any boats.
There is a boat that retired due to a broken rudder, they are under way with either a spare rudder or steering with a drogue, not sure at this point.
Another boat retired to run under engine, they have to make a work schedule. Their location at radio check in put them in a wind hole we have been angling to avoid, based on the grib file wind forecasts we are watching. The grib files are downloaded directly from NOAA, and are generated by the same computer simulations that they use to do all the TV weather forecasting you see. We can specify which computer model we want, what time sequence, and what area on the earth. It’s pretty cool. They show up as an email attachment that we get via the satellite internet link. We can zoom in on where we expect or want to be in 1,2,3,4 days, all animated.
We’re angling tto stay a bit north of a wind hole south of us, that will dissipate about the time we turn south, should keep winds above 10 knots, in the middle of the hole theres 5 knots to nothing. Right now we have 15.1 knots true. We’re running under our #2 symmetric spinnaker, our biggest one.
We had a spinnaker pole end fail a few days ago, but we were able to fix it well enough, we are using that one upside down, and we have 2 poles. Two poles makes gybing the spinnaker a lot easier, especially in high winds and waves. We haven’t had much of that yet, but may as we approach Hawaii.
Angie will be glad to know the fishing line is set, pretty lure and a flying fish that landed on deck last night. We’re out of the precooked food, first freeze-dried meal last night, which was good. I had another bucket bath just a bit ago. And its a glorious sunny day. Time to go to bed 🙂
Day 10 Post By Jon
Exhaustion Set in
Day 10 8:00 A.M. (858 Nautical Miles (NM) from Hawaii)
Note I think we reported the wrong Latitude on Day 9 by one degree which would have made the distance made good calculation of 184 NM rather than 132 NM and today’s 181 NM rather than 228. I’m sure it will be no problem for the race committee since it was an honest mistake and not a tactical move to give all of those boats in front of us a false sense of security!
Day 10 6:00 P.M. (784 NM from Hawaii)
No earlier posts today because I found myself too tired to do anything but sleep. I was unable to sleep my two previous off watches prior to going down this morning at 6:00 A.M. I’m not sure why. You would think that after 9 full days my body would have adjusted and wanted sleep. It may have been the excitement of having made the halfway point; whatever the reason the crew was worried. Tom, my hot bunk mate, took one look at me and said. “Do you want to be off for 6 hours rather than 4, you look like you could use some extra rest. ” My response was, “Is it that obvious”, and he countered with, “Oh yes”. Thankfully once my head hit the pillow I was out for 6 hours.
Our winds are still staying moderate at 17 plus knots with an occasional bump to 20. Our boat speed hovers around 7 knots with a few joy rides making it above 9 knots. While I was down the crew changed spinnakers from the reaching asymmetric to the more downwind symmetric, giving Nico another mark on his arm to 17, Juan still likes the idea of converting them to tattoos. We shook the reef out of the sail around 3 P.M. We just completed one of our few All Hands On Deck commands to jibe the spinnaker. After 8 days of being on a Starboard Tack we are now on Port. This means that he wind is now coming off of our port side (you’re left facing forward) of the boat rather than the starboard side (you’re right while facing forward). This was the first time we were able to test out our new two spinnaker pole rig. Tom wanted two poles and worked on various options before settling on the new aluminum pole to complement our standard carbon fiber pole. The broken end from yesterday’s broach was on the aluminum pole but our MacIver fixed it so we are now functional with two poles. We will see how good of a fix Kent made because it is now the pole flying. My guess it will get us to our next jibe.
Before the jibe we were running a course of around 250 while our current course is around 200 with the bearing to Hawaii of 221 degrees. At some point we will have to jibe back over to starboard to complete the course to Hawaii. We planned this setup 3 days ago when we chose to go more west early and then swing south later hoping those boats that went south earlier will be experiencing less wind tomorrow giving us an opportunity to catch them. The waves are getting larger and more spread out but they are very confused causing the boat to list in all directions. The larger sets are coming off our stern but there are some smaller sets that are crossing our bow resulting in a rather uncomfortable ride, but nothing serious.
Now that I am rested all is well on the boat. Tom and I have modified our watch schedules by two hours so I am off until 8 so it is some Me Time now. I will post this and see what this evening brings with our new tack. If these winds hold we are hoping to arrive in Hawaii on Tuesday giving Lindi and Angie plenty of time to provision and plan for the return trip since they are arriving on Saturday. Not that they won’t be partying with Al and Michelle and all of the boats that arrive before us!
While I was setting up to post Tom at the helm made another entry into the Rocket Club with 10.11 but not his personal best. John still is in the lead with 10.75, my best is 10.36.
Day 9 Post By Jon
Halfway There!!!
Day 9 8:00 A.M. (1086 Nautical Miles (NM) from Hawaii)
Note the nautical miles left for Day 8 at 8:00 A.M. should have been 1218.
132 NM made good over last 24 Hours
Wind lightened last night and we only had the Jib Top up and didn’t want to change sails until sunlight so our distance made good did decrease from the last few days’ average. This became evident when I wrote down the locations of all of our competitors during the morning roll call; all made gains on us. As we approached the halfway mark of the race I felt a bit disappointed that we are not doing better, and then reality struck. The fact that we are out here in the first place and have made it as far away from any land mass in the entire world, in itself is a major accomplishment. We are all health, happy, and proud of our accomplishments. I should in no way feel bad about the fact that we are being bested by sailors that have done this multiple times and in some cases have professional crews and unlimited budgets. When you are racing against boats that are capable of racing to Hawaii you are only racing against the best.
Skipper Tom and John were studying the latest weather forecasts recently downloaded and I poked my head down the companionway for a suggestion. When we made our major course corrections a while back to miss the lessening winds forecast for Friday I was concerned. We couldn’t hold the course by flying the spinnaker so we changed to the jib top. At that point we decreased our boat speed by about 1 knot an hours. I was curious if the difference in our planned locations by the change was worth the loss in boat speed. We all agreed to fly the spinnaker and lower our course heading.
At this stage of the race you can’t feel bad about your current position. You made your best guess as to how your course changes and sails sets will get you to Hawaii relatively faster than the next boat. The only way to know is when you arrive in Hawaii. So for now, we have made our bed, we can’t change it so only time will tell if we ultimately made the correct decision.
Day 9 5:30 P.M. (968 NM from Hawaii)
181 NM made good over last 24 Hours
It is good that our distance made good is back to about 200 NM per day, at this speed we should arrive in Hawaii in 5 days. It was definitely an E-Ticket ride this afternoon during my watch between 10:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M. My first rule of business after the 9:30 A.M Roll Call check in was to see if we made it to the predicted halfway point at around 9 A.M. which I confirmed. There will be a Halfway Party later today; hopefully the weather and waves cooperate.
Nico was on the helm and since I had the GPS in hand after verifying our position I decided to see what our maximum speed over ground is showing. There are multiple different speeds we monitor, speed through the water, speed over ground and velocity made good. I have been primarily focusing on velocity made good to Hawaii, after all that is our goal. Speed through the water is calculated by an impeller that is in the water by a transducer through the hull. This is what we are using to determine who joins the Two Digit Rocket Club. The last indicator comes from the GPs that show speed over ground, same calculation as on your car navigational unit. The GPS recorded a maximum speed for Nico at 12.8 Knots and John at 13 knots. While I was on the helm for my one hour rotation I reached a new personal best at 9.76 knots of boat speed through the water. This is what happens while driving. The helmsman is constantly adjusting the tiller to compensate for the changes in wind direction and velocity in addition to the wave action as the waves pass under the hull. Avion was experiencing winds constantly in excess of 15 knots with gusts to 22 knots. With these sustained winds we were also experiencing larger swells; close to 10 foot seas. The trick to join the Rocket Club is to catch the wave just right at the exact same time a gust of wind passes through the sails. Think of a surfer waiting for that perfect wave to ride, only on a sailboat you are riding every wave. Just like a surfer the secret is to catch that perfect wave right at the crest and surf down the front side before it passes all the way through the hull. Without surprise, taking advantage of his vast experience of 9 previous Pacific Cups, John Dillow was the first member to join the Rocket Club. At precisely 12:56 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time on 7/16/2014 Avion reached speed through the water of 10.56 Knots. Juan let out a “Yeeee Haa” to the roar of the wave rushing off the hull.
My watch ended at 2:00 P.M. and I was ready for some Me Time. My last two sleep cycles started with the engine running to charge the batteries and I had to come up early this morning to catch the Roll Call. I came down the companionway, took off my harness, shoes, shirt and pants and climbed into bed only to be greeted by flogging sails, the bed listing to 45 degrees and a significant BANG; so much for getting sleep. I crawled out of bed, grabbed the hand holds and pulled myself up to the companionway to see 4 crew members all scrabbling for lines. Nico yelled to the other crew members that Jon was below to squirrel so I assumed my role as the squirrel in my skivvies. I went to the peak of the boat, through the head thinking of Kent a few days earlier and started pulling down the spinnaker as Nico and John were above shoving it to me. After it was secured I asked through the hatch above the sail locker, “What the hell just happened.” Nico explained that the boat broached (laid over, rudder came out of the water and Avion rounded up) and while the spinnaker was flogging it broke the end off of the new spinnaker pole. My first thought was, glad it was the spare. The crew decided that we were pushing the boundaries of the boat and decided on replacing the spinnaker with the next smaller size; one of the advantages of having 10 head sails. I went back to bed after taking advantage of the head right next to the sail locker.
As I crawled out of my bunk at 6:00 P.M., I drug out the halfway bag my sweetheart Lindi gave Nico the morning we shoved off from the dock. I knew something was up with Lindi because the weekend before we left I came aboard my sailboat Antigua greeted by Lindi in the cockpit frantically hiding the contents she was placing into a black bag telling me not to come aboard. I hefted the heavy bag up the companionway and untied the knot. I pulled out 6 plastic pineapple sippy cups, two jugs of pineapple juice, coconut milk, a bag of various candies and a bag of party favors. The party favor Nico immediately grabbed was the squirt gun, oh great, thanks Lindi! Lindi and Angie had bought a large bottle of spiced rum that Kent had decentered into a stainless steel bottle that was packed in his bag. Juan went below and used the tea kettle to mix up Mia-Tais to let the party begin. Now what could possibly go wrong with this picture?
The crew of Avion is the farthest points away from any land in the entire world coupled with 20 knots of wind gusting to 25 knots with 1 to 2 foot wind waves over 8 to 10 foot swells and introduce copious quantities of rum into the equation. Seriously what could possibly go wrong! We now have created a new club that we are affectingly calling the Broach Club. Prior to 6 P.M. there were only three members; John, David and Kent. I am shocked that Juan isn’t on that list, obviously superior seamanship isn’t a criteria for not being a charter member. As of 7 P.M. we have a new leader in the Broach Club; Nico who was given the helm by our skipper just as the Mai-Tais were served. Now we know why Avion was originally designated a dry boat because through those 3 broaches no crew member was left dry, figuratively or literally! To Nico’s credit he really didn’t have much help from his crew in releasing the boomvang to help prevent the broaches.
10:30 P.M.
Just got off my last watch for the day and had to report that I joined the Rocket Club (10.33) and the Broach Club within 45 seconds of each other. They go hand in hand; they are both on the edge, one slightly under and one slightly over. One results in a state of euphoria the other a state of panic but both gets the adrenaline flowing. After that joy ride I’m ready for bed.
July 16, 2014 Halfway Party
An eventful day today! The wind is up into the high teens low twenties we are flying our asymmetrical spinnakers and the boat is moving along nicely! Around 9:00 we crossed the halfway mark only 1035 miles left to go! Out here we are about as far from anything as we can possibly be although now a bit closer to Hawaii than to California. Not too much later we say our mileage left to go drop into the triple digits, 999 miles to go. Another milestone! Things are starting to get much more exciting as the wind and swells pick up, today we saw the first double digit boat speeds of the trip at 10.56 knots but not the last with 10.21and oh wait wait 10.24!!!! going onto the rocket club board (our little tally strip of who hit the highest speeds) not much later. There is a bag of goodies for a halfway party that we have yet to open as we are pretty focused on sailing the boat and all pretty tired but we will probally get out around dinner time as usually everyone is up then. We have had a few broaches which always reduce sleep time as either we are hanging on to our bunks so as to not roll out (those on the high side), or in my case (on the low side) covering up as bits of loose gear come sailing across the boat to share my bunk with me. My slashes on my right forearm have increased to 15 wait no 16 now. In our most recent broach we managed to permanently open the jaws of one of our spinnaker poles so we are now down to one pole which we better not do any damage to before we get to Hawaii. Until next time
Nico
16 Juillette 2014 Fete de mi chemain!
Un Journais pleins d’evenment. Le vent est monter dans les 17- 25 knoeuds, on a mis un spi asymyetric et le bateaux avance bien. A 9:00 on a passer mi chemain donc plus que 1917 miles a Hawaii. La ou on est on est un peut pres aussi loins de tout que on pourrais etre, saufe maintenent un puet plus pret de Hawaii que de la Californi. Tout commence a etre un peut plus amuseant avec le vent et les vagues qui commence a monter, aujourduhi on a veut les premier, mais certainment pas les dernier vitesse a plus de 10 knoeuds a 10.56 et pas longetemps apr 10.21 et attends 10.24 juste la temps qu je ecris ca. on ecris les vittesse et qui conduit sur un petit bout du bateaux que on appell le club de fussile. On a un sac de chose pour fair une fete de mis chemain que on n’as pas encore ouvert comme on et un peut occuper a naviguer le bateaux et tous un peut fatigue, mais on sortiras ca vers le dinner comme normalment tout le monde est debout a ce moment. On a reuccii a coucher le bateaux quelque fois deja qui n’aide pas avec le fatigue comme ceux qui dors soit s’accroche pour ne pas se fair ejecter du lit (ceux qui dors du coter haut) soit, dans mon cas (sur le coter bas), se couvre pour se proteger des bout d’equipment qui viens partager mon lit. Mes marques de feutres qui represent les changement de voile on monter a 15 non maintenent 16. La dernier fois que on a coucher le bateaux on a reussi a casser le bout du tongon de spi qui ne ferme plus pppour tennir une ligne on a un tongon de rechange mais il faut que il nous dure jusque a Hawaii. A la prochaine
Nico
Day 8 Post By Jon
A Typical Day in the Life of a Sailor at Sea (Continued!)
Day 8 8:00 A.M. (1402 Nautical Miles (NM) from Hawaii)
184 NM made good over last 24 Hours
We are still nicely making way at 7 knots or so with fair winds out of the North\Northwest and following seas.
Day 8 3:00 P.M. (1168 NM from Hawaii)
I ended the yesterday’s log a little early; I didn’t include the rest of the day in the life of a sailor and we had a major course change.
I discussed earlier that racers very rarely sail the rhumb line or shortest distance between two points for many of reasons. That may not be the fastest point of sail for the particular boat racing, there may be favorable currents along a different part of the course or in the case of long distance racing there is the weather factor. We have had light, moderate and heavy winds so far and our preference would be moderate to heavy; we still want to join the elusive Rocket Club of Double Digits. Yesterday after I relinquished the computer John and Tom studied the weather charts that Tom had downloaded earlier. Our current course was taking us right back to the doldrums southwest of us between our current position and Hawaii. Though this course would be the shortest for us to take it doesn’t look like the fastest. Tom and John saw stronger winds further north of the rhumb line so they told us that we needed to adjust our course by increasing our bearing to 250 degrees rather than the 220 we had been on for the past few days. The forecast shows stronger winds further north when the isobars are predicted to spread on Friday
I was at the helm so I pushed on the tiller until the compass read 250 and all hell broke loose. It never fails whenever something like this is required I it never happens in a vacuum. Around that time a cloud came over with moisture and an increase in wind velocity and direction (22+ knots and 10 degree shift); not at all favorable to our new course heading. We first decided to reef the main by decreasing sail area since the boat was pitching and rolling. This helped a little so we decided to try the second reef point and keep the asymmetrical flying. Understand that it is much easier to reef then to change head sails. After the second reef, which I had never experienced on Avion though I use it all the time on my sailboat Antigua, I once again felt marginal helm relief but Avion was still not happy. It became obvious that we needed to change the head sail. One of the problems with having 10 different headsails aboard, sometimes it becomes a challenge to determine which headsail is the best for the current conditions and course. We had two choices; go to a smaller asymmetrical spinnaker or go back to the jib top. Kent resolved the dilemma by crawling out of his bunk, obviously wasn’t getting any sleep anyway, and explained to the crew that the best solution was the jib top. David turned to John for conformation and John agreed. Nico was happy; he gets another mark on his forearm. Like a red badge of courage Nico takes his trusty Sharpie Magic Marker out after each headsail change, this latest was number 13, and marks his forearm. Juan beat David to the punch and suggested that he replace the Sharpie marks with tattoos when we arrive in Hawaii and if we are lucky he can have them run all the way up one arm, across his face and down the other arm. He mumbled something about his mother not understanding..
After the headsail change Avion changed from a raging rodeo bull to a passive lamb; we needed something in the middle, like maybe a thoroughbred race horse. After shaking out the two mainsail reefs we got our wish and Avion started looping along at just under 8 knots to the proper course. We finish off daylight with dinner that was readied by the Skipper, just at the right time, since we were all hungry from all of the excitement of the course change, wind direction/speed change, and the headsail change. Again we were greeted by a fabulous hot casserole prepared by Kent and Joann of green chilies, cheese and eggs which truly hit the spot. We still have 2 more frozen meals to eat and then it is on to freeze dried backpacking food.
The day in the life of this sailor finished out by crawling into my bunk at 10 P.M. where I quickly fell asleep in anticipating of it all starting over in just 4 short hours., can’t wait.
Day 8 5:30 P.M. (1149 NM from Hawaii)
179 NM made good over last 24 Hours
Juan checked into the SSB Children’s Hour and asked the fleet listening if anyone knew the answer to the age old proverb; If a sailboat broaches in the vastness of the Ocean and no one sees it broach, did it actually Broach? He explained that after 8 days at sea Aero, a Hobie 33, crossed Avion’s path by less than of a mile. Shortly afterwards a small squall passed by with winds in excess of 22 knots. Nico was at the helm and managed to ride the gust out with no issues and we watched the wind line pass Aero and she rounded up. So we were unable to prove or disprove the proverb since we saw it. Jaun did state that there was a benefit to their broach. We benefited because we got an excellent lessen on how to quickly recover from a broach and they benefited because we were sufficiently distracted to sail off our course and possibly lose as much time as them.
Since we are only 114 NM from our halfway point we are looking forward to having our halfway celebration tomorrow assuredly providing Juan with more humorous stories to relate.
Today the sun returned and we are ripping along under the red A3 spinnaker over bright blue water. This is the mythical blue water sailing that I have been dreaming about. This blue water does not have a proper adjective, but it is fair to call it beauty-fuel. The surface is shaped by the wind into waves that intersect with larger swells that come from storms 1000 of miles away. The randomly raise and pick-up the boat as the surge under and beyond. Clouds are dynamic and change shapes and colors as the approach. They move fast and bring wind, so they command attention. As they approach, they shape-shift, look like birds or anvils, or long reptillian birds flying by.
We are almost half-way to Hawaii, and near the point where we will be 1,000 miles from land in any direction. From my boat, with my crew sailing to this isolated point on the Pacific Ocean, I feel closer to nature than I have felt on land in a long time. I not feel insignificant in this magistry, but rather expanded and inspired.
It has taken a 7 days to get here, which is slower than we had expected due to the light winds the first two days. But “early” or “late” is a land-based abstraction with little meaning here. Now that the winds are blowing an average of 15 knots, I know we will get there. We planned on 12 to 14 days to reach HA, but provisioned for 18 days of water and food, so if we get to HA in 15 days, so be it. The parties will have to wait until we arrive.
All we do is sail, eat, sleep and repeat. This is a dream-like state. Of course, the sailing is intense and when the conditions change, we get to change sails which involves a lot of cooperation between the front of the boat (bow) and the back of the boat (cockpit), and very tight coordination on the halyards, sheets, guys and poles (spinnaker) to complete a sail change that enables Avion to be sailed on a specific heading. When Avion is properly trimmed for the desired heading, she settles into a calming and relaxing rhythm. Sleep comes easily. Eating is not always so easy for the cook, but we are eating prepared stews and casseroles, so all we do is heat it up in the oven. Served in bowls, a hot meal tastes great. Life can’t get much better than this.
Tom
Day 7 Post By Jon
A Typical Day at Sea
Day 7 8:00 A.M. (1402 Nautical Miles (NM) from Hawaii)
191 NM made good over last 24 Hours (may be a record for Avion)
Looks like Avion is now stretching her legs; our next goal is a 200+ day. This kind of performance requires team work and a constant focus on boat speed. We are still broad reaching (approximately 140 degrees off the wind) so there isn’t a lot of sail trim so the critical factor rests primarily on the helmsman. So I thought I would take a little time today to work through a typical day on the boat. I will use my experience as the guide and explain a few variations of the other crew members along to way.
Day 7 2:13 P.M. (1353 NM from Hawaii)
I just got off watch and still a little wired from the great ride we just had so I thought this would be a good time to lay out my day. My day starts at 2:00 A.M. by a gentle tug on the leg by Tom, who is ready for me to take his place on watch. The temperature is warm and relatively dry so far so I usually strip off the top layer to sleep. Now getting ready for watch doesn’t require as much “gearing up” as it did the first few days out the gate because most of the heavy foul weather gear has been stowed away in the wet lockers. I’m typically wearing a one layer of full under garments a light sun resistant tech shirt and a sun resistant light pants. Early morning I add a wind resistant light jacket over that then the inflatable life jacket. The life jacket has 2 tethers, a hand held radio that will radio out my lat/long position, a strobe light, a whistle, and a knife. The reason for 2 tethers is that you can always be attached to the boat while moving around. This is all dawned before climbing the companion way of 6 steps before entering the cockpit. This is a critical moment because the 2 or 3 crew members are watching closely to my next move because it potentially provides them with an opportunity for a Mai-tai. If I do not attach my tether to the lifeline before making that final step out of the companion way and onto the cockpit floor you owe the crew a pitcher of Mai-Tais. They tend to look closely at Juan because they know there is a potential Juanism in the making that will provide a constant source of entertainment and libation. Understanding this potential cash flow issue Jon tends to take command and doesn’t provide Juan the opportunity to dip into his cash reserves. Knowing Juan he would enjoy sharing the Mai-Tais with his crew mates at Jon’s expense. I remember a time when a female sailing friend of ours once asked my late wife Jean who she preferred Juan of Jon. Having never heard this asked before and not knowing her response I paid close attention. She thought about it for a moment and then said Juan. I immediately responded with, “That’s not fair to Jon, he has to work so Juan can have fun”!
Once in the cockpit it takes a while to get oriented figuring out the wind, waves and sail set. I am typically still pretty sleepy so a good thing at this point is to ask your crew mates on board if they would like anything hot to drink. If so I heat up some water and fix the requested beverage, mine is typically a Mocha with decaf-coffee. The drinks vary from decaf-tea (Kent), to regular tea (John, usually specified as to the type), to hot chocolate (David), to coffee (Tom). I came close to finding out the hard way that having a hot beverage for your crew mate doesn’t exonerate you from the Mai-Tai rule! The remaining two crew members on watch usually allows the new crew member an hour or so to get oriented. The boat at this stage of the race typically only takes two to drive; one at the helm and one with the boomvang in hand to release if the boat starts to head up or the end of the boom touches the water. The boovan is a spring loaded cylinder with a 8 to 1 block that pulls down on the boom. Releasing it allows for wind to spill off the top of the main lowering the center of effort allowing the mast to list less which allows the helmsman to recover the boat stopping the flogging of the sails and a potential broach. This is a constant action because of the waves and variability of the wind. In these two positions there is little relaxing, especially for the helmsman. After an hour or so the helmsman is getting a little fatigued, this become evident by the other crew members when they notice more variation on the course and an increase in the required releasing of the boomvag. It is usually the other crew members that suggest that the hour is up and not the helmsman because this is by far the most fun position on the boat and like the night of Nico’s birthday I stayed well over my recommended 1 hours limit.
At this point the crew usually rotates if there isn’t another crew exchange on that hour. At 3:00 A.M. at we do not have a shift exchange so we shifted positions. While doing so Juan became a victim of one of David’s many practical jokes. While I was shifting my position to handle the continuous boomvang line my tether got twisted up with that line. David in a very compassionate tone said that he could help Juan out with his predicament. Nico at the helm started laughing wondering when Juan was going to notice that having the boomvag line rapped twice around his leg and once around his wrist in the process of being lassoed wasn’t exactly beneficial. Enjoying the moment Nico was taking great care not to allow the boat to be in a position to require the release of the boomvag line and wondering how a Cowboy from Wyoming could have such a thing happen to him!
Much to Juan relief John came up to relieve David reducing the probability of another practical joke and I shifted to the helm. At the time we were experiencing 20+ winds but the seas hadn’t developed over 4 feet so it wasn’t a constant E-Ticket ride but it did have its moments when the wind speed and a larger than average wave would combine to push Avion to 9 knots. By 5:00 A.M. I am ready for helm relief so when John asked if I was ready for shift position change I readily confirmed. The last hour usually is a combination of resting, handling the boomvang line or taking a short stent at the helm before the new crew member is fully acclimated. This basic pattern can change as to which hour you are at the helm based on the crew change timing, overall I average about 1.5 hours per shift at the helm.
Just before 6 A.M. I go down and wake Tom how comes on board and I crawl into the sack for some much needed shut eye. Tom spends a portion of his watch navigating and downloading new weather information and maintaining his log. At 8:00 A.M. he notes our Lat/long position and shoots off an email to the race committee. I wake up before 9:30 so I can fire up the SSB and check in to the Roll Call. The other radio net is the Children’s Hour at 5:00 P.M. where I will come below if my I’m on watch. The cooking, cleaning up, and various other duties are either performed by the third crew member not holding the helm tiller or the boomvang line or another crew member not on watch but up. We are having Dinner around 8:00 P.M. and usually we are all up for that unless one crew member is trying to catch some sleep at which time we keep the oven on warm until he gets up and fixes himself dinner before taking the last step onto the cockpit floor greeted by two crew members to Mai-Tais dancing in their heads.
Kent usually gets the dinner out of the cooler (still frozen after 7 days) and places it in the cockpit to thaw for dinner. John takes a stroll around the boat looking the any chaffing of lines or rigging ware. Kent placed a piece of hose on the guy line because John noticed some potential chaffing where it feeds through the spinnaker pole. He also placed some sail tape at the bottom of the sail where it was rubbing against the boom while the out haul was let in or out. At the 1 P.M. shift change with dowsed the Asymmetrical #3 spinnaker that has been flying for over 24 hours to see if the halyard holding it up was chaffing at the top of the mast. Seeing none we immediately raised but it hour glassed and Kent was able to quickly get it to unwrap itself without further incidents and reduced boat speed.
Before the spinnaker dowse David fixed a delicious late breakfast of Thai Oatmeal, yes it was a new one for me also. He fixed oatmeal with dried fruit (raisins, crasains, chopped up apricots, and two secret ingredients; orange apricot marmalade and peanut butter thus the reason he called it Thai Oatmeal! I even asked for seconds and I’m typically not an oatmeal fan.
It is now 3:30 P.M. so I’m going to go have some of what I call My Time; read, relax, nap, cleanup, or just sit on the rail and absorb the beauty of the ocean without a care in the world knowing that the boat is solid and the crew is more than competent.
Day 7 5:30 P.M. (1328 NM to Hawaii)
185 NM made good over last 24 Hours
The good news is that the wind has been holding strong and our last 24 hours of distance made good is still holding strong, the bad news is that one of our competitive boats did better. I just signed off of the Children’s Hour net a little disappointed, they reported us in 4 place, dropping from 3 since the second day. We were able to verify that the ranking they are giving are distance made good to Hawaii adjusted for handicap. There is still a long ways to go.
12:30pm, Mon July 14
I made a tasty batch of oatmeal this morning, dried mangoes craisins apricots and a banana. It was even better with peanut butter mixed in.
Angie would agree that Avion has a lot of strings for a boat her size. All led to the cockpit, except for some of the spinnaker pole controls. So that, combined with a mainsheet traveler that goes across the rather small cockpit, makes playing twister as we shift the 3 crew on deck complicated. 3 of the lines are continuous loops, so they have to be contended with specially. Not to mention everyone has a dual tether, so we are clipped in at all times. It can get complicated. In the middle of this the tiller has to get handed off cleanly. Last night as we were playing the game, while Nico steered, Juan was wrestling the boom vang loop, his tether, where to put his feet, and keep his balance, I got the bright idea of “helping” him with the boom vang line. He was quite twisted up in all of it before he started to get upset, and only then realized I was “helping”. We had a good laugh, and later Nico told some of his Club Med prank stories. He taught sailing there in the Bahamas, and they seem to know how to have fun there. At least he does.
We just dropped and reraised the A3 spinnaker, paused to check for chafe on its halyard at the masthead sheave. Keeping track of and stopping these kind of issues is key. We’ve rejiggered how a few things are run to minimize stress, chafe and wear of the lines and fittings. The spinnaker guy is run inside the lifelines right now, as we have the pole so far forward for reaching on the A3. This is why some boats are set up with a reaching strut at the bow.
To bed for 3 hours of shut eye.
avionbianca 