Avion is a joy to sail. The sky is grey, but the temperature is mild. We are close to half way, and will reach that point either today or tomorrow. Today might be a good day to put up the sun shower and wash our hair.
The ocean is beautiful, undulating and full of energy. The wave pattern is choppy, with swells from several directions each cutting through each other. The wind is still 18 to 24 knots, but when it drops in strength it also changes direction. The result was that we sailed conservatively yesterday. We did switch over to the Jib Top; however, while it gave us mower power and speed, the apparent wind window for the sail is limited to 100 to 120, so we were not heading for Hawaii. However, we are setting up for the small symmetrical spinnaker and will then go downwind for Hawaii.
We saw and spoke to another boat yesterday, One Eyed Jack. The skipper and I both were both happy to see another boat. We also both expressed concern about the Hurricane (or Tropical Depressions) that are down around Hawaii now. The skipper of One Eye Jack said the first one will pass, but the second one might get there about the same time we do, with 35 knot winds. We can handle that. However, I hope it is not much more than that.
As I write, Megan is cooking a hot dinner. She tells me it is easier to cook when the boat is flat. Over the past few days, cooking was almost impossible, althought she did make us a hot dinner last night as well. Hot food in the tummy feels so good, and confirms that we are living the old saying, “sail, eat sleep.”
Today has been warm enough to shake the wet foulies, take towel-showers and put on clean dry clothes. The sun came out for awhile, and dried out the boat. I cooked bacon and eggs for my crew. Clouds filled in during the afternoon, but it stayed warm and windy, in the 18 to 24 knot range. We have been sailing with the A7, the small, heavy weather blue asymmetrical sail, and hitting speeds over ground on steady 9 knots, and when the ocean swells round underneath the boat and pushes her on the hip, she surges up to 10 to 12 knots. It gets quite exciting when there is a sudden gust of wind, and a big wave surges and lifts the aft up and the rudder looses it’s bite, and we with a lot of sudden pressure on the helm, she will round-up. Avion is resilient and always recovers, with lots of pumping of the tiller by the driver, and perhaps a release of the spinnaker sheet. It is exciting sailing, with every moment being unique.
We are dialing in the boat systems and routines. She was kind of wet, and we had to dry out clothes and various wet spots, but now she is dry again and feels good. I rand the batteries down too low yesterday, and at some point, the instruments start displaying wierdly inaccurate numbers. I had seem this once before, so I knew the cause and the solution. Fired up the engines and ran the alternator for 2 hours to resolve it.
We have decided to switch back to the #4 jib around 8pm, and then next question is do we gybe tonight or tomorrow morning. Such important decision deserve lots of discussion. We all like to go fast, but it would also feel good to get back on a course heading in the general direction of Hawaii. This is where the finish line awaits us. But I must say, in some ways, this kind of amazing ocean sailing is the real finish line. Stay tuned.
We are less the 50 miles from the 130W line, which is a major reference point for our navigation decisions. The weather is rough, we are pushing the boat and getting 7 to 8 knots, with 20 to 24 knot winds. Yesterday the sea surface smoothed out and we had nice big rollers coming through that gave us a nice push forward. In the first 48 hours, we have come about 333 miles so far, or about 160 miles per day. We are sending in our 8:00 am position report, but we are not yet making the 9:30 roll-call over the SSB radio, as it is still too rough and wet to leave a hatch open for the SSB antenna.
I am getting GRIB files over Iridium, and analyzing them twice a day. David and I have consensus on our course heading, which has been to stay around 240; but this afternoon around 5, we will change that and head more south.
Crew are all working smoothly together and getting enough sleep, for now. We are each rather wet, but the foul weather gear with Gortext is magically able to keep the water on he surface, so we are mostly dry on the skin. A crew of three needs to talk a lot, as we make adjustments to the watch schedule on the fly, and we are doing that as needed. The boat has one wet spot around the hatch, which I was new to me, but now I understand the pattern; it is only wet when a big wave splashes up and over the boat.
Well, enough for now. Stay tuned. We are only just beginning. Tom
We will set sail soon. One of my last tests is the ability to post to the blog with the boat’s email. So. this is just a quick test, that will show-up on the blog as a posting. This method is how I will update the blog during the race. Stay tuned.
We did an excellent blog and made a video of the Pacific Cup race in 2014. If you want to get a good understand of what it is like to sail with a crew of 6, in moderate conditions, then take a look. It was shot on a GoPro and edited by John DIllow, who has sailed in 8 Pac Cup races, and is sailing again this year on another boat.
To see where Avion is during the race, the Pacific Cup race committee has provided a GPS tracker called YBTracking. The locations and tacks are delayed 6 hours, so the sailors can’t look and see where the competition is, but is good enough for people on land to watch the race.
We are finally ready to sail. What an incredible adventure just to get here. There was some unique event specific to the boat or crew. The most recent critical path event was installing a gyro-pilot.
We start on Tuesday at 11:00. The predicted weather is heavy winds of 20-25 knots for the first three days at least. The Pacific High is finally moving into position so the gradients will compress and generate 15 knot trade winds for us to ride to Hawaii.
We are sailing as a crew of three, Megan Laney and David Bennett and myself. We have worked hard over the past 10 weeks to prepare. We sailed in 4 races, and got some results. Sailing with a crew of four, including Kent, Jon, Megan and myself, we came in 3rd in the Spinnaker Cup, about 100 miles from SF to Monterey. We did 3 weekend practices sailing to Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay. We sailed in combinations of 2, three and four so we could learn how the tasks are organized by the number of available crew. I have finally been going to the bow to learn to do the wet job of working the head sails, the jibs and spinnakers and all the lines needed to fly them, the halyards, sheets, guys, fore-guys and topping lift. the interesting manuvers are turns, the upwind tack and the downwind gybe. The gybe is easy in light winds, and can challenging in heavy winds. We have completed a number of drills, for Man Over Board, installed the Scanmar SOS emergency rudder, and had a new emergency tiller made by Jimmy.
Lots of people emerged along the way, right when we needed them. Kent repaired the fuel tank, and came over to launch sails at the dock. Another was our coach and teammate, David Bennett. I met him in the parking lot, talking to a common friend. We immediately started sailing and practicing spinnakers, symmetrical and asymmetrical. Another was Peter King, a marine electrician with exceptional skills who installed the gyro-pilot, and a new drive arm, installed last Saturday afternoon. He helped me configure a LAN on a Pcio Station network to run Remote Desktop on my new Surface Pro4 as a display machine in the cockpit, running the routing program that lives in the boat computer in the nav station. Kame, Sally and Don at Pineapple repaired a bunch of sails; we either punched new small holes and added some rips, or we found existing ones that need to be repaired on a timely basis, for the next race. Jon Fowkes came over to test the SSB, but the transceiver had failed, so I bought a new unit and several people helped install it over the past several nights. And Neil and Shawn at Grand Marina were always encouraging with stories of their two double-handed Pac Cups in the early 2000s, as they did major projects like install new rudder bearings, new shaft and convert the old ice box to a refrigerated unit
Over the past few days, we bought about $800 on food, broke down the packaging, grouped it with zip-lock bags, and stored it in the pantry, and on the two shelves over the aft berth. We have a big Igloo cooler full of proteins and breads frozen by dry ice, an refrigerator for cold waters, and an external cooler to keep vegetables and fruits cool. We have 20 apples and 10 onions hanging in a net bag on the lower part of the mast in the cabin. So, we have plenty of food.
The race should take between 12 and 14 days. It is a little over 2,100 miles, and if we can maintain an average boat speed of 7 knots, we would need 300 hours, or 12.5 days to finish. We are in Division B, and start on Tuesday with about 10 boats. Avion is not the fastest boat, and we will be sailing short-handed with a crew of three, against fully crewed boats of 5 and 6. We will sail our own race, and have fun. It is a first time for Megan to sail in an ocean race, and David has done a bunch of Transpacs to HA out of LA, but this will be his first PacCup. This will be my third race. We will compete.
I will have the ability to post to this blog from the ocean by sending an email over the Iridium satellite network, but since we are short-handed, I might not do it every day. Still, if you subscribe to this blog, when I do post and update, you can get an email with the posting pushed to you. Do not expect pictures, as they will not upload over limited satellite bandwidth, but email, test and compressed weather data can flow.
Okay, enough for now. We need to get some sleep and get up at 6:00 am, shower and take the BMW over to long-term parking at German Auto. In the morning, we will to the fuel dock to top-off the tank, and then head out to the start line in front of the St. Francis. I am getting excited. Once we shove off, nothing more can be done to prepare. It will be the real deal, finally. Nothing more can be done. At the moment we shove off the dock, we live with what we’ve got on board. Exciting. Love the adventure. Stay tuned. Tom
I was very excitied to get the invitation last week to move Avion into “active” status for the 2016 Pacific Cup. The immediate logistics of the registration process are now well underway, so I can finally update the blog with the news, and start to refresh it with 2016 content.
I have been anticipating that Avion will sail in the PacCup2016 by making atrategic investments to make her ocean-ready. The biggest single investment was a new Yanmar engine, 3YM, and the systems surrounding it, including an updated fuel tank, new shaft, new cutlass bearing and new packing gland. While she was out of the water at Grand Marina, we replaced the rudder bearings, repaired the vang bracket at the base of the mast, and added steps to the stern. I also had the outhaul blocks in the boom replaced, and installed a new main halyard.
The big news is that Avion will sail double-handed. Megan and I have been sailing together for the past 9 months, and we are now actively preparing by racing and practicing. We completed The Great Vallejo Race ten days ago. This weekend we have 2 days of Safety at Sea and ISAF seminars. After that we have the OYRA/Duxbury race and the Spinnaker Cup to Monterey, and the OYRA/Farallones race. We have another 8 weeks to get ready!!!
Here is a picture of Avion while Megan and I were sailing her downwind, into the Oakland-Alameda estuary, under the big red, A3, asymmetrical sail.
The Pacific Cup starts the week of July 11th. There is more to come. Stay tuned.
I am writing now, finally, in Novemebr 2015, to finsh the blog for the 2014 Pacific Cup. Blogs are time-oriented, sorted by the most current at the top of the page. Blogs are great for provide a running commentart on an evernt, but not so good for looking back at an event after it is over. Thus, it is time to update and refresh this blog, to prepare for a new sailing campaign in 2016.
The last posting was by Jon in Nov 2014. It is avery personal posting in which he is trying to determine the meaning of the race, including his decision to propose to Lindi. However, this is not necessarily the most appropriate posting for this to be the posting at the top of the page.
So, here in November of 2015, I am writing a post to wrap-up the race and set the stage for a 2016 Pacific Cup campaign.
The 2014 Pacific Cup was a fantastic experience. We made it with no equipment failure and no injuries, and had a great time along the way. The crew of David, Nico, Jon, Kent and John Dillow really came together as a team. Results? We finished fifth in a divison of 7 boats, two of which did not finish. We might have been in the wrong division, as we were racing against lighter and faster boats, but so be it. I will address this as I look closer at the 2014 results and make an argumnet for an adjustment in 2016. Yes, I am seriously considering doing the Pacific Cup in 2016..
Many people provided support that make it possible; people like Kame Richards (sails), Gen Hansen (rigging), Peter King (electronics), Chuck (engine), Hugh Fields (early crew), Sal (safety equipment), Bob Grey (inspections), and many others along the way. Thanks to all of you. We also got a lot of support from my Encinal Yacht Club, and many friends at the Marina Village Marine Harbor, to mention a few.
Part of the readability of the blog was that it had four contributors. Jon, Nico, David and I each contributed posts to the blog via email send by satelite phone to the wordpress-hosted website. It made for good reading during the race. The content is still good reading, and I will extract it and prepare a cronological summary.
Looking forward, I am seriously considering entering Avion in the 2016 Pacific Cup. I am at another critical threshold stage of life. I need a challenge of my own chosing. I love sailing. So, therefore, do the Pacific Cup in 2016. I want to make this race about family, and might already have 5 crew. I have decided to re-power Avion with a new Yanmar 3 cylinder engine; this will extend Avion’s range on the ocean. I have met a female sailor who has provided new motivation for me to sail, and she wants to participate. I will make this decision by mid-December, and announce it on this web site to make it official.
I also plan to start my tomabbott.com web site in the near future. So, stay tuned.
I can’t end this sailing blog without some closing thoughts about how this adventure affected me. Soon I will go back and read all of the postings that were made but right now I want to reach down into my soul and see what impact this experience has had. However before I get all psychological on you I would like to share the final leg of the journey.
At the end of my watch as we approached the Farralon Islands, 25 miles outside the bay, I briefed David on the conditions and course we had followed since he went down. The GPS was showing us 4.5 hours from the Islands and we had set a course a few degrees south to avoid any potential hazard. This is the time of the trip to be overly vigilant in watching out for things that go bump in the night. The weather had quickly deteriorated; it is amazing that we went for shorts and t-shirts to multiple layers and foul weather gear in just over a day. I was wearing the same gear I would wear while snow machining in the mountains of Wyoming in subzero weather. Mark Twain sure got it right.
I stripped out of my wet foulies and one of the base layers and crawled into my bunk and pulled the blanket over me hoping to get some sleep because tomorrow was going to be a very long day. I always know when I get a good sleep in when Angie has to wake me; however this time was an exception. I woke right before my shift time was to begin but thought it was earlier, I got up hit the head and went right back into my bunk. Angie promptly leaned into my nice comfy cocoon and said, “what the hell are you doing, it’s time for your watch”. My response was that I had no idea what I was doing where I was or what time it was. She politely explained that I was on a sailboat just outside San Francisco and handed me a hot mocha, what a gal.
I climbed into the cockpit, sipping on my coffee while Nico explained the multitude of lights that greeted me. The San Francisco lights in the distance were obvious but all of the others were a mystery to this sailor that a few minutes ago didn’t even realize he was a sailor. I sat down and listen in fascination as Nico pointed out each light. “You can see the light bucket light just off our starboard bow. If you look closely you can see the main channel red and green lights slightly to our starboard. We will be staying just port of the green lights so we will stay clear of all of the ship traffic. I’ve been monitoring Channel 12, vessel assist and there are 3 inbound ships and will shift over to Channel 14 as soon as we enter the channel. The difference is channel 12 is for traffic outside of the channel while 14 is inside. The boat off of our starboard, see at about 4 o’clock, is going to be taken on a pilot captain shortly so I am staying way clear of that so I have adjusted our course about 5 degrees to port. You can see the pilot boat coming there at about 2 o’clock because it has a white over red light. Now if you look off to our port after quarter you will see an inbound boat that we can ignore because it is only doing only 8 knots and is too far out to catch us at that speed. I am concerned about the articulated tug and barge that has been chasing us for a while. You can tell that it is an articulate tug rather than a barge in tow by the combination of lights.”
I was following him up to that point. I said, “what the hell is an articulated tug and how do you know that when I can’t hardly even see it.” He proceeded to explain the various combination of lights to designate the different type of vessel, this over that and position of lights on starboard and port depending on the function of the vessel or the response an oncoming vessel has to have. I was thinking I need to take a coastal navigational class and Juan was thinking that his time cruising in Mexico was a piece of cake compared to this; all he had to worry about was avoiding a few pongas that could do very little damage to his solid little sailboat and that the icebox was adequately stocked with beer!
We managed to avoid the multitude of traffic going and coming through the channel and passed under the Iconic Bridge at 3:50 A.M. It was the quintessential Golden Gate Experience without the 20 knots of wind. The fog covered the tops of the towers, the traffic moving across the bridge, the strobe off Alcatraz under the bridge, the new smells from land, both earthen and industrial, the vessel traffic, and the twinkling lights of The City all combined to provide a pleasant transition from the simple solitude of the journey to the complex realities of civilization.
The next two hours were consumed by the gentle passage through the bay. Having no waves to contend with and very little traffic this early in the morning resulted in a pleasant final leg of our journey. Once Avion was safely tied to her slip Juan found a care package left by our good friends Al and Michelle. To think they were there when we departed, they were there when we arrived in Hawaii and now they were there in spirit to greet us upon our arrival with this wonderful care package. I can understand why they weren’t physically there because Avion doesn’t know how to make landfall during the daylight hours; two trips to Monterey, one to LA, the arrival at Hawaii and now the return all were during the wee hours of the morning. The care package was perfect. It had beer, of course, but it also had stuff that Michelle knew we would have been deprived of late in the crossing. Fresh chilled fruit and vegetables, milk, non-soggy chips with fresh guacamole and salsa, and red meat! As the sun slowly lighted the sky and as live-a-boards in the marina started to wonder down the docks we received some interesting looks with all the empty beer bottles and wine bottle sitting on the dock box at 7 A.M.
So what were my most compelling thoughts of the adventure. I’m glad I did it but I probably will not do this particular trip again. The main reason for wanting to have this adventure was to learn more about sailing and about myself. Sailing so I will be better prepared for cruising and for me just for self-actualization. As I stated at the start of this blog I like to test my will and this trip definitely pushed it close to its limits.
The reason I am planning not to do this trip again wasn’t because of it being too much of a challenge, it’s just that I want to put that energy and expense into preparing my boat and myself for cruising. This was the reason for the trip and one of the reasons I asked Lindi to marry me. After the four year adventure with my late wife I have always wanted to go back. The primary problem was that I never had a desire to do it by myself, so I have been searching high and low for that special person that will both put up with me and who has the same objective of wanting to go cruising. Lindi has always had that desire and she also loves the Wyoming Mountains where we plan to stay when we are not cruising. The strangest thing about that is that she is willing to put up with me, and for that matter Juan!
When I was cruising I was successful not necessarily because I had a great skill set but I knew my limitations, which were great. Lindi and I want to go North up into Canada and possibly Alaska and that experience will require having much less limitations. The only way to gain the necessary knowledge is to expose yourself to the elements which require you to become more proficient. The racing aspect makes you push the envelope and find out stuff like it is okay to broach; the question isn’t if you broach, it is how effectively you handle the boat in the recovery of the broach. Going both ways, to and from Hawaii, required a full set of skills. The downwind focus on headsail changes and steering techniques to gain the best performance possible verses the upwind strategy of keeping the boat comfortable but making good way without always in the need of the engine. The biggest issue is anticipating what can go wrong and have contingencies and skills ready to solve them. Of course you can’t anticipate everything that can happen but there is a lot that you can.
The knowledge obtained about the mental and physical aspects of endurance sailing was enlightening. I have always maintained a fairly healthy lifestyle with my biking and sailing. I have done endurance type of events that I think I was better prepared for than this event. I knew I had to work on my upper body but didn’t do as much as I should have. I found the race to be easier physically that the return. The boat was flatter so moving around was easier and the times that required strength and cardio were few and far between. The difficulty physical on the return was constantly supporting yourself do to the listing. This was comparable to doing short sets of pushups all the time while moving about the boat. Another lesson learned was the understanding for the need for flexibility. Moving through the obstacles like mainsail traveler and constant clipping and unclipping harnesses were difficult at times and required twisting and turning that a yoga instructor would be impressed. I am not flexible to say the least so this was a constant challenge and coupled with too much body weight made for a difficult journey.
As for the mental aspect I didn’t have much issue with the race, I knew what to expect and had mentally prepared myself for it. The return trip was a different story. It started out rough, the listing, the swells and the nausea all took their toll. After the first few days I was a little concerned about what I had gotten myself into. Lindi on the other hand seemed always in good spirits and gave me the impression that she was having a wonderful time. This along with the great attitude of the other crew members gave me the courage to fight through the period of adjustment my body was requiring. After 4 days I was well adjusted and was able to handle the routine without a problem. However about 3 days from the completion of the return, after the winds picked back up and Avion was back in her 20 degree list I told Nico at the beginning of one of my shifts that I was ready for this to be over. After talking to him a few days later he said my comment both surprised him and concerned him. He said he talked it over with David to see if there was anything that they could do to make the trip easier for me. A while later when David approached me asking if there was any shift changes that I may want I told him I was fine and didn’t need anything changed. It turned out to be a short term minor adjustment to my will and all was soon back on track.
I now have another fabulous life experience to add to my collection. This will be an adventure that will always be with me and I am so happy I was able to have this experience. I would like to close by thanking both of my skippers; Tom for the race and David for the return, you kept me safe, and happy for 4,140 miles. Thanks to my race team, Nico, John and Kent, and to our return crew Lindi and Angie. Avion was amazing; she safely took us to Hawaii and back without incident. Thank you for all of the positive feedback from those friends and family that followed us on Yellow Brick and the log; this made the trip even more special. Mostly I want to say how happy I am for the experience and the fact that I now have a strong loving mate in Lindi to help me realize my next adventure. You will be hearing more from us as we go out the Gate and turn Right.
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