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Day 13 Post By Jon
Dodging Squalls
Day 13 8:00 A.M. (358 Nautical Miles (NM) from Hawaii)
167 NM Made Good to Hawaii over the past 24 Hours.
Day 13 10:35 P.M. (334 NM from Hawaii)
GPS is indicating 48 hours to destination.
In the middle of a blissful sleep Juan was rudely awaken by the strangest sensation of being clobbered over the head. Was this another result of escaping the bad guys in his dream after watching another marathon session of Breaking Bad like last time when he fell out of the bunk on Antigua scrambling away from someone trying to shoot him! No, that couldn’t be, he realized as his awareness became more focused, he hadn’t watched TV in nearly two weeks. He looked around for the cause of his sudden shock into reality and found 3 one gallon water jugs lying next to his head while his body was bunched in a ball on the leeward side of the bunk. It appeared that the 3 bottles dislodged from their compartment on the windward side of the bunk. He looked forward to see John standing at what appeared to be a 45 degree list to Starboard while wrestling with his life jacket looking back at Juan with a big grin on his face. Juan took his ear plugs out and over the noise of the engine charging the batteries he could hear flogging sails. He reached over grabbed his pants and literally slide into them. He them slip on sandals and his lifejacket and joined John at companion way. Looking out he saw Nico’s smiling face telling John to help douse the big spinnaker and to Juan to go squirrel. As Juan hustled to the peak of boat to await the dropping of the sail he thought with a smile on his face, how cool is this, as he worked his way through the cabin making sure to brace himself with the various hand holds along the way. He climbed onto the stack of sails and soon was greeted by Nico lifting the hatch cover up and said for him to chill. “The wind is back down to 13 knots so we are in a wait and see mode.”
Juan relaxed in the sail locker, realizing that this was by far the most comfortable place on the boat and may return later on his next off watch to read or take a nap. A short time later Nico re-opened the hatch and said, “Go back to bed, we are staying with this kite.” Juan worked his way back through the boat and stuck his head out the companionway and saw smiles on all four of his crew member above deck. “Glad to see everyone happy” he said and thought what a comfortable feeling to be awaken with such a potentially bad situation and find out that everything is under control; definitely instills confidence in your crew and the boat. We are going to be fine for the next 48 hours or so dodging these squalls.
Day 12 Post By Jon
Trade Winds
Day 12 8:00 A.M. (525 Nautical Miles (NM) from Hawaii)
157 NM Made Good to Hawaii over the past 24 Hours.
Day 12 12:50 P.M. (500 NM from Hawaii)
We are in the tropical trades, and currently they are light around 10 knots. The forecast is for them to slowly build over the next few days but nothing to the extreme; all good news.
My shift this morning from 4 A.M to 8 A.M. was eventful with 3 head sail changes while I was on the helm. I kept the helm through 2 hours because there was so much changes in the conditions that it was best for me to be at helm, where I have the most experience, and let those crew members who understand the rigging more do their magic.
We started out with full main and largest symmetrical spinnaker with 12 to 18 knots of wind. The higher winds were caused by overcast features passing along our course. We were never sure if they were thin or heavily laden clouds. As soon as I took over the helm from John it started to rain and the winds changed direction radically but not much more intensity. We were concerned that this was a squall so we decided to drop the spinnaker and raise the jib top because the changing wind had resulted in a major reach, not good for the spinnaker. As you can imagine at night this is a challenge but since we had pre-ran all of the rigging for 4 different potential head sails we were prepared and the first peel went smoothly. A peel is the process of first dropping a head sail and then raising a new one verses raising the new sail first before dropping the old called running with a bald or headless sail. If the conditions are right for a peel it is preferred because a headless boat is a slow boat besides being smelly.
The tree head sail changes from last night and then this mooring change back to the symmetrical spinnaker resulted 23 hash marks on Nico arm; it now covers his entire left inside forearm from is wrist to his elbow.
There was only one section of this race I was anxious about, that being in the trades dodging squalls. All during my shift I was constantly on edge with the changing conditions and difficulty keeping the boat going fast in the correct direction. We were fortunate not to have any extreme conditions but it is amazing the toll anxiety takes from you. I slept soundly until my next watch at noon.
Day 13 7:30 A.M. (360 NM from Hawaii)
With 40 feet of waterline, nicely making way, though we can’t see the Southern Cross we do have a beautiful sky. If the weather hold we should be in Hawaii on Tuesday. We just had a reported potential squall sighting, so I need to go topside, will probably have more to report later.
We are mow in the last 500 miles of this sailing adventure. We are sailing along at 7.1 knots in 12 knots of wind and the sun just set. We are sailing Avion at a course of 212 degrees for Hawaii as fast as she will go. We are each taking turns driving, as the boat cannot stop for a rest. We are adjusting to the weather conditions by changing sails to keep pushing forward. The level of effort and attention to detail is impressive.
Everyday the morning roll call we report our 8AM position. In the afternoon, there is a radio net on the SSB radio, and they give the place of each boat in each division in the fleet. We are no longer in the top three, but I no longer care about this external measurement. Avion is sailing her own race. She is an older boat with a crew new to this race, but we are the most motivated. We might not be first to the finish line, but to compete fairly and complete this event is an accomplishment.
It will be good to get to Hawaii. We are now looking at arrival in 3 days, on Tuesday.
July 19, 2014 A day in life of the Pac Cup
Describing what a day in life on port tack seems impossible to portray but the sun is out, the fishing line is set, I have just had a shower and am feeling great so I will give it a shot. The first part is to understand what a day means. We often find ourselves referring to things that happened yesterday when really are really referring that happened last watch, 4-8 hours ago. So assuming we are talking about a calendar day not a watch day, My day starts at 0100 my bunk mate, Kent, ever so gently wakes me up “it’s time, ” “ok” so I fall out of bed, literally, as that is the easiest way out of the slot we call bunks. First order of business is always to poke my head out of the hatch to see what those on deck are wearing so I can figure out how much, or how little gear I should put on. This varies greatly from day to day but on average has trended to less. Once on deck I am always greeted by a cheerful “good morning” no matter what time of day it might be! After checking out the current conditions and who is doing what I settle into a comfortable spot take up whatever job is not currently being occupied. Trimmer, Driver, or Vang. From then on we take one hour turns driving and switch off embellishing whatever stories we haven’t already told, and watching the moon and stars light the clouds and the bioluminescence light the the waves . After about one hour, one of my watch mates goes down to kick their bunk mate out of bed so they can get some sleep. Every set of watch mates brings a new dynamic to the cockpit keeping things interesting until it is time for me to go tap Kent. At this point it is 0500 and I am ready to sleep only waking up if the boat broaches and kicks me out of bed or if we need to change sails. At 0900 Kent wakes me again and the process starts over. At 0915 we raise an antenna for the Single Side Band radio (SSB) and listen to the position reports for all the other boats participating in the race and any other information the race committee feels like sharing with us. Usually at this time we discuss what our strategy for the next couple of days is and what course we should be steering. Also at this point someone usually gets hungry and decides to whip up some breakfast. By the time all of that has happened and I have had my hour of driving time, Kent pops his head out and tells me I am off watch. It is usually at this point as it 1300 and the middle of the day that I sit at the computer to try to understand what the navigator is looking at and write a blog entry, or at least part of one. Then I eat some lunch lay in my bunk for a couple of hours before my 1700 watch. At 1715 we once again raise the SSB antenna and listen in for children’s hour where the relative places are announced and trivia questions are asked. 2100 I go down and make dinner eat and sleep until the next calendar day. Sometimes off watches are disrupted by sail changes and watches are disrupted by emergency maintenance items but otherwise the rhythm starts to set its self. Sleep, Eat, Sail. What could possibly be better?! Until Next Time
Nico
19 Juillette 2014 Un journais dans la vie du Coupe Du Pacific
De decrir une journais dans la vie sur babord semblerais une tache impossible mais le solais brille, les lignes de peches sont mis, je viens de prendre une douche et je me sens superb doonc je vais essayer.La premier chose c’est de comprendre ce que c’est un journais. Souvent on parle des chose qui se sont passer heir c’est a dire le dernier quart il y a 4-8 heurs. Mais je vais deccri une journais comme on les compte sur terre pas en mere. Donc pour mois un journais ce commence a 0100 mon co equipier avec qui je partage un lit, Kent, me revile en douceur “c’est l’heur” “merci” donc je tombe du lit comme c’est la method la plus facile pour sortir du trou qu on appell un lit. Premier chose je pas ma tete dehors pour voir comment les autres sont habillier pour decider quois me etres pour ne pas avoirs ni trop froid ni trop chaud. Une fois sur pont on me souhaite “good morning” a n’importe quelle heurs. Une fois que j’ai evaluais les conditions, et qui fait quoi, je m’install dans un coins du cockpit comfortable et je prend charge du bulot qui n’est pas deja pris les ecoutes, la barre (qui bien sur et tout jour pris quand je monte) ou Boom vang ( la linge qui prends tension sur la boom) et de la on prends des tours a raconteur des histoirs et regarde la lune et les etoils eclaiais les nuage, et la bioluminescence eclairias les vagues apr une heure un de mes co equipier descend sortir selui qui est dans son lit, pour que lui il puis dormir un peut. Chaque noveau equipier amenne un noveau dynamique et garde les chose interassant jusque a ce que il est l’heur de reviler Kent. A ce point la il est 0500h et je suis pret a dormir. Je me revile seulement si le bateaux se couche et m’eject du lit ou il faut changer de voile. A 0900h Kent me revile et ca recommence! A 0915h on monte l’antenne pour la radio et ecoute les positions des autres bateaux qui paticipe a la course et quelques autres informations que les organizatures de la course veulle nous donner. Normament a ce moment la on discute de notre strategie pour les quelques jours qui viennes et dans quel direction il faut naviguer. Apers ca quelqun a faim et se decide de preapare un petit dejuner. Apr que tout c ace passe et je barre pendant une heur Kent sort et me dit que mon quart est fini. C’est la, a 1300h, que je me met devant l’ordinature et je essair de comprrendre ce que le navigature vois et pour quois on va la ou on va et je ecris un blog ou au mois une parti. Je mange un bout et je vais me coucher pendant quelques heurs avant mon quart de 1700h. a 1715h on remonte l’antene et on ecoute tant que les places son announcer et des question de trivia sont demender. A 2100h je descend cusinier manger et dormir jusque a la prochaine journais terreste. Quelque fois les quart libre son interompu par des changement de voiles et les quart son interompu par des tach de maintaince d’urgence mais apart ca un rhytme commence a c’etablir. Dormir, Manger, Naviguer. Il y a quois de mieux?!
A la prochaine
Nico
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
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