Archive for the ‘Jon Fowkes’ Category
The Kaneohe Yacht Club is amazing and sailors that have completed a 2070 mile race really know how to party. Juan always thought the Hobie Catters (sailors that race small 16 to 20 foot catamarans known as Hobie Cats) could really party, but they do not hold a candle to Pacific Cup sailors.
July 22, 2014 will go down as one of the most memorable day of my life. It started with a 4:06 am finished of a 2070 mile sailboat race and it ended with me having a fiancé.
A while back I had purchased a beautiful antique ring for my girlfriend Lindi that she had fallen in love with before we were together. She was planning a major sailing delivery last March from Cabo San Lucus to Seattle with a friend on his sailboat. Prior to her departure she asked me if I would like to have brunch at one of my favorite Brew Pubs in Berkeley. I never turn down an opportunity to enjoy good food with good beer while being with good friends so I told her what an excellent idea. While in Berkeley Lindi suggested that I make a slight detour because she wanted to show me something. She gave me the directions and when we arrived to where ever we were heading she said find a place to park. There was an open parking spot in front of a small antique boutique; she got out of the car and went into the shop. I followed and as we entered she introduced me to the owner by saying, “this is the wonderful guy I was telling you about”. Oh boy I thought, what is this all about. She asked if she could see the ring that she had looked at before and of course the owner knew exactly which one it was. When the shop owner gave me the ring, Lindi said, “I’m going next door to Peet’s Coffee, bye”. I just stood there quite dumb founded. The ring was lovely and not too extravagant and obviously something that Lindi really liked and would love to have. Now as to what her expectations were concerning the ring, I had no idea. My thought was to buy the ring and either eventually give it to her as an engagement ring, a friendship ring or just as a gift.
For Four months I thought about which it would be. As this trip approached I debated to take it with me, to leave it in Alameda or to wait until we had a better idea as to how our relationship was developing. The morning of the start of the race it dawned on me that I had left the ring in the safe at my office so asking her to marry me in Hawaii, could very well be problematic, if that was going to be one of my options. Al and Michelle were at the docks that morning planning to take their boat out to watch the start with Lindi and other friends on board. When Lindi wasn’t looking I pulled Michelle to the side and asked her if she wouldn’t mind going to my office before she left for Hawaii and pick up the ring. We had been talking about when we could have an engagement party in Hawaii so she was aware of my dilemma; I wasn’t sure if the party we were planning was going to be a finish celebration and/or an engagement party. She told me that she would take care of the ring, which turned out to be the best option because who knows what would have happened to the ring during the 14 days, 20 Hours and 39 Agonizing Minutes on the boat crossing the ocean.
When we arrive there was Lindi, Angie (David’s sweetie), Al and Michelle. After we got off the boat I asked Michelle if she had the ring, she said it was back at the house we had rented. During those nearly 15 days I had a lot of time to ponder where my life was heading. The only time I wasn’t able to think about stuff was during the 1 hour of every 6th hour where I was focused on the helm. During that time I was able to decide that the life Lindi and I were planning was the direction I wanted to go since I am close to retirement. She is fun loving, free spirit, adventurous, a great cook, outgoing, funny, and for some reason adores me. This adventure I just completed reinforced the fact that I want to go cruising again and similar to my late wife Jean, this is also Lindi’s dream. I have been looking for someone like her for the past 5 years and everyone I know that has met her thinks the world of her; my family in particular.
Once I came to the understanding that I did want the ring to be an engagement ring, the next question was, how do I pop the question. Obviously it wasn’t going to be at the Yacht Club right after the finish. So after we all had a few Mia Tais the crew decided to check out the rental unit we had and chill for a while. When I saw the house I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I told Lindi that I want to talk in private so I fixed her a drink and lead her upstairs to the balcony overlooking Kaneohe Bay, right on the water. We could look out and watch the boat that were behind us finish. The setting was perfect; beautiful views, romantic setting and we were both excited about re-uniting after the arduous 2 weeks apart. I had thought a lot about doing this proposal right; my prior attempts were far from stellar. I could tell that Lindi was a little anxious not knowing what it was that I had insisted on wanting to talk to her about. I made sure she had her drink that I fixed, was sitting at the little table facing the water and I kneeled on one knee, took out the ring box from my pocket, opened it and looked into her eyes and said, “I would love to have the honor of you being my wife.” She let out a screech that I was sure was heard back in Alameda. I was thinking that the crew and friends on the level below us must had been thinking something terrible must just had happened. After about 5 minutes of hysteria I asked, “Well, what is your answer”, as if I didn’t know. She said Yes, Yes, Yes…… I am absolutely amazed that I am able to make any person that happy.
Tuesday night we had our planned engagement party, ironically Lindi made most of the arrangements on food and drinks for the event. My brother Kirk and his Wife Nance was in Hawaii and was able to attend along with the Avion Crew, Angie, Al and Michelle and a couple of David’s friends. The house was perfect for this party, having an enclosed pool, with the water exposed but the area around it covered and wall to wall, floor to ceiling sliding glass doors exposing the water front of the house; we could not have picked a better setting.
Wednesday the Pacific Cup organizers had a Luau, that was spectacular. Kent’s family arrived on Wednesday so they joined us in the fun. The food was amazing and the performance was the best Luau show I have seen. What made it so spectacular was the way in which they engaged the audience and sailors aren’t shy, which made it even better.
Thursday night was the Mount Gay Rum party so you can only imagine how the Mia Tai’s flowed. The band was great, they played 60’s and 70’s party rock and roll songs, and Lindi and I danced the entire night, for that matter all of the sailors danced the entire night. Based on the band’s reaction they had never seen such a livelier crowd. Many times they mentioned that they wanted to take us with them to their other gigs to show people how to have a great time. I’m not sure the mass quantities of rum had anything to do with it coupled with having just completed a 2070 mile race across half of the Pacific Ocean, whatever the case everyone had a wonderful time. Like I said Pacific Cup sailors really know how to party.
After the band was finished playing I saw Lindi talking to the band leader. I started to think that I had made a big mistake when I told her she could have whatever wedding she wanted. I said that knowing that Lindi is very fiscally responsible on everything else and naturally assumed this wouldn’t be any different. I pointed out to the crew members what Lindi was doing and they all gave me a ribbing on the possibility that I would be buying 6 round trip airline tickets from Hawaii to the Mainland. When Lindi was done talking to them, I was sweating and it had nothing to do with all the dancing I had been doing. She walked up to me holding a piece of paper that I was hoping wasn’t a contract. Turned out all she wanted was their play list because a friend of hers will probably be our entertainment and she wanted to let him know what kind of music she wanted his band to play; what a relief…..
Friday was the awards ceremony but first the crew and friends wanted to take Avion out to the sandbar in the middle of Kaneohe Bay. Even with an 8 1/2 foot keel we were able to beach her with an anchor into sandbar and swim just a few feet off the bow and stand on the sandbar. We had a great time swimming and enjoying the cool breeze and warm water out in the middle of the bay. We then returned to the awards ceremony to applaud all of our fellow sailors that won trophies. I was heartened by the fact that the only standing ovation was for those sailors that were given special recognition for assisting other competitors that had major boat damage out in the middle of the pacific. Both involved broken rudders and lending assistance with transferring water, fuel and equipment to help. All boats made it to Hawaii without further incidents. This proved that the most important criteria for this race, and for that matter any race, is the safety and welfare of the competitors.
By this time even Juan was partied out!
More to come, we will be blogging on our return. Also you can follow our progress on Yellowbrick Road web site that you can link to through the Pacific Cup web site. Our plans are to leave on Wednesday.
Blog for Day 15
Agonizing Finish (An Adventure or an Ordeal?)
Day 15 5:20 A.M PDT (2:20 HST) (Less than 5 miles from Finish)
When I awoke and looked at my watch, I was surprised to see that I had exceeded my off watch schedule by an hour. Either I was more tired than I thought or we were really close to the finish and Tom wanted to stay up. This also concerned me because my last check of the GPS was showing that we were scheduled to finish at 3 a.m. local time so I figured we were really close. As I climbed up the companion way I could see Kent at the foredeck changing the head sail from the Jib Top to the #3 jib. The wind has lighten considerably and had clocked around to our nose requiring an upwind sail change; 28 headsail changes for Nico, 1 for Kent. I saw Kent reach for the magic marker and place one hash mark on his forearm!
Tom told me that Red Cloud, one of our primary competitors from the same yacht club, had called into the race committee at the 5 mile mark right after us. Cool I thought we passed them over the past day or so. As we got closer to the finish line the winds continued to drop to less than 5 knots and our ETA continued to rise. This is the psychological battle you face racing, due to decreasing wind speed, the finish line continues to get further and further away relative to your ETA though the distance is actually getting closer. I have never enjoyed this aspect of racing and after 2065 miles, it is even worse.
Within one Mile from the line we heard Red Cloud call in to tell the Race Committee they had finished at 3:15 AM. How the hell did they pass us over the last 5 miles? They must have had a better angle on the wind. The Race Committee called back and asked if they had a light on their sails because they couldn’t see them. We interpreted this as a good sign and hoped that they were premature and hadn’t crossed. Red Cloud called back and gave their coordinates which was on the finish side of the line. Finally the race committee calls to indicate they had them in site and that they were finished, damn! Can you believe that after 2069 miles two boats that haven’t seen each other for over 13 days are this close together!
The finish line was a virtual line that the sailors were instructed to line up with a beacon on top of Pyramid rock and a flashing white beacon on the water. We got within a tenth of a mile, a mere 528 feet and the GPS wouldn’t change (this is slightly over 10 boat lengths). We would point towards the line and the GPS would indicate a 90 degree turn so we would tack thinking we could make the line. But when the distance made good to the line went negative we tacked back. We did this through an additional 4 tacks and finally we decided to just point the boat towards the line and let the waves simply drift us across the line. 45 minutes later we finally saw the two beacons lined up and Tom told David to shine the spot light on the sail and he called the Race Committee on the VHF radio to tell them that we had finished at 04:06.00 local time. The Race Committee responded with a congratulations and welcome to Hawaii. The entire Avion Crew let out a simulations yell and high fived each other. The 2070 mile race was finally over after 14 days, 20 hours and 39 agonizing minutes tacking back and forth. We changed tack more over the last 1 mile than we had over the previous 2069 miles!
The Mia-Tais were still 2 hours away. Even though as the crow flies the finish line is less than a mile away from the Kaneohe Yacht club the entrance to the bay is 2 ½ miles the other way. The organizers of this event are fabulous; they had an escort boat lined up for each yacht coming in. We were immediately hailed by the skipper of our escort boat to turn to bearing 320, now! We fired up the engine, placed it into gear and turn sharply to starboard until the campus read 320. We then followed the escort boat for over an hour and a half to the yacht club where we were handed off to another smaller skiff that directed us to a slip. We thought how cool is that we will have our own slip and we don’t have to worry about rafting up to another boat. Now picture this, it is 6 a.m. in the morning local time, we just had two different escort boats bringing us to the dock and we could see at least 20 people on the dock clapping and taking picture as we were arriving. Inter mingled with those people is my sweetheart Lindi, David’s sweetie Angie, my good friends Al and Michelle along with 4 lovely ladies carrying Mia-Tais and Leis; Juan’s thinking, yeah now we are talking We are 20 feet from the dock and Avion stops dead in the water; she ran aground. The port captain on the dock said to backup and navigate closer to the stern of the boats before making the turn into the slip. Tom throws the engine into reverse and she pulled herself off the bottom, he then steered more to port and accelerated and was greeted with another tormenting stop; Juan is thinking the ice in the Mai-Tias aren’t going to last much longer. The Port Captain makes an executive decision, he told Tom to backup and end tie next to the really big boats; those that had passed us so soundly days before; Juan’s thinking now we can hobnob with the big dogs. Well this turned out to me easier said than done. Avion was stuck in the muck and was perfectly content to stay; Juan could only visualize those ice cubes melting away to oblivion. Our second escort skiff throws us a line and with trepidation and considerable fossil fuel consumption was able to slog Avion off the bottom and into clear waters.
I know Juan is thinking that we can finally have those Mai-Tias; well not exactly. The Hawaiian government had to make sure that we hadn’t brought any foreign contaminant to the island. Tom’s thinking that he shouldn’t declare Juan for fear of being quarantined. Then we had to be inspected to make sure that we still had all of our safety equipment in place and our 6 gallons of water safely stowed; Tom actually had 7 gallons to cover Juan, just in case the Race committee took his best crew nomination of Juan to heart. Finally the crew could be served their Mai-Tias. Juan told me later that it was the best Mai-Tia he ever had and doubted he would ever have one better; for once I agreed with Juan.
After being at Sea for just under 15 days I have learned a lot about myself. I have learned that I do enjoy extreme adventures. I learned that through trust and fortitude I can accomplish any reasonable attainable task. I learned that I can overcome fear and apprehension through preparation and accepting the fact that I am capable and those around me are as well. I leaned that I must understand and accept my limitations so as to not extend beyond my capabilities but to push them to their limits. I learned that solitude can be my friend and my enemy; the difference is simply in my attitude because there is a fine line between an adventure and an ordeal. I had an amazing adventure that will live with me the remainder of my life.
Day 14 Post By Jon
4 Over 10
Day 14 July 21 8:00 A.M. (154 Nautical Miles (NM) from Hawaii)
204 NM Made Good to Hawaii over the past 24 Hours. Another record for Avion!
Day 14 3:25 P.M. (911.8 NM from Hawaii)
GPS is indicating 14 hours to destination @ 3:00 A.M. Local Time
The wind has dropped considerable since I left the helm 1 hours ago; from 20 to 25 down o 15 to 16 Knots. It is hot, humid and the nav station bench broke so this post will be a relatively short one.
Juan woke for his morning watch at Noon. and felt totally miserable. He got very little sleep because the boat had been pitching from side to side navigation the 10 foot swells for the past two off watches. Every muscle in his body ached so he grabbed the vitamin I bottle (Ibeiprophin) and popped 4 pills and took a health gulp of water. Everything was wet, his shirt, his pants, his body and his sole; it is now crunch time. As he struggled to get on his wet gear he realized that he was bonking; a biking term when your body runs out of fuel and water. Before going up on deck he decided to scrounge around for some food, his portion of the small Mahi Mahi last night wasn’t cutting it. While filling his bottle from the second water bladder he discovered it too was empty, time to break into the backup water supply. They included an additional 22 gallons 1 gallon jugs strategically placed throughout the boat to create the most bodily harm as he discovered the previous morning. As a requirement of the race they have to make sure that there is 6 gallons remaining when Avion crosses the finish line or she will be disqualified. Now for food, all of the bagels are gone, he wasn’t up for making oatmeal, too hot, so he settled on fixing himself two salami burritos. After eating the burritos and downing a bottle of water, the Vitamin I was kicking in and he started to feel human again. As he came on deck he could see over cast skies, 3 fellow crew members huddled together on the high side of the cockpit and all still managing a smile, but all looking like Juan was feeling. As in any long distance race the last portion is always the hardest. There is the psychological aspect of getting closer to the finish line which tends to appear to not get any closer. There is the fatigue factor where the lack of sleep and constantly supporting yourself due to the perpetual listing. There is the emotional factor where any little task becomes a monumental challenge. For example last night the crew had a difficult sail change that resulted in a lively discussion about us all being sure to be even more safety conscious because now is the time accidents will happen. So far so good and the entire crew, especially Juan, is being very careful.
While on watch the crew were talking about last night’s Children’s Hour. While the crew was munching on the Dorado that sacrificed it’s life for their dinner nourishment, Skipper Tom, paid Juan a supreme compliment. He placed Juan’s name as Avion’s nomination into the Outstanding Crew competition. This should cause some consternation with the Pacific Cup’s Race Committee because there is not a Juan on Avion’s crew list. Tom explained the Juan was a stowaway and was being nominated for providing entertainment for the crew and his eloquent, verbose and embellished blog posts that had very little concerned for accuracy. Tom then made a shameless plug for his avionbianca.com web site.
After an hour on watch it was Juan’s turn at the helm. At this point Juan is a bit anxious. Could it have anything to do with 20 to 25 wind, 2 foot wind waves over 10 foot swells, 9 plus knots of boat speed, the fact that the display on the digital campus he has grown accustom to lost its display or that fact that he is totally exahausted? Juan gingerly scoots back behind the main sheet traveler and gets into helm position just in front of John as he is concentrating on the new conditions and displays while John explains the apparent wind angles for the course that is making Avion sound like a freight train. John hollers, “Do you have the tiller”, as he slowly releases his pressure on the helm. Juan yells “No”. Both Juan and Jon simultaneously pulled the teller as hard as possible as Avion started to round up. They managed to recover her before she went into a broach. By this time Juan had been acclimated to the conditions and was ready to take the helm. Over the course of his hour at the helm he reached a personal best in the Rocket Club to 11.20 Knots with 3 other entries into the club; 4 over 10 knots in an hour not bad. Nico commented that during that time Juan’s expression oscillated from deep concentration to big ass smiles. John is still the Chairman of the Rocket Club with 11.76 Knots, Nico Vice Chairman with 11.4 knots and Juan holding the Secretary slot with his 11.2 knots.
Day 14 5:00 P.M. (80 NM from Hawaii)
We just replaced the smaller spinnaker with our largest with wind speeds around 15 knots. Nicco now has 26 marks on his forearm, if any more he will need to go up to his biceps. Juan explained to him that Avion will not have enough headsail changes during this race for him to worry about the tattoo marks going across his face.
So much for the short post, the nomination must have gone to his head.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
avionbianca 