What to write about when things have become routine and nothing extraordinary seem to happen? I could update whenever we turn on or off the engine or when we catch a fish as they seem to be the most poignant things that happen on the day to day. Not much to report when everything is running smoothly and even the boat seems to be happy and not demanding much attention. It may sound a bit boring but that is the beauty of the open ocean; it is hardly boring. When I am not sleeping I am constantly marveling at the sights. You might call me a tourist sightseeing. Now you might be asking yourself, what sights? What can there possibly be to see but sea and sky? In truth nothing but it is so much more than that. The sea surface is ever changing; the shapes sizes and colors of the waves vary with each one that passes. The qualities of the colors reflected in the waves and in the water are fleeting, and can never be captured for more than the second they catch ones eye. But above the surface of the sea is where the real fascination lays, The Sky. Watching the sky change day to day hour to hour gives me a new found understanding of what draws men and woman to the sea. The most important and possibly fastest changing aspect of the sky is the clouds. In truth, the clouds bring beauty to all the other elements of what makes the sky so fascinating and a constant source of entertainment for me. The other pieces of the puzzle that bring the beauty to the sky are the sun the moon and the stars. Sunrise and Sunset is a sort of a religious experience that I am always sad to find I have slept through. Here is where we see the interplay of the clouds for without them the sunrise and sunset would be rather plain. It is the reflections in the clouds, the colors dancing from one cumulus to one cirrus cloud. It is the shadows and dark spots, where the clouds block out the coming light, and the rays of light shining through like a beacon beckoning one to a spot on the water. Dawn and dusk bring a special light to the sky where the last of the stars and the first of the sunlight, or vice versa, all shine through at once, playing peek a boo with the clouds which light up in billows of color. Once the sun has set and stars come out a whole new world opens up. When the moon is up it too plays its light through the clouds, lighting only those in the path of its silver rays. Meanwhile the other clouds seem dark ominous shapes looming overhead, never clear what they will bring for us. Sometimes they bring wind, sometimes they take it away, other times still they bring rain in great big buckets or in short sprinkles. Once the moon has set and the clouds leave enough clear sky to see the stars, we see a field of millions of stars bright and dim that leave no doubt as to why so many cultures have studied, written about, and told stories based on the stars. The vast expanse of night sky is punctuated about every 30 seconds with a streak of light moving across the field of tiny white dots. Sometimes these shooting stars are bright and leave a distinct streak in the sky other times they are fleeting and only last as long as it takes to turn ones head to get a better view. At the same time as the sky is lit by tiny white dots the sea around the boat fills with glowing specks in the wake of the boat. Every wave that passes brings a new pattern of bioluminescence washing away from the boat leaving room for the next. So when I say that I spend my days marveling at the sights, I do mean the just the sea and the sky but what more could I possibly take in?
Nico
Que est ce que on peut ecrir quad les chose devienent routine et il ce passrein de extraordinaire?Je pourais vous avetir a chaque fois que on met le motor ou que on attrape um poission comme il semblerais que ce sont les chose les plus important que il se passe ces jours ci. Pas grand chose a dire quand tout ce passe bien et meme le bateaux a l’aire content et ne demende pas beaucoup d’attention. Ils semblarais peuterte meme que on s’ennui mais c’est la beautet de l’ocean; elle est loin d’etre enuiant. Quand je ne dors pas je me perd dans les paysage. Vous vous demendais peuteter, quelles payisages? Que est ce qui l pourait possiblement avoir a voir saufe la mere et le ciele? En realite, rein mais c’est tellment pluse que juste ca. Le mere change tout le temps, les forms taille et colour des vages ne dure jamais pluse longtemps que l’instant qu on l’apercoi. Les reflects des colours dans l’eau et dans les vagues dure un instant et ne peut selment etre tenu dans l’instan que on le voit. Pour moi ce que il y a de plus beau est ce qui est au dessu de la mere , Le ciel. De voir les changement dans le ciel chaque jour me fait comprendre autrement ce qui attir l’homme a la mere. La parti du ciel qui est le plus formidable, et aussi celui qui change le plus rapidment sont les nuages. En realite les nuages partage, et meme ajoute au beaute de tout les autres element qui font le miracle du ciel. Les autres element qui joue sont le soleil la lune et les etoils. Les lever et coucher du soleil sont des evenment presque religiouse que je suis tojours desu quant je trouve qu j’ai manquer. C’est la ou on commence a voir le role que le nuages joue, car sans eu le lever et coucher du soleil serait un peut banal. C’est les reflect des colours et de la lumier qui joue dans le nuage qui et si spectaculair. Un foit que le soleil et coucher le ciel devient un paysage entierement different. La lune qui elle n’est pas si brilliant mais de un colour entierement different illumine quelques nuages avec ses rayons argentes tant que les autres nuages semble des forms noir et ominous qui nous amen un meteo mysterious. Quelque fois ells nous amen du vent quelquefois elle nous le vole, autrefois elles amen de la pluie soit en cords soit des petit goutes. Une fois que la lune se couche et les nuages s’ecatres un peut le ciel s’ouvre a des milliards d’etoils certains brilliant et d’autres peut visible. Ca ne laisse auquin doubt a pourquois autant de cultures ont etudier ecrit et raconteur des histoirs autour des etoils. Le champs de petit lumeir blancs et accenter par des trais de lumier qui fills a travers du ceil. Quelqefois ces etoils fillant laisse un trace imprimer dans le noirs et autrefois elles pass aussi vite qu on puisse tourner la tete pour mieux voir. En meme temps que le ciel et remplis de petit lumiers blancs la mere se decide a ce illumine aussi. Des petit points blanc se forme avec chaque vague que le bateaux passe et disparait aussi viet pour laiser la place a un nouvelle vague de bioluminescent. Et donc quand je dit que je me perd dans les paysages, oui je parle de juste la mere et le ciel mais que est ce que je pourrias vouloirs voir de plus?
Nico
Strange Night Sightings
Return Day 5 8/04/20144 12:00 Noon (1476 Miles to Golden Gate Bridge)
After 4 complete days of sailing we are making good progress. The first24 hours we made 136 miles, second 120, third 126 and fourth 131 for a total last night at Children’s Hour of 503 miles made good. Sometime last night we completed the first quarter of the way. We celebrated by eating a fresh Mahi Mahi with wasabi and soy sauce, nice treat. I was just getting off watch at 9 P.M., which was still light, and I saw flying fish. We now know why the fish are flying because Dorado’s can’t. No sooner did I tell Nico that I saw a flying fish he hollers out that we caught a fish. This Dorado was 2.1 kilos with enough meat to have some grilled fillets later. Two minutes before the catch Lindi had just emptied a can of chicken into the curry chicken she and Angie were preparing, it would have been nice to have had the fish in the curry but this made for a nice meal with the combination of raw fish and chicken curry; like I said we do eat well.
The routine is settling in but I still require a lot more sleep than normal. Keeping my bulk stable is still contributing greatly to my fatigue. The gals are having an even more difficult time because of their short wing span, they are finding it challenging to find hand holds without lunging from time to time. The 3 point rule is critical on a listing and pitching boat and one of those points should not be your broken nose against the bulkhead.
After nearly 8 degrees north of Hawaii the tropical heat is beginning to dissipate, a bit. Night watches are requiring light foulies to keep us dry while it is cool. The spray during the day is a welcomed. I did get slammed by a wave while I was driving at night the other evening while only wearing shorts and a light shirt, a mere half hour from the end of my watch. I went down and got a jacket, put it over my wet clothes and went back on watch. The mistake I made was not changing; I went to bed after taking off my shirt but not my shorts. Oh well, I have had to deal with the chafing of my butt for the last few days; lesson learned!
This morning’s watch was just crazy. The remainder if the crew is worried about the sanity of Angie and Juan. At 3 A.M. I came up on board to relieve David and saw a light on the horizon at about position 8 o’clock off our port quarter. I said, “Ohh, I just missed the moon”. Which Angie replied, while at the helm, that it wasn’t the moon but a stationary ship that has been there for the past 3 hours. We speculated that it was some military ship or some research vessel. After David went down, Angie and I started seeing thing in the night. The first sighting was a strobe moving off our port bow a mile or so away moving rather rapidly. We first thought it was an aircraft but the strobes were 10 seconds or so apart. The movement was in the general direction to the stationary ship but not in direct path because we could watch the strobe pass between us and the ship. We figured that the craft must be on the water because the strobe sequence was intermittent due to the wave interference. While the strobe was still in sight off our stern Angie, still on the helm, reports seeing a red solid light at about 11 o’clock off the port side. This was definitely a watercraft showing us its port running lights. It wasn’t appearing to be moving as fast as the strobe but definitely faster than a sailboat. It appeared to be much closer to Avion, approximately mile or so but we couldn’t hear any engine noise. While this red light was moving across our port side Angie reported another strobe at about 1 o’clock off our starboard bow and approaching rapidly. We decided to make sure our AIS system was on and the VHF radio was on. The AIS system is a tracking device that sends out a signal to other crafts showing boat name, type, position and movement which Avion is equipped. We also can see other crafts with AIS transponders but Juan wasn’t checked out on how to monitor that on our navigation system. Angie, being a prudent helmsman, kept Avion as high into the wind to starboard as possible since the strobe was moving from our starboard to port across our bow that appeared to be way less than a mile out. Take these estimated distances with a grain of salt; at 3:30 in the morning while being fatigued one’s judgment of distances, or anything for that matter, is suspect. This may account for the reason stated earlier about the remaining crew’s concern of our sanity.
Anyway, getting back to the story, Angie said that she could start breathing again once she could see the strobe off our port bow. Knowing that I can’t hold my breath that long I began to worry not only about a potential collision but also for my helmsman’s ability not to pass out. We kept a keen eye on the luff of the jib hoping to see a light. It finally flashed and Angie finally took a deep breath. This strobe was even closer than the other two lights and appeared to be moving faster than the red light but about the same speed as the previous strobe. Since it was significantly closer it moved off our stern much quicker than the previous two light. All of the lights were moving in the opposite direction as Avion but again not directly to the stationary ship. You can probably guess that Angie and Juan had a heightened sense of awareness for the remainder of their watch.
When Angie went down to wake Nico I could see an animated Angie trying to explain to Nico what we just experienced. Nico, having been checked out on the AIS system, went to the computer and was unable to verify any AIS signal in the region. By this time the stationary ship was over the horizon but we could see a faint glow. David had seen the stationary ship before he went off watch, otherwise the remaining crew would have been totally concerned about our sanity. So what do you think? Military exercise with stealth technology, some research vessel analyzing the debris field in this general area of the Pacific, some alien encounter of the third kind, or some hallucinations from a couple of fatigued sailors?
Beginning the Return!
Well after an amazing week in Hawaii we are back at it this time going the other way. Hawaii was beautiful, lots of fun, everything and more than I could have hoped for in a week vacation! The return trip has proven to be a completely different animal. The first thing to note is that we are no longer racing and thus things are a bit more relaxed. However, the return trip is upwind which means the boat leans a lot more and we cannot point straight home. The second thing and possibly most dramatic change is the crew. Of the 6 who raced over only David Jon and I are returning although sometimes Juan makes an appearance. We have also gained Lindi and Angie as crew. The presence of women on the boat certainly mixes things up a bit. Both Jon and David seem thrilled to have their girlfriends along and for both couples this is the first trip of this kind together! Being only 5 and having 2 couples has changed up the watch schedule quite a bit. We are also allowing for 2 people on deck as we are no longer racing which allows for longer off watches the current schedule is 4hrs on and 6 hrs off and seems a luxury when I wake up 4 hours into my off watch! The food is also quite different this direction as we had less time to prepare meals and more time to cook underway we are doing a lot more cooking. Right now the boat is a veritable sauna and I am still living in shorts on deck even at night ( I really need to move someplace warm) The boat is laden with about 160 gal of diesel and 115 gal of water with the assumption that we will sail to the center of the “pacific high,” the weather system that dominates our route, where there is typically little to no wind and we will motor until we hit the wind again! The weather so far looks to be favorable and has been until now. We put our #3 small jib up when we left Kaneohe Bay and have had it up since (no sharpie marks on my arm!) averaging about 5.5 knots. Some things about the trip however, remain the same the rhythm still remains Eat, Sleep, Sail. There is still a high side bed and a low side bed (though now we just go to whatever bed is open!) and our entire life has once again become about Avion, and her wants needs and whims!
Until next time
Nico
Le Debut du retour!
Apres un semaine super a Hawaii on et re parti c’ette fois ci dans l’autre sens. Un semaine sur Oahu eter une semaine de reve! L’ille est manifique les gens super sympas et les fetes de regatta etait super! Le voyage du retour est une voyage entierment different pour quelques raisons. La premier est parceque on est plus en course et donc on reviens rapidment en mode croisier et ddonc bien plus relaxe. Parcontre maintenet on remonte au vent: qui veut dire que le bateaux panche plus, bouge pluse et donc et plus difficile physiqument pour se deplacer ou fair quoi que il soit. Ca veut aussie dire que oon ne peut pas se deriger directement ou on veut on doit tirer des bords vers San Francisco. Le deuxiem changement et possiblement le pplus dramatique c’est l’equippage! Sur les 6 qui on fait la regatta seulement 3, david, jon et moi, rentre avec le bateauxles copines de david et jon nous on joins a Hawaii et viens pour le retour! D’avoirs des femmes et des couples abord change largement l’ambiance et la morale abord! Pour les deux couples c’est la premier fois que il font un voyage tell ensemble donc ils ajuste comme il faut mais tout se passe tres bien! D’etre 5 abord et d’avoir deux couples et le faite que on est plus en course change le systeme de quart. On est 2 sur le pont a la fois et on fait des quart de 4 heurs de garde et 6 heurs de repos pour moi ca semble le grand lux quand je me reveille apr 4 heurs de repos et j’ai encore deux heurs! La norriture est aussie largement different, comme a Hawaii on n’as pas eu beaucoup de temps pours prepares des repas et on a plus de temps pour cusinier abord on a achetter les ingredients qui l fallait et oon cusine avec ce que il y a! et c’est tojours delicieux! A ce moment la le bateaux et tres chaud et humide et on navigue en shorts meme la nuit ! Le bateaux et charger de 605l de diesel et 435l d’eau on a autant de diesel sous l’assumption que on va naviguer a la voile jusque au centre du “Pacific High,” le system de meteo qui domine notre passage, a l’endroit ou il y a plus de vent et on va metre le motor jusque a ce qu on retrouve le vent! Jusque a present le vent et les vagues on etait favorable et la meteo a l’aire de dire que ca va continuer! En partant on a mis le #3 “pettit” foc et il y est tojouurs! Plus de mark sur mon bras! On avance a une moyenne de 5.5 knoeu. Il y a quelques chose du voyage parcontre que ne change pas! Le rhythm Dormir, Manger, Naviguer ne change pas. Il y a tojouurs un lit du coter haut et un lit du coter bas; et on est tojours au soins de Avion et de touts ses besions desires et petite caprice!
A la prochaine!
Nico
Eat, Sleep, Sail
Return Day 2 21:00 Boat Time (1944 Miles to Golden Gate Bridge)
This is a completely different animal than the downwind race; this is much harder! I read a book about the Great Divide Ride from Canada to Mexico paralleling the Continental Divide call Eat, Sleep, Ride. I rode that route on my mountain bike and though we are a mere 24 Hours into this adventure I do believe it is going to test my will far greater than that ride. I can go into great detail as to why but you all will be spared my embellished verbosity because it is just too damn difficult to do anything other than Eat, Sleep, Sail.
Return Day 3 15:00 Boat Time (1859 Miles to Golden Gate Bridge)
We are calling PDT Boat time because we have two times, what the boat says and what we have been living the past 2 weeks; Hawaii time. We ran into a small squall this morning right at the end of my watch. Our schedule is 4 on and 6 off and our skipper David has Lindi replacing me on my on watch. Not sure why David picked that combination, so that we are not on watch together, but I think he was concerned about Lindi still wanting to marry me at the end of this adventure! So being the kind considerate future husband I suggested to her that she ware her rain jacket when she replaces me topside rather than deprive her of the opportunity to take a shower. I have to say that I am totally amazed how well she is handling this difficult bash. She calls herself Wrong Way Lindi because all of her deliveries have been bashes.
So let me explain why this is so difficult. A bash is a sailors term for slogging upwind. The first week or more of this delivery will be just that. If you are following us on Yellow Brick Road by following the link off of Pacific Cup Web site, you will see that we are heading North by Northwest; across the trade winds. The plan is to sail as high on starboard tack, as comfortable as we can, until the wind dies. At that point we will be on the Western edge of the Pacific High. If everything holds to form we will then motor east across the high, then cross the synoptic winds that parallel the California Coast and then into San Francisco Bay. We approximately have 14 days of fuel so every day we do not run the engine we are putting fuel in the bank since we are planning 21 days for the trip. Our rule is not to run the engine until we are unable to sail at 4 knots. So far we only had to run the engine this morning for about 15 minutes when the squall came through and temporarily killed the trade winds. The engine alarm promptly came on. By this time I was in bed with Lindi and Nico on watch. Liindi took the helm and Nico tore into the engine to determine why the heat sensor alarm was sounding. During this process the winds came up so Lindi had to deal with the changing weather conditions and helping Nico with starting and stopping the engine when necessary. Juan did put on his pants just in case he was needed and went back to sleep. Nico with David’s help managed to determine the issue with the engine so we hope it is resolved for the next time we drop below 4 knots.
The difficulty comes from the heat, the constant motion and the perpetual list of 30 degrees to port. It has taken me almost 2 days to get acclimated. First off I was nauseous because of the heat and the motion. This is very unusual for me; I have never been seasick with all of the sailing I have done, which is substantial considering I went cruising for 4 years. The motion is completely different going against the waves then with the waves; thus the reason they say fair winds and following seas. We are experiencing fair winds, 12 to 15 knots with fairly small waves 4 to 6 feet with the occasional 10 footer that throws us around like a cork in a stream. You never know when that is going to hit so you pray that it doesn’t happen while using the head. Bracing against the 30 degree list is starting to take its toll on my legs and arms. The mountain bike riding helps with the legs but I can see where my arms are going to have some difficult adjusting thus the reason why so much sleep. The fatigue is amazing and explains why the blog postings will be short and sweet and not as often. I will try and keep up but you will understand when they are spread out more than they were during the race.
I did have a sighting of a really big fish yesterday. It was bigger than a dolphin but smaller than a baby whale. II knew it wasn’t a mammal because when it surfaced there was no spout. I didn’t see a prominent dorsal fin so we are not sure what it was, Nico thinks Shark, David thought Blue Marlin, Juan was just glad there wasn’t a fishing line out!
I will leave with a positive note. The good news is that we are making better progress than we had expected. We were planning for an average of 100 miles made good each day and our first 24 hours was made 125 miles. We all are getting plenty of rest, plenty to eat, plenty to drink and are all in good spirits, especially Lindi. Like I said she is amazing.
Day 1 (7/30/2014) 8:51 A.M. Hawaii Time (2070 Miles to San Francisco Bay)
Though the week long stay in Kaneohe Yacht Club has been fun and eventful we are all ready to head back home. Angie arrived back on the boat last night at about 11:30 and Nico made it back sometime after that (he has made some local friends) and we all had a good nights sleep. This morning has been spent preparing for departure by cleaning up the boat and stowing everything from food, plants, clothing and gear. Yes plants, we are taking back 2 special plants from some sailors that raced the Pacific Cup back in 1998 and are still here but plan to return back to San Francisco soon. In exchange for taking their plants we were able to get a pickup ride to the fuel station to top off the remaining 13 fuel jugs. This gives us a total of 160 gallons which should be able to allow us to motor over 300 hours. Are plans are to only run the engine if we can not make 4 knots under sail.
The route we plan to take is a little different than the downwind run we had for the race. The normal Pacific High which is the engine for the trade winds blowing out of the East, Northeast is a little obscured by a series of four tropical lows south of Hawaii and large Low just south of Alaska. The High is week so the winds right now shows more of a motor boat ride than a sailing experience. But of course that is the conditions now, who knows what they will be like in 3 weeks. We have capability of obtaining weather information both by Sat Phone and by Single Side Band Radio, so we will be constantly monitoring the conditions.
Our planned route is to head North by Northeast on a starboard tack. The rule of thumb is to stay on starboard tack until the wind dies then head east under power to cross the high then catch the winds on the eastern side of the high to take us to San Francisco Bay. Our plan is to keep a close eye on the weather on the coast, this can be treacherous. The recommendation is to either make a run for the coast to avoid maj0r weather coming or hang out in the comfort of the high waiting for weather on the coast to dissipate.
We have plenty of food and water to last over 3 weeks and plenty of fuel. No body ever complains about having too much fuel when the arrive. The last thing we want is to be stuck 100 miles offshore not able to get into the bay because the wind has died or we need to power through heavy seas.
I will update once we are underway.
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.
7:30pm, Sun July 20
Last few nights the sky has been incredible as I’ve come on watch at 11pm. This morning we had a wrap around sunrise, 360 degrees of pink clouds. We kept the watch schedule on PDT, so as we’ve gone west through 2 or 3 time zones, when the sun rises and sets changes a bit each day. Sunrise is about 10amm boat time. We put the fishing line in the water 2 days ago, yesterday we got a hit, got away before we landed it, beautiful dorado, or mahimahi. Today we got anotheer hit, and landed another dorado. They are iridescent blue and green for about 2 minutes, then fade fast to yellow, heartbreaking beautiful as they slash through the blue water. We ate more than half of it as sashimi, the rest will get cooked for dinner. While I was cleaning the fish another one hit, but got away before I could land it. Hard to believe that we’ll be ashore sometime Tuesday.
July 20, 2014 Less than 300 miles to go
Well it seems that we keep getting closer to Hawaii and yet the ocean doesn’t seem too change much. Excitement is getting high as we talk about our last full night of sailing and there seems to be much anticipation around the Mai-Tais that await us in Kaneohe Bay. Less than 48 hours to go and yet still so much ocean between us and the finish and a bit more between us and dry land. The excitement is bitter sweet. I have come to really enjoy this ocean: beautiful and blue and ever changing, but always the same. There has been some discussion about taking a leaf out of Bernard Montesiers book and say forget the finish, we are going to keep going. Of course we don’t have enough fresh water to do that but the notion seems to please all of us at least when we talk about it. Those on the boat who have family and friends waiting on the dock are anxious to be with them. I for one am looking forward to spending some time in Hawaii, visiting with the other competitors, old friends, new friends, and playing on the beach and in the warm water! About as timely as can be in the middle of writing, the call “FISH ON” comes from the cockpit we have hooked a nice Mahi Mahi just as I was thinking of what we should have for dinner. Mmmm Sashimi! Off to fillet a fish!
20 Juillette 2014 Mions de 500 Km
Il semblerais que on continue a s’approcher de Hawaii mais l’ocean na pas laire de beaucoup changer on commence a s’exciter en discutant notre dernier nuit complet aboard ce soir. Et il y a beauccoup de anticipation atojur des Mai-Tais qui nous attends a Kaneohe Bai. Moins de 48 heurs et comemme tellemt d’ocean entre nous et la ligne de finisions et encore un peut avant terre. L’excitement nes pas sans penser que je commence a vraiment aimer c’ette ocean: Mainifique blue de touts les varieties et toujour en train de changer et tojours la meme. Ca discuter de prendre apr Bernard Montesier et de dire oublie la course on vas continuer. Bien sur on n’a pas asser d’eau fresh pour fair ca, mais l’idee nous plait au moins au moment que on en parle. Ceux sur le bateaux qui on de la famille qui les attends sont anxious de les voirs. Pour moi je serais tres content de passer un bon moment a Hawaii, de discuter avec les autres participant, des vieux amis, des noveaux amis et de jouer dans le sable et l’eau chaud! Et Juste au moment ou j’ecris ca on entand le cris “POISSION” qui viens du cockpit. On viens d’acrochers un beau Mahi Mahi juste au moment que je commencer a me demender ce que on mangerais ce soir. MMMM Sashimi! Et maintenent pour decouper un poission!
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