The Pacific Cup will start in a little over 12 hours and the boat is in a state of disarray. All of the last minute projects undertaken have left the boat in a major mess. The food needs to be stowed, all the gear needs to put away and somewhere along the way we need to find some time to get some sleep. This will be the last opportunity to get more than 3 hours at a time for quite a while. There isn’t enough room in the boat for all of us so I decided to come back to my boat to add more to the blog. This is very convenient since by boat Antigua is on A Dock at Gate 8 of Marina Village Harbor while Avion is B dock at the same gate.
I haven’t had much of an opportunity to talk about the crew. I have introduced everyone but let me take a few minutes to tell you a little about each member. During the last post I talked about Hugh, who started out as a crew member a couple of years ago. He sailed the 2012 and part of the 2013 sailing season on Avion. Mid-season he opted out of the crew for personal reasons and sense then has gotten married and had a child so probably opting out was a good call, he had a lot on his plate. Tom had talked to a lot of potential crew members but settled on an excellent choice to replace Huge. John Dillow was a great catch for Avion. John has sailed the Pacific Cup 9 times. Since the Pacific Cup is ran every other year, he has been doing this race for the past 20 years. Obviously he brings an amazing amount of experience onto the boat. He has raced the Pacific Cup as both skipper and crew. John is also a certified sailing instructor at one of the local sailing schools and a math teacher by profession. John will be the navigator and trimmer and has a great touch on the helm.
David Lyons has been crewing for Avion for a few years now. He is a Coast Guard Certified Captain and has made a couple of return deliveries from Hawaii but has never raced to Hawaii. David is very handy and has a wealth of sailing knowledge and carries a lot of respect from the crew. Tom has asked David to be the skipper on the return trip since he will be unable to help bring the boat back. David typically is the main trimmer but also will be helping me with trimming the spinnaker. Besides sailing David passion is Kite Boarding and has shipped over 2 Kite boards with kites and a couple of surf boards in the container to Hawaii. He plans to have some fun in Hawaii. He is an electrical engineer and computer chip designer by trade.
Nico Colomb is the youngest crew member by a long ways. He is in his early 20’s while the rest of the crew are all over 50, three of which are over 60. Nico is very mature for his age and is an amazing sailor. He has been a sailing instructor and currently works at the Berkeley Marine Center. He was responsible for the haul out today at his employer, they were gracious enough to allow us to haul out and use their facility at no charge. They must be very high on him. When he started a few months ago he told them that he will be gone for 6 weeks, and they hired him anyway. Like I said he is amazing. Nico will do foredeck work, not just because he is the youngest…..
Kent Bliven is the offset to Juan; Juan breaks it and Kent fixes it. Kent has grown up around sailing and has raced a Hobie Cats for many years. I first met Kent at the Hobie Cat Midwinter West regatta in Mexico in the mid 90’s. He has an amazing understanding of the physics of sailing and typically calls the tactics because of his vast sailing knowledge and understanding of sailing in the bay. Kent, along with Nico and John can basically handle every position on the boat Kent is a contractor by trade thus the reason why he is a MacIver.
Previously I have talked about our Skipper, Tom Abbott. This trip is Tom’s dream and has made the financial commitment to make this trip possible. During the 2010 Pacific Cup Tom crewed on Hula Girl, a fast Santana 50. Tom will navigate with John and will be the primary helmsman. Since Avion is a tiller steered boat verses Wheel steering, we will all be trading off at the helm because of fatigue.
I’ve talked about my sailing experience but basically I started racing Hobie Cats in 1983 and went cruising in Mexico from 1998 to 2002. I have lived aboard a sailboat all but 3 years since 1998, so you can say that sailing is a huge part of my life. I will be trimming and working the helm from time to time.
I now need to get some sleep because it is right at 12 hours from the start.
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