Day 1
The Start and out to the Farallons
Day 1 9:45 A.M. (2080 Miles to Hawaii)
I was just a tad bit worried this morning when we hadn’t left the dock at our designated hour of 9:30 am to give us enough time to make it to the start line for our 11:30 start. The time was rapidly approaching 10 am about our drop dead time because it is about 1 hours from our slip in Alameda all the way across the bay to the St Francis Yacht Club that is located on the City waterfront just before the Golden Gate . And we do not have our skipper. 45 minutes ago he left to pick up the last items on his shopping list, a new halyard, engine oil and block ice. Just before he left at 8:45 I suggested that he get going because my guess was the list would take at least 45 minutes. Finally I saw him come through the marina gate so we still have a chance to make the start on time.
We had a good contingent of friends and family on the dock to send us off. John’s daughter and grandson came to drop off John and check out the boat. Kent’s wife Joann and son Shawn came for the sendoff Of course my sweetie Lindi was there and had gone and bought us all breakfast sandwiches so we weren’t leaving on an empty stomach. Our good friends Al and Michelle Leonard were there to take anyone interested out on their sailboat Blue Passion to watch the start, they had 6 onboard. Nico’s parents were at the breakwater in front of St. Francis waiting to watch the start from shore, seems his mother doesn’t enjoy being on sailboats. Nico sailing genes must have come from his dad!
We finally got everything stowed, at least well enough to get underway, and shuved off the dock at 9:55 giving us an estimated 5 minutes to spare. I fired up my GPS and put the starting coordinants in and with the engine at full throttle it was showing we were going to have 12 minutes to spare.
11:30 A.M. Day 1 (2070 miles to Hawaii)
As we approached the starting line the winds were building to 16 knots. Since this is a marathon and not a sprint we decided on a conservative sail plan with the smaller # 3 Jib and a reefed main. The #3 jib is about 100% which means that it fills all of the area between the bow of the boat to the mast, our #1 Jib is @150% which in the building winds close to 20 knots we would be way over powered. The reef main means that we lower the sail to a reefing point that reduces the sail area about 20%l, we have a second reefing point that we will only use when we experience winds above 30 knots. With only 6 boats starting we figured our best starting position would be close to shore on a port take which would get us out the gate without having to tack over to starboard. Port tack means the wind is coming off of the port side of the boat (left hand facing the front of the boat). Unfortunately a port tack boat has to give rights to any starboard tack boat but we felt the rest of the fleet taking a starboard tack were not on the line and we could smoke them if we got to the line right at the start. Kent calling tactics told us to tack with 1 minute to the start. We got through our tack with 45 seconds remaining to the start and Nico on the bow indicates that we are too early, we must slow the boat, Tom at the helm turned the boat slightly into the wind as Kent calls out 30 seconds. Nico still says we are too early. We continue to luff the sails for another 15 seconds and then powered up and hit the line at full speed right with the gun sounded. We heard over the radio, “All Clear” and the entire Avion Crew gave out a simultaneous yell. Kent said great start and as we predicted we were out in front of all the starboard boats with a clear path through the gate. I thought to myself not bad for thinking we weren’t even going to make the start on time. As we approach the Gate, still in first place the winds continued to build, I saw over 21 Knots of wind, our smaller sail plan proved to be the right choice because we continued to walk away from the other boats that had a more aggressive plan and were struggling keeping their boats under control. We crossed under the bridge still in first place feeling really good about the start and thinking this was a great omen.
5:00 P.m. Day 1 (2045 Miles to Hawaii)
My hot bunk mate is Tom had gone to bed at 1 and I told him I would wake him in 4 hours. But first I needed to make sure all of our efforts on putting together a Single Side Band (SSB) worked. I needed a new radio and modem for Antigua so I told Tom that I would purchase one and install it on Avion for the race and then move it to Antigua later. He loved the idea because it gave us an opportunity to have a backup to the Sat Phone for communications both for safety and for getting weather information and exchange emails. I was familiar with this technology because I used it while cruising in Mexico back in 2000. It still has the same technology just faster communication speed. Unfortunately we were unable to test the transmission quality of the installation prior to leaving the dock. I was a bit anxious about this because I was getting different feedback on the system we choose for transmission. In the marina with all of the electrical noise it is virtually impossible to test it while in the slip and we didn’t have an opportunity to take her out because of all the last minute stuff we were doing to the boat. At 5 pm every day of the race they have an SSB net for the racers called the Children’s Hour. At 5 we hoisted the rope antenna for the radio and I dialed into the designated channel and I heard someone speaking and identified themselves as one of our fellow racers. After all of the announcement they asked for any questions and I keyed the microphone and said, “This is Avion and we are hoping for a radio check.” The response back was, “your radio is loud and clear”. I responded with, “That is great because we just installed the radio and this is the first opportunity we have had to test it.” He responded, “Well you did something right because that usually isn’t the case for first time installations.” The crew of Avoin made their second yell of joy and Juan’s was the loudest!
The wind continued to drop as predicted, we kept a course to West and could see the Farallon Island. As we approached I saw two whale spout blows and Nico saw a big tail fin as one whale made a dive. With the winds light we had plenty of time to watch the wildlife.
9:00 P.M. Day 1 (2036 to Hawaii)
Someone just turned off the wind! It’s my turn to go to bed and while climbing in I was thinking to myself that the wave action with no wind in the middle of the ocean is similar to sitting on anchor in the bay, A gentle rocking motion that put me to sleep.
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