Cirrus - Transpac 2007

Worth a Thousand Words

2007-08-03T18:24:00.001-07:00

Cirrus Overall Winner of TP '07 ?

2007-07-28T10:04:00.001-07:00

Well, for a moment I thought I had missed something, but this surely is the impression you get when reading the lastest Transpac press release (decisions, decisions,...). Don't miss it!

Congratulations to all - including Valerie, sorry the many others I don't know - well done and surely exciting! Let's build on this for the next ;-)) time.

This race was the longest ever for Cirrus - 17.51 days -, a full day longer than the slow Pacific Cup 2000 (16.46 days). However, tp also goes over a longer distance (+147 nm), and on average speed the PCup was still slower albeit by as little as 3/100 of a knot (5.27kn vs 5.24kn). Numerology courtesy of Cirrugator...

Aloha, Ulli

Oh Yes......

2007-07-27T18:32:00.000-07:00

......did I mention that we caught another Mahi-Mahi off Kalapapa and had it for dinner. Went like a rocket across the channel. ETAs going from 0300 to 2300 to 2221. There was some talk of putting up our last (fourth) spinnaker (the "Wedding Dress") and we gave it a shot but a misplaced halyard got in the way of furling the jib and made a mess. When cleared, time was running out and the hoist abandoned. So I went below to navigate the last couple miles to the finish line. Hardly got into my seat when the Skipper's voice from the helm shook the boat, " #$@%&**&$#@$%^$ I'll be $%^&#$%^%$# if I'm going to cross the line with white sails. Get that sucker up there!!!!!!!!!!"

Did I mention that the skipper is a sailor, not a school teacher?

Well, by now we have a pretty good idea when our services are being requested, and about 3 minutes later, with less than 2 miles to go, there she was in all her glory. The Transpacific Mortgage Group super spinnaker. The wind was about 15-18 and we were reaching with the rail about a foot under. The helm and trimmers were screaming at each other to be heard over the noise and the rest of the crew were screaming just for the pure pleasure of it. I've never seen anything like it. My job was to coach the driver across the line and get the time. The buoy went by in a blur, about 30 feet away and that was it.

CAPT BLOG

2007-07-26T15:03:00.000-07:00

CAPT BLOG 25 JULY 2007

POSITION 21'21N 156'32W

DTW 68NM

oh boy it was a sad morning here on Cirrus. at around 0130 i was on the helm Nancy was in the cock pit, we were talking story having a good old time, great weather, not a cloud in the sky, all kinds of stars, and a bright moon, i felt a little something different in the wind and asked Nancy to go down and get our jackets, that we might get a little rain. by the time i got my first arm in the jacket the wind had come up about ten knots, we were flying!!! Donna could sense impending doom, she put her PFD on and sat with us on deck. i have to admit i was giving her a hard time, you know calling her a worry wort, and an old lady. while i was heckling my mom the wind came up a little more, i broke Caroline's record, i got a 9.8, then the bow started to dig, i had a minor round up, my mom eased the sheets, i got steering back, i thought i had control, we were flying like a bat out of hell!!!! ol' faithful was in all of her glory!! then we rounded down, that's when the rest of the crew flew out of their bunks and geared up. it almost seemed like we might get it back, the main jibed over hard, the kite was in the water, it felt like our stern was so high out of the water that my rudder was useless. it got to be too much for ol' faithful, she gave way, the boat righted itself, an eerie silence feel over the boat, followed by a wave of mourning. our beloved spinnaker was no longer with us.

once we wiped a tear from our eye it was time to sort out the mess that was going on on deck. Bill was already on deck manning the sock lines, Christin got to use her knife and cut some part of the kite away. i am not to clear on what happened from here on out, i was focusing on not jibing the main, and i was laughing too hard at the show going on on deck. i guess the rest of the kite had got all wrapped up in the fence, i think the fence got cut at some put to get the halyard down. ok after the remainders of the chute were packed away and put down below, it was time to get the fence down. Caroline was standing on the lower bar of the bow pulpit, she had her life line around the roller furling head sail. both of her hands hauling down on the fence. oh have i mentioned all she was wearing was a black bra and black underwear, and her PFD. Christin was on the sock halyard they were yelling at each other UP, DOWN.... NO. UP, UP, UP,....NOW DOWN. and then a whole bunch of grunting. Bill had the million candle light, he was yelling, TO THE LEFT, TO THE RIGHT CAN YOU SEE???. this went on for awhile. it sounded like some deranged work out program. it was really hard for the rest of us to not bust out laughing. it was so funny. but it all worked out in the end Caroline beat the fence. she won!!! we all cheered for her.

we put out the jib, still doing about 7 knots i went to bed. i woke up at about 0600, we could see Haleakala and another boat. as it became brighter out we realized it was The Minnow. they blew past us. we went through another squall, Caroline was on the wheel, i'm not shitting you she tied my new speed record with just the jib poled out and the main up. she is unstoppable. after the squall passed the crew pressured me in to putting up the wedding dress, so reluctantly we did. once set we sailed with it for about ten minutes, till Bill and i decided the wind and swell was to much for a 3/4 kite, we took it down. put the jib back up. now we are about to sail along side Molokai for the next few hours. i will blog more latter.
LG OUT

Keeps Us on Our Toes

2007-07-26T06:59:00.000-07:00

Just in case you had any doubts about the "Two o'clock rule." POW!!!!!!! In the middle of last night,somewhere north of The Big Island, we got spun around a couple times and "Old Faithful" bit the dust. Caroline ,in her underwear, got to put in another heroic foredeck performance. I know that "bigger and better" stories will produce a skeptical audience, but ask the crew. This one was up there. Sock and tattered bits of sail were wrapped into the spinnaker fence, etc.

The dream we were starting to entertain of finishing around sunset has been dashed. It's white sails for the moment and take another look when it gets light, and maybe quiets down a little. Current ETA is looking like midnight.

Our Thursday, 26 July 2007, 0600 PDT position was 21N25,155W45. Course 250M, speed 5.7 knots. We went 148 miles yesterday and have about 120 more to go.

Bill

Watch Captain's blog

2007-07-26T00:45:00.000-07:00

Donna Austin
sea date 25 July 2007

Back in December 2006 when this whole venture started, July seemed so far away, and getting everything pulled together for a June 2 delivery was going to be a piece of cake. But as the months passed time started to fly and with each passing month it came faster and faster. Even though it was Bill and I always working on the boat, I did call on others for their help and support. Family and friends were called upon for all sorts of help and strange requests, and sometimes families were asked to do more than usual. Even though there are only six of us on board all of the following had something to do with CIRRUS doing Transpac 2007 this year, and I would like to THANK them and acknowledge.
Bill and Valerie
Agnes and Chris Doutre, Chris made it possible to do the delivery
Dana Fujikake our press person,and someone with so much Aloha!
Tom Richie outfitted us with a new spinnaker
Rick at Makani Kai for casting off our lines... a few times.
Debbie Deshais, Ann Ford, Danielle Larrew and all the women of HWYRA and the members of Pearl Harbor Yacht Club.
Ala Wai Marine
Gary Domasin(my brother) and Jim Hormel for letting us crash at their house and use their washer and dryer non stop
G.B. Domasin (my mom) for the use of her car
Al and Peggy Domasin (my brother) for hosting a party for the crew of CIRRUS
MP thanks for following us
Treasure T's Good job on the silk screening
KYC thank you for putting us on your homepage, as well as a link to our blog
WYC thanks for the coverage in the monthly mail out
Rich Roberts thanks for giving us such nice coverage
NORTH SAILS and Fuzz Foster for the awesome spinnaker and hand delivery
Joel Gober for helping us with the dry ice, and navigating advice off of the point
Paul and Robbin Imire (our hosts in Long Beach) I dont know were to start; organizing a tow for us to get to the dock in the first place, making us feel welcome, and answering all of our stupid questions. Can't wait for you to come to Hawaii and do some diving
Warren Wolf for putting together the welcome book, we wore the pages out.
Linda West for supporting our crew and always supporting womens sailing
SLYC (shoreline yacht club), Debbie and all the members, you really made us feel like family!
English Johnny and Kathrine for keeping a watchful eye on the boat and introducing us to all the cool people.
Ullman Sails and Bryan Dair for repairing our main so quickly
Lou and Kim Ickler for the really tasty muffins, and the radio check-ins
Maya Fujikake for helping to run errands and making the Lei for the boat
Star Bulletin reporter Katherine Nichols for really capturing the crew of Cirrus and putting out an unreal story
Ullie Steiner were do I start? the Cirrugator for one. all of the tech support with the blog. taking the blog international. i know i am forgetting a million things
Crew of Siesta for being really jazzed for us
Think Tech Hawaii, Jay and Sharon Fidel for inviting us to do a radio spot from out in the middle of the ocean
West Marine Hawaii for answering all of our questions and letting us return just a few things
TPYC and volunteers (transpac yacht club ) for hosting this race
Latitude 38' for having Cirrus pride
Hilo Hattie's (Sharon)
NOAA weather staff at U of H
The crew of Cirrus,Bill, Nancy, Caroline, and Christine
Most of all I need to thank my family Lindsey and Phillip Austin for believing in me and Richard Blackburn for loving me and for supporting my sailing.

CAPT. BLOG

2007-07-25T22:42:00.000-07:00

CAPT. BLOG 25 JULY 2007

POSITION 21'22N, 154'34

DTW: 172NM

MESSAGES AT BOTTOM..

what's going on in the world of cirrus?? well the crew is getting very excited for our arrival, about a whole hour will go by till some one will pipe up about a new time equation or theory predicting our arrival to be a little sooner then the GPS, Caroline is getting pumped to eat all the things she has missed so much while she has been at sea, and i know Christin cant wait to see Joseph. its been about 3 months since bill and Valerie have seen each other, he has been talking alot about taking his lady out to dinner. Mom has only seen Richard in her dreams for the past 2 months. Derrick and i have only seen each other for a little less then a month in the past 4 months. Nancy has been thinking about her son Ben, she is looking forward to hopefully seeing him at the dock party.

once we get in that will be the end of transpac for us. Mom, Bill, and I, as well as Valerie, Nancy and our families, not to mention the Hawaii sailing community at large have been working on this for the whole year. it is going to be very odd to not be constantly working toward transpac. what will we talk about with each other? what will i make lists of? what will i do whit all the extra money that will be in my bank account?? i was discussing this with my friend Mark Towill he was telling me about how his crew was so focused on the start of the race, that they didn't see that it brought them that much closer to the end of their adventure.

this is not the last transpac i will do, but it sure has been the best first one i could have asked for, for myself and my crew.

so we have been getting ready to finish, Bill and i have been reading up on the rules for the finish, Bill, Donna, and Christin got the wedding dress all ready for her debut. i have been filling out some of the minor paper work and have been slowly assigning tasks for the crew to accomplish before arrival. tomorrow will be a busy day, lots of cleaning, lots of phone calls to our shore crew. and probably lots of jumping up and down with excitement.

as for the sailing aspect on board, nothing has broken in the last 24 hours, we jibed twice, the wind has picked up just a little, and hopefully, according to our weather charts will continue to build as we approach the finish. oh we saw a PCC, you know a car ship, it didn't try to run us down or anything, that was a big relief. i think that is all i have for now.

CAPT. LG out

MESSAGES:

DAD: hi dad, i think you arrived back in Honolulu today. welcome home. i have put your name on a list of people that will be alerted to our arrival. Derrick will call you. You also have a date with the crew of Cirrus this Friday night around 1700, you're coming to the awards banquet with us. i'll tell you more about that later. if you have questions call Richard. if Katie is still in town make sure she comes to the dock party too. see you soon.

Aunty Dana and Uncle Tom: it was nice talking to you this morning aunty Dana, you and Tom also have a date with the crew of Cirrus Friday night. don't worry about being kept in the loop about our arrival, your phone will most likely ring so much you'll want to throw it in the water. see you soon.

Derrick: hi babe, im almost home!!! i am going to send you an e mail to your account outlining some instructions for the phone calls you will be making tomorrow. thank you for all of your help sweetie, the whole crew is really jazzed on it. i cant wait to see you, olives lg

The Elephant in the Room

2007-07-25T07:04:00.000-07:00

Well, it is almost over. This time tomorrow I might be too busy to write. It is certainly not a sad event, but for me it isn't an entirely happy one either. I've been casting about for an analogy. Maybe sending a child off to college. You're supposed to be happy about it, but you know that the door to one universe is closing with a clang and another is opening.

We had another totally beautiful day yesterday. We were wishing we could share such perfect moments with loved ones and friends but there is no way. To get there you have to pay your dues.

Our Wednesday, 25 July 2007, 0600 PDT position was 21N44, 153W07. Course 260M, speed 7 knots. We went about 151 miles yesterday and we have approximately 260 to go.

Bill

Joy!

2007-07-25T00:16:00.001-07:00

I'm really sorry that my attempt at light hearted chat came across as critical. Nothing negative was intended. No negative feelings here. Only joy of accomplishment. Imagine. Counting the three delivery attempts this crew has covered at least 5000 miles and has been together in a self sufficient box 7 x 10 x 20 feet for almost two months. By comparison the space station would probably be considered light duty. All that, and we continue to be, each day, overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of sliding along under a colorful sail, blue skies, puffy clouds, the rumble and roar of the water rushing by. No way, really, to put it into words, You have to be here. (And we are.)

Bill

CAPT BLOG

2007-07-24T20:08:00.000-07:00

CAPT. BLOG SEA DATE 24 JULY 2007

DTW 329

i am sitting here trying to think of what to put in the blog but i don't really think anything happened yesterday, it was really hot!!!! alot of us just lounged around on the deck. Nancy and Christin saw a moon bow on their watch, that makes for 2 nights in a row, they also got to see the moon set. according to them it looked like a ship on fire. oh and Caroline and i had dolphins come by on our night watch.

this morning Donna and Caroline had a few pilot whales. at some point we were sailing on a reach, so we put out the reaching strut. after breakfast, Caroline put out the fishing lines. she put out her super special lure, the Jamaican hula twister, and a lure my big brother made me, that one does not have a name, but he said it was guaranteed to catch. after our lunch of chili and rice, which we later found out has been recalled, don't worry were watching for sighs of botulism in each other. Caroline's line got a hit, it was a perfect size Mahi mahi, after she got it all cleaned and Christin had put the the hose away we got a hit on Phill's line another Mahi mahi, we were going to throw that one back but once we got it on board we saw that it had lost its eyes in the struggle. Christin helped Caroline clean that one, while Nancy and i tried to keep the boat moving in light winds.

Nancy cooked the first fish in the oven with butter, onion, and garlic salt, it was really yummy!!! i think that is about it.

CAPT. LG out

messages:

Doug: what happened?? i thought we were having fun. i am always willing to learn new things. i hope there are no hard feelings and we still see you at the party.

Kimmie and Stryder: i hear you guys can't make it for the finish, oh well. i am glad to hear you are working, i hope it is not anything lame. i love you guys and will call you when we get in. i hope Stryder got his package i sent. lots of love

D man: nice to get to talk at you this morning. you're the best shore crew ever. i am going to send Richard and Valerie a e-mail about the shirts right now. give Oopu a hug. see you really soon.

Maya: i think you sent us a very funny blog yesterday, the crew and i were in stitches!! Bill really liked the C.P., Cirrus pride part. my mom and i have been wondering where you were. see you soon. LG

Aunty Dana: if we make it in on time my mom and i were thinking that you, uncle Tom, and Aunty Candace might want to go to the banquet with the crew. i need to have a head count cause i need to buy the tickets by Thursday morning over the phone. love you

Here she goes again

2007-07-24T14:10:00.001-07:00

Wonder if Nancy is going to try to break every shackle on the boat! No need to worry about "girls" on this boat - it's a "can do" gang.

Success!

2007-07-24T14:07:00.000-07:00

Not to worry about canned chili...
These pictures were taken 5 minutes apart. Caroline holding catch #1 and then came catch #2.
Fresh mahi mahi for all.

Cirrus - Play Girl edition

2007-07-24T14:04:00.001-07:00

Now there's a pair I'll never have to wash again!
The fashion statement of a "dork"?
I don't think so!
Valerie

Watched Pots ..........

2007-07-24T07:18:00.000-07:00

........never boil. Just when we could use a decent day's run, it's another poke along. (About 128 painful miles.)

Tuesday, 24 July 2007, 0600 PDT position was 21N49, 150W24. Course 240M and speed 6 knots. Grasping for milestones, let me note that we have passed 150 longitude and are about to drop under 400 miles to go.

We have had a rash of bits of advice lately. We're hoping some of these knowledgeable individuals will feel sufficiently keenly about some of these issues to buy us a beer at the YC and pass their experiences on to us in person. Of course, some of the advice amounts to, "You should do it the way we do it, instead of the way you do it."

On Cirrus, usually, no one climbs the mast, and we don't intentionally hoist or lower sails that are whipping about in the wind.

Just for fun (And because I have a couple free minutes.) let me ramble on a bit. We do a lot of things on Cirrus that most serious racers can't imagine. Mostly having to do with safety and being able to use the skills of crew new to the boat or without extensive open ocean racing experience. For example, we use two spinnaker poles, each with it's own dedicated topping lift, fore and after guy. That's six lines so far. Then there are fore and after guys at each clew of the spinnaker, and a halyard, of course. We're up to eleven. There is a spinnaker fence, to prevent wraps, that has an associated halyard. Twelve. And then the line for hoisting and lowering the sock. Thirteen. Then, of course, there are running backs, twings, and (Don't get me started.) all the lines associated with sheeting from the end of the boom in very light conditions. You get the picture.

Wish us wind. See you soon. Bill

CAPT. BLOG

2007-07-23T15:34:00.000-07:00

CAPT. BLOG SEA DATE 22 JULY 2007

POSITION 22'20N 148'56

DTW 489.5

after dinner the wind picked up, we were moving along at about 8.7 knots up to 9.5, very nice. at around 0130 i was on watch with Nancy, she was in the cock pit while i was on the helm. then bam, and the chute fell in the water. it seemed the halyard had busted. i called down below to get the crew on deck. i turned to see Nancy on the rail pulling the spinnaker on deck, I put Bill on the wheel. Donna was the furthest one forward, Caroline, Nancy, Christin, then me. we almost had the whole sail on deck, when, due to the swell, it got sucked back in to the water. we got ahold of it again, started pulling it on board, at this point the sail was torn, and the tapes were wrapped around the winches, and life lines, all over the place like a spider web, the whole kite was on board the only thing holding us back was.... you guessed it, the sox ( or for those of you hyper-sensitive to spelling errors S-O-C-K) it was about 3 feet under water and was acting like a very large sea drogue, Caroline and I really tried hard to get it on deck, if we didn't do something quick it would suck the rest of the sail back in to the water. so i cut it free. some of you might be thinking that i only did that in order to get rid of my pent up frustration towards sox, but i'll never tell.

we did not stop moving, we all worked together to get the 1.5 up, all said and done the whole ordeal only lasted half an hour. as we were all cooling down in the cock pit, some of the crew expressed gratitude for having gone to sleep prepared for an incident on deck. i noticed the difference myself, 3 people on the rail had knifes, i think everyone had there gloves, and those who are into shoes had them on. i was really proud of my crew.

after that the boat sailed smoothly. we had squalls all night, i guess at one point Christin got the boat up to 9.7 knots. the sun is blazing out on deck and it is unbearably hot down below. so i have to finish up. see everyone soon.

CAPT. LG out

QUICK LETTER TO COMMENT LEFT BY DOUG:

Dear Doug,

S-O-X, S-O-C-K, we all get the picture. I hear what your saying about SOCKING the kite before jibing. Now take a moment to really think about it... its the same exact thing, all the lines are run the same exact way as before, the only difference is you have brought the SOCK down. If for some reason i am missing something here you are welcome to join us at our dock party upon arrival, my crew and i would be happy to have you give us a demonstration.

Aloha Lindsey

The 2 o'clock Rule

2007-07-23T06:53:00.000-07:00

Port spinnaker halyard failed, and with the whole chute in the water (huge drag from bunched up sock at top of sail) it looked like it would have to be abandoned. Lindsey managed to save some of it. Sock is gone.

Old Faithful is back up. Stbd' pole and stbd' halyard. 530 miles to go. Pacing ourselves well. More than 2/3 of the way and still have a working chute. Then there's the "wedding dress".

Our (on the last Monday of the race) 23 July 2007, 0600 PDT position was 22N15, 148W10. Course: all over the place in zero wind squally conditions. Speed: likewise.

Cirrus - Swim Suit Edition

2007-07-22T16:37:00.001-07:00

Illustrations supportive of Captain's Blog

2007-07-22T16:30:00.000-07:00

Our Nancy is one very buff
sailor who is able to break brakes in a single pull!
But Mr. Home Repair and support staff are able to solve the problem.

CAPT. BLOG

2007-07-22T14:51:00.001-07:00

CAPT.BLOG

SEA DATE 22 JULY 2007

ok so i went on to watch 2100 mellow seas mellow winds. around 2200 we spotted a boat on the horizon, all the lights were too bright to make out any nav. lights, so we watched it, from the moment we saw it Bill tried to hail it on the radio, they never came up. as they got closer we were able to see they were going to cross from left to right, fine. then they turned toward us, this made me very uncomfortable. i sent someone down to retrieve the million candle light, or what ever it is, we shined the light right on the sail. the boat turned away from us, at this point the boat was closer then 1/4 of a mile. at this point Caroline spots another light on the horizon, so we figured they might be under tow, but that for some reason did not work in my head. so we continue to sail along trying to stay as high on our course as possible. once again the ship turns toward us, made way, then got on to a parallel course to us, but he was way way too close, due to the chute we could not change course to drastically

so i got the crew on deck, i was at the wheel Christin and bill went up to the foredeck to take down the spin, Donna, Caroline and Nancy, were on the spin gear. Nancy was doing a good job of giving me a play by play of what was going on with the ship. since we had jibed the pole earlier in the day, we were now on the wrong jibe to bring the sox down. Bill and i had gone up on to the deck before sunset to figure out a way to work around that fact in case of an emergency, its a good thing we did. we figured that if we put the pole forward then walked the sox sheets to the bow, passed them between the toping lift and the spin, in front of the forestay it would be all good. that's what they did. it would have worked out well except for the fact that i had to steer on a reach in order to stay away from the ship. once the sheets were blown the boat rounded down, the bottom of the kite was in the water, for some reason the sox was not coming down, i sent Caroline up to help, at some point the sheet got caught on the boom, there was no way to get it lose, that alone was really bad! i had Donna cut the line, what ever was the hold up on deck got cleared up, and the sox came down.

the crew would really like me to emphasize just how much the rig was under strain, having the chute out like that with no control of it made the rig really shake and shutter, the line that got caught around the boom was really detrimental, creating a hell of a lot of force in the wrong direction, given enough time it would have broken the boom then got caught around the stanchions and at some point probable taken the hole rig down. but that did not happen,

during this ordeal we were still keeping an eye on the ship. at some point he turned away from us, then promptly put his engines in reverse and back his ship towards us, then went forward, turned and headed toward us again. one of the crew members saw a small boat get to the large ship, we think that was what the light on horizon was. what ever.

all said and done, we got back on the other tack passed behind the ship, i had Christin then Caroline try to get the ship's name off the stern, no luck it was all in Chinese or something, when we passed by we got a good look at the other side of the ship, we think they were hauling net up. what ever they were doing, they were not supposed to be doing it. and they really went out of there way to scare us off. i could have done with out all of that.

we put the chute back up. the wind had gone down a lot, the 1.5 was too heavy now. i had Caroline and Christin bring up the light air chute, we put that one and it worked much better. i sent them to bed. i was still on watch now with Nancy, i asked Donna and Bill to stay on deck. we made some adjustments on the main and we are now sailing along at about 5.2 knots in very light wind.

i would like to make a note here, i spoke to the crew after this whole ordeal about being ready at any given moment to be called on deck in case of an emergency, for example if you wear gloves have them near by, that kind of crap. i asked the crew if they had knives it is always a good idea to have them on at all times. i got some attitude, from very little of the crew, one asked, oh are we to wear our gear to bed? well i have about 4 times so far on this race alone. and i have seen others do so as well. due to all of that it is just a little uncomfortable on board. but it should pass soon.

i got some rest, around 0600 i was woken up by Donna, there was a pretty ugly squall baring down on us. we thought to bring in the kite, but gave it a few minutes. it passed low of us still giving us stronger winds for a short bit. we messed with the main a little then i went back to bed.

i woke up this morning to clear skies, flat seas, and light wind. Bill got on the wheel Nancy was in the cock pit with me helping to center the main, i was taking in on the the main sheet while she tended the boom brake. once the main was centered i asked her to haul in on the boom brake really good, i had no idea just how buff Nancy really is. she hauled on that sucker so hard she busted the shackle holding it to the boom!! the boom brake hit the deck with a bang. that gave Bill a project for the morning. he had to find a shackle that was long but with a narrow shaft, no luck there. plan b, swap out a few shackles that were being used around the boat, to find two that could do the job of one, with a few other slight modifications done to the boom brake it self. Christin helped in that effort, in about an hour we were back in business. all said and done they raised the rest of the main, stuck it back out there, its all good.

for lunch we had mango pancakes, yummy. that's all i can think of for now. oh wait my big brother Phillip is heading out to sea tomorrow. i think some where in the Bearing Sea, going to the North Slope. so i love you Phill, have fun, be safe, watch out for the yellow snow. see you when i get back from work.

Capt. LG out

Message to ACS

2007-07-22T14:51:00.000-07:00

Aloha to the ACS staff from Nancy. The good news is that we are 1st in our class and have been holding for several days. The bad news is it is taking a bit longer than anticipated. We traveled south for many days just to pick up the trades. Our team is awesome and everyone is well. At this point it is looking like some time Thursday for arrival. Mahalo for taking care of everything as you always do so well. See you soon. Warmest aloha, Nancy

Ho Humm

2007-07-22T06:59:00.001-07:00

Just another routine day of death defying adventures. The ship adventure around midnight was something else (See Captn's Log.) We got within half a mile before things resolved. A spin sheet got cut and (at the moment) a spin guy is unaccounted for. Hard to imagine just misplacing something like that.

Our Sunday, 22 July 2007, 0600 PDT position was 22N08, 145W18. Course 250M, Speed 7 knots. We have gone 146 miles since yesterday and have about 690 to go. The (ever optimistic) GPS has us at Makapu'u Thursday afternoon. And finishing (in light air) at Diamond Head around midnight. Just kidding........

Home Repair

2007-07-22T06:59:00.000-07:00

Whatever you do don't let this guy near your home repair projects. This simple task (for example) seems to have gotten completely out of hand.

The little deck insert in the main cabin, that gives access to one of the manual bilge pumps, gave way the other day when someone stepped on it. The bronze screws holding the little strips of wood that were underneath the insert, to hold it in place, had pulled out. Ideally, a repair could be effected by reattaching the strips with slightly fatter screws.

Unfortunately, the only screws available were slightly longer instead of being slight fatter. So .........You guessed it. The screws came through and the sharp points were getting stepped on with bare feet. (Hawaii crew remember.) Solution? Simple, just cover each point with a couple pieces of gutter tape. (Metallic tape with an adhesive backing.)

An added plus is that the bright tape reminds you not to step on it in the first place.

Bill

CAPT. BLOG

2007-07-21T19:49:00.000-07:00

CAPT. BLOG, SEA DATE 21 JULY 2007

POSTION: 22'31N 144'16W

TOGO: 749NM

it has been a very nice day. after i finished my blog, we put the head sail out on the pole, that was very nice. we kept the set up like that all night. a few squalls passed over but nothing special. at around 1200 this afternoon it was time to put the kite back up, then we jibed. once i got off of watch i was able to take a nap, it lasted 6 hours!!! oh i feel good. it should be a nice night, there are some squalls, but i hope nothing out of control. i think that is it for now, a few of us are going to play some trivial pursuit.

CAPT. LG out.

Perspective

2007-07-21T13:18:00.000-07:00

When I spoke with Bill this morning I expressed my disappointment that California Girl had resumed her position in fleet ahead of Cirrus. This is an old discussion between the two of us!
Bill had the perfect response, "We are 100 miles in front of the next boat in our fleet, 200 miles in front of the one after that and 400 miles in front of the one three behind us. As far as I know there is no trophy for beating California Girl."
They were making 7.5 kn. when we spoke and were about to change sails and gybe (again!) so we didn't talk long. The crew takes such good care of me - told him he had to call or I would worry. Thanks, ladies!
Latest prediction on this end has Cirrus arriving at oh dark thirty on Friday morning. If accurate they may be tired but they will make it to the awards banquet. Sure hope so!
Valerie

Answer to Ulli's question?

2007-07-21T11:29:00.001-07:00

Caroline and Lindsey -
SMACK DOWN!

Bill, Caroline and Nancy revelling in half way party grinds.

Enough levity you guys...Pay attention to the Cirrugator and sail!

Cirrus going straight ?

2007-07-21T08:25:00.000-07:00

this is an interesting development: looks like Cirrus goes straight to the finish line, while the router tries to make them go south. Notice the isochrones are much tighter where Cirrus goes. No trouble visible on the weathermap, but the GRIB predictions are steady. Curious to learn what made them chose this path.
For latest ETA click router picture in the sidebar. Ulli

Ah! Finally! The Weekend!

2007-07-21T06:40:00.000-07:00

At last, a chance to kick back with a brew and a book. Do a little puttering around. Spend all day tomorrow with the NYT and struggle with the crossword puzzle. Maybe go to the gym. Etc.

Just kidding.

However, after yesterday .............

Our Saturday, 21 July 2007, 0600 PDT position was 23N01, 142W51. Course 255M (down the pipe), speed 6. We've come 141 miles since yesterday. Not bad considering the wrap and too many jibes and sail changes to count. I'm sure Lindsey must have skipped a couple in her blog. (The mind will only take so much.) Kidding again.....

We still have about 840 miles to go and only the roughest guess as to how long it will take. Time is running out.

Bill

HPR Interview with Cirrus now online

2007-07-21T01:02:00.000-07:00

In the sidebar you now find the links to the sound track of the full original show as well as the Cirrus part only. Ulli

CAPT BLOG

2007-07-20T21:51:00.000-07:00

CAPT. BLOG

SAE DATE: 20 JULY 07

TO GO: 897!!!!

holy crap. what a day there is so much to tell everyone, keep up, im going to do this fast and dirty.

after blog yesterday the seas got super disorganized!!! it was so hard to steer, but we were making good time so we did not want to take the spin down, we made the necessary adjustments to keep moving forward, and we pressed on. we celebrated our half way party last night at dinner. we were all really tired and a little on edge over the seas, but we had fun anyways. Nancy and Donna made lime crusted chili chicken with a mango glaze, atop black bean and tortilla rice. it was unreal!!! after we got some food in our belly's we popped the bubbly and made a few toasts. the funniest part of the evening was when Caroline threw the the champagne bottle over her shoulder and managed to hit the boom, we think it was good luck like another blessing. after the festivities everyone piled it to their bunks to think about sleeping but not really get any. the night watch was uneventful thank God.

ok here we go.

note: spinnakers are heavy. when i say sox i mean sock. sox are made to help you not make life harder.

at 0600 this morning, it was time to put another jibe in, i was on the foredeck, bill on the pole spin gear, Donna on the helm, Nancy, Christin, and Caroline on the sheets and stuff. that was the best quickest jibe so far.

0930 Bill and i are on watch together, the wind has switched and pushed us to an unfavorable course, so we did another jibe. i called down below, " anyone awake?" Nancy piped up, she came on deck. i got on the fore deck, Nancy on the wheel, Bill on all the lines, i think we jibed with no problems. by the time we cleaned up the cockpit the wind had died down, so it was time to change out to a lighter spin. so i went down below to get the 3/4, i hauled it on deck, at this point Caroline was in the cockpit to help. everyone else in the same positions. we did the swap like pros. i took the big boy down below and stowed it.

1300 due to very light wind we managed to wrap the spin around the head stay, lucky us!! Nancy on the wheel, Bill and i got up on to the foredeck, Christin on the sheets at first. ok i know there are going to be people sitting in front of their computers reading this thinking, " oh they should do this" or " you never do it like that", well you people can take a look around, we're actually out here doing it. Bill and i tied short lines to the clews of the sail, while Bill held one i would take the other and unwrap it, as you could image, the more of the sail we got untangled the more it would fill up with wind, so toward the last few wraps the sail was really loaded, Bill and i were looking at each other thinking we might not be able to handle much more. at some point Nancy came up to the foredeck to help, she got on to the halyard and started lowering it. we thought we were home free, think again. i don't know what happened but we had 10 more minutes of wrestling left till we finally got it to the deck. keep in mind we raised this thing in a sox, but did not take back down in the sox. by some miracle Nancy was the only one to get hurt, she cut the tip of her big toe. pretty minor, the whole ordeal took about 45 min. and at that time everyone was on deck.

i took that spin down below, to repack later. i grabbed the 1.5 took it up. meanwhile the crew had worked together to get the deck and cockpit ready to host more sail and keep moving. before we put another spin up we decided to put a fence up, that prevents the spin from wrapping around the head stay. we did that with only little headache. we hoisted the 1.5 up, and im sure there was some mess up but i don't remember what. i would bet money that it was the sox.

at that point i think Bill and i felt pretty beat up, but everyone else seemed good. Caroline, Bill and i went down below to repack the 3/4 spin back in the sox. you might be thinking, oh i put socks on all the time, its easy!!!, well this is the same concept, but far more difficult. not difficult as in, lets think really hard about it, its just physically straining, not to mention its about 98' down below. i don't know if you can tell yet but i am a little bitter toward the sox. so i haul it back on deck we raise it on a spare halyard. this is just to get the internal hauling lines of the sox organized. we got it up, then took it back down, while shoving it in to the bag. one more time i drag that spin back down below and stow it away again.

we decided after all that hard work that we really needed to cut lose, Caroline went up forward and got the hose out, since Bill was down below resting in his bunk the girls and i took showers, we helped each other scrub one another's body's down, all of that bare glistening skin and soap suds, it was so hard to keep the boat on course. did i get your attention??? that's not really how it went down, we had to get the hose out to scrub the blood off the deck, after that we were all so wet the only logical thing was to take a shower. that's how it really went down.

once i got some fresh clothes on, i laid down and actually took a nap, i woke up to a hell of a roll-a-coaster ride. at some point while i was sleeping the Caroline and Donna took the main down, the boat speed increased by 2.5 knots. so when i woke up my Mom was at the helm on watch with Christin, MOm was steering through a squall, and doing a very good job. since there was no main the boat was all over the place. it was pretty rough to cook, so we snacked for dinner. the next squall hit and it was just to much, the boat rounded up like it was stuck in a whirl pool, the g forces were so powerful down below the crew and i were pinned to the hull, not really, but it was not easy to get our bearings, we got in our usual positions, Mom on the helm, Caroline and Christin in the cock pit, i went on deck and had Nancy come up to help me. we got the sox lines all ready then we began the take down, with a little muscle it came down like a charm, what are the odds??

since it looked like it was going to be a very squallie night, we put the main back and put a head sail out, once the weather starts working with us we will put a kite back up, but for now we are making good way on a good course.

i know i am missing a few things but i am late for watch

CAPT. LG out

Dear Transpac Organizers,

2007-07-20T11:09:00.000-07:00

I couldn't help but I had to fight off a few little tears, when I read that you had put me as a crewmember on Cirrus. And this at a time when they were having their half-way party. No, although I feel a bit like inventory to Cirrus when it comes to Pacific Races, I am not sailing this time. Instead I am sitting on the other side of the globe, in good old Germany, carefully watching the weather, the boats, and all gossip around it - in a word the Transpac. An no, while admittedly it is itching, I am not giving any advice to Cirrus since she crossed the starting line!

We all observe what happens when you have a well-maintained and prepared boat, even a slow one like Cirrus, and add to her a dedicated owner and experienced crew, all well prepared also, and combine this with a little bit of strategic advantage offered by a computer program, Cirrugator, which I specifically designed for Cirrus. It is delivering information which other boats very obviously weren't privy to. And it runs even on non-redundant, non-toughened equipment, something where we apparently have the heads-up over Pegasus also ;-). (Forgive me to rub it in, but that little success felt so good!)

And in closing, to all you folks behind the Transpac scenes, with a lot of work and a little of recognition - kudos from Cirrus' onshore and offshore crews for making a challenging and enjoying event possible!

Aloha,
Ulli

No Turning Back

2007-07-20T06:35:00.001-07:00

Well, we've passed through what some people claim is the most isolated ocean area on earth. We have had our halfway party. So it looks like we are committed.

Our position, today, Friday, 20 July 2007, 0600 PDT was 23N10, 140W18. We covered 164 miles yesterday and we have about 970 miles to go.

Bill

Getting better all the time

2007-07-20T01:12:00.000-07:00

Just in case you are only reading this blog and not checking the TransPac web site, be sure and go and look at the press release for today, the 19th. Getting the recognition we deserve I'd say! Good fun.
Valerie

CAPTAINS BLOG

2007-07-19T16:08:00.001-07:00

CAPT. BLOG SEA DATE 19 JULY 2007

going to make this quick:

crossed half way point around 013 in the AM.

blew the spin sheet at 0600, had some difficulties getting it down.

got it down below, then raised 3/4oz.

went back down below to repack the 1.5, not easy task do to sox.

had lunch of chilly, rice, and chips.

going to have nice half way dinner tonight.

back on starboard pole.

goinG to take nap now

CAPT. LG out

Busy Morning

2007-07-19T13:33:00.001-07:00

Just as I was about to record our 0600 position for the 0800 check in there was a loud pop. By now (This was the 3rd or 4th time.) it was no longer necessary to enquire "What was that?" Instead (Knowing that a heavily loaded line had parted.) the emphasis was on: harness, tether, gloves and on deck! We were on a port pole (Putting another little tuck in.) and the guy (with it's improvised doughnut) had let go. They don't make spectra like they used to.

The sock got hung up somehow on the forestay and they ended up pulling it down on deck without the sock or a bag to put it in. Once the sail was inside the boat it was straight forward to jibe the main and hoist a 3/4 oz. on the other side. Now we are once again "on rails" and aimed directly at the finish line.

Re-packing the 1.5 oz. (sock, cramped space, etc.) is non-trivial.

So, this is probably old stuff by now, but ... Our Thursday, 19 July 2007, 0600 PDT position was 22N47, 137W22. Course 220M, speed 6 knots. We are 1st in Division Aloha B, and 48th in the fleet. It is sunny, warm and drizzley. Deadly humidity.

Half way point this morning at 0200 PDT, 1150 miles each way. Party this evening.

Bill

Weather and Navigation - Update

2007-07-19T11:02:00.000-07:00

When you look at today's situation regarding weather and routing, you will notice that there isn't much to be gained anymore through better strategic decisions - it looks rather straightforward. So far Cirrus has left 19 of the still-sailing boats behind her, including 9, which she has beaten even on absolute time. Not bad for the second slowest boat of the race! Let's hope she can maintain it. I think a few notches up the ladder are still possible for Cirrus, but not much. Unless the (very) fast guys behind her really run into troubles. These boats are currently crowding ahead of Cirrus in the rankings.

But although the plain sailing skills are now coming to the forefront, some interesting options still remain to be decided about the route: Note the zig-zag course proposed by the router, due to the fact that the wind is blowing straight to the islands, and a dead-down-wind (DDW) run is not only difficult to steer, but also slower than less DDW courses. However, see the proposed jibe for today at 23N/135W, and again in 2 days at about 21N/141W - when you are pointing straight to the finish line, it becomes so hard to decide for a jibe going away from it! But it could pay off handsomely, as Pyewacket had demonstrated in tp03 and tp05. Will be interesting to see what they do on the boat.
Ulli
P.S. They cannot see the posts on the boat, only the comments. Otherwise such discussion could be interpreted as outside influence, and a penalty is the last thing I want them to get.

Cirrus faster than Pegasus

2007-07-18T22:46:00.000-07:00

Don't miss today's press release from transpac - Cirrus faster than Pegasus! Ok, ok, I hear you, but why bother with the details, last day Cirrus was 1 mile faster than Pegasus. You can talk to your grandchildren about this day. Here is the quote:

"Philippe Kahn's Pegasus 101 [...], rated as the sixth fastest boat in the fleet, [...] made only 146 miles---one less than Bill Myers' Cirrus, a 34-year-old Standfast 40 leading the Aloha B division with Lindsey Austin, 22, as skipper and four other women as crew.

The south was still good for Cirrus and a few others. "

Yep, I guess Stan Honey wishes to have Cirrugator on his boat ;-))
Ulli

CAPTAIN'S BLOG

2007-07-18T12:34:00.000-07:00

CAPTAIN'S BLOG SEA DATE 18 JULY 2007

POSITION: 23'45N,135'10W

DTW: 1254NM

NOTE: DONT FORGET TO LISTEN IN ON OUR INTERVIEW, 1700 TO 1800 ON HAWAII PUBLIC RADIO, THE NAME OF THE SHOW IS THINK TECH.

REVISION: I THINK I WROTE IN YESTERDAYS, NEAR THE BOTTOM, BLOG THAT WE WERE TACKING, WERE NOT WERE JIBING. I MEANT TO CLEAN IT UP A LITTLE BEFORE I SENT IT OUT.

ok enough of all that. well it was a busy day yesterday, after i finished with my blog, Bill and i looked at the weather, i dont have much to say about it, its not too interesting. some of the crew were getting kind of edgy due to the light winds, low boat speed, and the fact that its getting much warmer. a little before dinner Caroline, Christin, and i busted out the cards, we played the special sponge bob edition of uno. that lightened the mood a little. after our game was done Nancy served up some dinner. short ribs, mashed potatoes, and caned peas. yummy!! while we ate our meal, Christin noticed that one of the patches on our spinnaker was failing, resulting in a small tear. good thing she saw it when she did, we could have lost another spinnaker. we hauled that baby down, with only minor confusion, i guess in the processes of bringing it down we managed to take the guide with it, and got it caught under the boat, no big deal. Christin and Caroline worked together to get it out of the water, Christin then reran the lines. Bill and i had the chute bagged and down below, since the wind was light and getting lighter i hauled the 3/4 spinnaker out, we put that bad boy up no problem. once we got the deck all organized, my Mom, Nancy and i sat down below and repaired the kite. fixing a spinnaker is much more simple then repairing a canvas sail. all you have to do is put a special sticker on it. i personalized my patch by sighing my initials on it, this is not common practice when repairing sails, but why not. all said and done we shoved it back in to the bag, and went back on deck to relax.
about the same time as the sun went down the squalls appeared on the horizon, it was the first sight of squalls in this race. there was nothing else to do but take the 3/4 spinnaker down and put the heavier 1.5 back up, ok Caroline, Bill, Christin Donna and I, swapped those bad boys with no incident. everyone went down below for there rest, Caroline and I were on watch so we prepared for rain, wind and wind shifts. the only way to prepare for that is to get the right clothes on and steer shorter increments, as to stay fresh and wear.
squalls are funny, the normal squall, and this is a vague description, lots of wind in front, rain and wind in under it, then no wind, and when the next one is behind you shifting wind, that is the best way to describe it. and that is just what we had, the only problem was due to the really light shifty wind most of the time, the main was really flopping around, back winding, and collapsing the spinnaker, not to mention making all kinds of noise and really shaking the rig. enough of that, Caroline got on the wheel, and i set out on the mission trim the main. so first we tried to center it. travel it to the center, take the boom brake off, then haul in on the main sheet, at that point i had really started sweating. in this configuration, although quiet, it was really making it hard to steer. ok fine, i put it back out, this time a little further... it seemed to be ok, then it wasn't, i traveled the main up, traveled it down, messed with a few other things, till finally i climbed the mast with my knife in my teeth, i slashed at it indiscriminately, till shreds of canvas feel to the deck.... arrr. not really, we woke Donna to see if she had any suggestions, " lets just take the damn thing down", i would really like to take credit for this idea but cant. so just she and i took the main down. we trimmed the spinnaker and it was like the clouds parted and the angels sang down on us!!! we gained some speed and were able to consistently steer a rumline course, that's like tax free money in the bank baby!!! our VMG was the same as our boat speed. very nice.
we stuck with this for the whole evening. driving a boat with just a spinnaker up is different, the spinnaker wants to ossicilate, making it seem like you should steer more. not the case, it takes full concentration to steer as little as possible. i thought this might be hard for watch relief. Nancy took over for Caroline, i had her watch me steer, once she got on the wheel, she handled it like a champ. Nancy and i had a good watch together, we laugh really hard, and talk story. Christin took over for me. i talked to her about the steering, once she took the helm she was golden. they were very comfortable on watch, that was good news to me i got to go to sleep.
that brings me up to date. we got our position report this morning, still first in class, and we have moved up in fleet, we went from 53 to 52 now to 47th. not bad for the second slowest boat in the fleet.
to wrap this all up, Transpacific Mortgage sponsored the team of Cirrus a brand new, made just for the boat, just for the race spinnaker. i just got a message from Uncle Tom wondering if we had flown it yet. until then we had thought of this spinnaker much like a wedding dress, keeping it in a safe place ( next to the glass ball ), saving it for the big day, the finish. but every wedding has a rehearsal, so the next time the wind is right, were unlocking the safe, hauling it out and putting that sucker up. watch for the pictures. big MAHALO uncle Tom.
Cap. lg out

While you are waiting

2007-07-18T10:32:00.000-07:00

While you are waiting for the broadcast, check out the Honolulu Magazine article from this month (link on the right -- see it? right there on the right side of this page).
Our PR maven, Dana Ritchie Fujikake, has been doing one fantastic job getting the word out about our favorite TransPac boat and crew. Thank you, Dana

ATTENTION --- IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

2007-07-18T10:18:00.000-07:00

WEDNESDAY - JULY 18 - 5:00 PM HST (1700)

BILL (AND PROBABLY ANYONE ELSE ON THE CREW WHO IS AWAKE AND AVAILABLE) IS GOING TO BE LIVE ON "THINK TECH HAWAII" BEING BROADCAST TODAY, WEDNESDAY, JULY 18.
BE SURE AND LISTEN - SHOULD BE FUN.
BILL IS GOING TO BE CALLING IN TO THE STATION AT ABOUT 5:15 BUT YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING FROM THE BEGINNING CUZ YOU SURELY WON'T WANT TO MISS IT!
PS That beard is getting very long - and scruffy! Don't you love it? Donna seems to be a little startled by it!

Salute to Our Readers and Listeners - directly from the Boat

2007-07-18T10:00:00.000-07:00

Fortunately I was more careful with this video, and preserved the sound fully. (Although we do have Caroline as a sign-language interpreter). Ulli

My video goes here

Aerobics at the Helm

2007-07-18T09:37:00.000-07:00

Did you read what Bill said in his last post: "... Cirrus in the mob of high performance bigger boats crowding around ..."? Could you have ever imagined what he does to get a passage through that mob? Unfortunately, in processing the video I lost the original sound track with Bill's voice, but here is what he said in it. It is true, honestly. Read aloud while you watch the clip:

"Hey! Hey, You there! Yes, you! Go away, make room. Get to the sides, (beep beep beep), move away, don't you hear. Thank you"

I had to beep out some really inappropriate part, but at least he says thank you.

Ulli
My video goes here

On Rails

2007-07-18T07:25:00.001-07:00

This is what Stan Honey calls "slotcars". There is less wind to the north and the better wind to the south is too far away to make a detour worthwhile. So, the navigator has to posture about a bit before making his daily recommendation to just "Stay the course." (Since there is no other possibility.)

Today, Wednesday, 18 July 2007, our 0600 PDT position was, 23N37, 134W44. Course 250M and speed 7. It is overcast and damp. Wind is pretty light, but we keep moving. (Cirrus secret weapon.)

A 147 mile day yesterday and still 1280 to go to Makapu'u.

Lots of spinnaker action yesterday, but I'll leave the details to the Skipper's Blog.

If you check the chart it is almost impossible to find Cirrus in the mob of high performance bigger boats crowding around since we've been doing so well. We have seen quite a few zipping by off on the horizon. (Lindsey claims we held back to be polite.) Amazing how many friends you have when you're #1.

CAPTAIN'S BLOG

2007-07-17T16:35:00.000-07:00

CAPTAIN'S BLOG SEA DATE 17 JULY 2007

POSITION:24'12N, 132'47W

DTW:1387NM

SPECIAL REPORT: BILL, I AND THE CREW OF CIRRUS ARE DOING A LIVE INTERVIEW AT 1700 TO 1730, HAWAII PUBLIC RADIO (89.3 FM), THE NAME OF THE SHOW IS THINK TECH HAWAII, IF YOU MISS IT YOU'LL FEEL REALLY LEFT OUT!

Ok so well im not it too great of a mood, i dont know why, but ill try to make this an interesting blog anyways. after finding out we were in first place yesterday, and still are, nothing really happened. we had a good lunch of shredded beef burrito, that was tasty. Nancy and Christin had a good afternoon watch, they were able to keep the boat moving and steady, so i got a well needed great nap. once i woke up it was time for dinner, chicken pot pie and fresh celery sticks. Bill told us a few story's about how around the same time he meet Valerie, he owned a BMW motorcycle, he and a friend used to ride and get chicken pot pies together.
after dinner i settled down with a book. around sunset we got a call on our VHF, " transpac sail boat, transpac sail boat", they were calling us. i thought that was pretty cool!!!! nobody ever calls us. any ways it turned out to be Ruahatu, they are in division 4. they sailed across our stern on a different tack. i got a really big kick out of seeing her, its rare to see another sail boat out in the middle of the ocean, and then to see one with a spinnaker up, well i thought it was neat.
i got on watch at 2100 the seas were building as well as the wind, Caroline and I had our usual competition of who could get the boat going fastest, i was just about to beat her 9.5 record when it was her turn to steer. a little before 2230 i was heading down below when Caroline belted out "9.7". oh man she had raised the bar again. its at that time i started to wonder, maybe Caroline is on steering enhancement supplements?
i got my dad on the radio no problem, loud and clear, he is very excited about the progress of our boat. he is also getting closer to Seattle and the weather is getting cold, i guess his ship is about 900 miles off shore and he spotted 2 seals. once i got off the radio with pops i got back on to the helm, the wind had died out a bit, so no luck in beating Caroline. when Nancy and Christin came on watch the wind and the seas were not so much, and the course had drooped down to west.
i woke up this morning and guess what i saw?? we were making some time on Rancho Deluxe and another boat, i couldn't see the name of the other boat, we were going far too fast. after realizing those boats are division 5 boats, we thought we would save them the embarrassment of getting a beating from an Aloha class boat and let them pass us up. we had a nice feeling of charity as we watched them sail over the horizon.
due to wind and course reasons, we put another tack in and will be tacking back and forth for the next few days till the wind is coming from a more favorable direction. its not a big deal. other then that the wind has dropped a little but should be up again tonight or early morning. oh and for those who are curious, we are aware of the weather system directly south of us, and no it will not affect us. i am in a better mood now thank you
i will post my blog earlier tomorrow sorry for the delay.
CAPTAIN lg out

MESSAGES:

Dman: thank you for the news, how did you get Jimmy Buffet to come to Hawaii to play just for my birthday??? i would love to go but i think i might be at work, we'll think about it. Mom wants to know if you could feel the earthquake?? we miss you, all the good snacks are gone so i think it is time to really make an effort to get home. olive you lg

Katie: we got your message, my Mom is really happy you were there and able to intercept it. i hope you are still on Oahu when we get in you have to come to the dock party, i will make sure Derrick calls you. see ya.

What a Day

2007-07-17T06:50:00.000-07:00

The word euphoria comes to mind. What a day we had yesterday basking in the glory of our first in division position. Might not last, but sure feels good at the moment.

Today, Tuesday, 17 July 2007, 0600 PDT position is 24N13, 132W08. Course is 260M, speed 7 knots. According to my calculations we went 182 miles yesterday (a new record) and it is 1419 miles to Makapu'u. Even though we are doing great, the halfway point is still more than a day away. Now THAT should be a party.

Stowaway!

2007-07-16T13:31:00.000-07:00

Sneaking about the boat was an unlisted crew member. Once discovered, Skipper convinced all that she welcomed the company and they must not force Bianca to walk the plank.

CAPTAIN'S BLOG

2007-07-16T10:54:00.001-07:00

CAPTAIN'S BLOG SEA DATE 16 JULY 2007

POSITION: 24'11N, 129'21W,

DISTANCE TO WAY POINT ( MAKAPU'U LIGHT HOUSE ) 1575NM

ok, so yesterday was a lot less eventful then the day before. the biggest feat was getting my blog out, i hope everyone enjoyed it. i cant remember if i mentioned that we did what we hope will be our last jibe to home, well we did, and it feels pretty good. after i got finished with my blog yesterday, i tried to get some rest, not to much luck there. Mom and Caroline had a rowdy game of trivial pursuit going on, i guess the 80's are a total loss to them. we had a really good dinner, pot roast, mashed potatoes, with lots of butter, and canned peas. that's some good nap time food.

after dinner the weather started to increase, Donna had a round down, but recovered from it quickly, and without dipping the pole, lucky since the seas were about 6 to 8 feet on our stern and the occasional random swell on our quarter. that's the one that really throws you off. i came on watch with Caroline, the wind was a little stronger and the seas yet a little bigger, we had a quick pow wow about taking the spinnaker down, but quickly dismissed that idea. Caroline and i were like rodeo stars out there!!!! i am pretty sure out of the 171 miles the boat did in 24 hours, at least 101 miles were done on our 4 hours together. Nancy came on after Caroline the weather had calmed down a bit but we were still making good time. i tried to fix some chafing we had going on on deck. once Christin came on to relieve me the weather had become nonexistent, they worked together to trim the sails and eventually got the boat back up to 7 knots. once again the mystery noise was being heard. Bill got on top of that real quick, so i was able to get into my bunk, thank goodness!!

i woke up this morning able to hear the radio roll call. Bill was listening with the head phones, he had no idea we could hear it as well. i was trying to not listen at first, and just go back to sleep, but once they got to our class i was half listening, "Cirrus 24'18 128'48, 1615 to go, first in class". holly crap i flew out of my bunk so fast, you would of thought i was on fire, i looked at Nancy, she heard it too. we could not start yelling yet because Bill was still on the radio, but we danced around silently till he was finished, then we high fived each other, and did the number one dance. i guess that tack further south, the one that was a hard decision to make, really paid off!!!! Good job navigator Bill!!!!

CAPTAIN LINDSEY GIRL

MESSAGES:

DAD, i guess we missed each other last night on the radio, i see that you are getting closer to your destitution, i wonder if that means you will be able to make it back to Hawaii for our finish? do you want to try again tonight? 12356 at 2230 PDT.

Dman, hi are you seeing this?? wow!! cant wait to see you. olives lg

Kimmie and Stryder, how is life going over there? did Stryder get his package? love you miss you. la

171 Mile Day

2007-07-16T10:54:00.000-07:00

I consider anything over 165 miles/day as hot. (For Cirrus at least.)

Our Monday, 16 July 2007, 0600 PDT position was 24N18, 128W48. Course 240M, speed 8. True wind from 060 at 14 knots. Light overcast and a little bit bumpy, 1-2 feet high from NNE. I makes Donna happy. She says that an ocean without waves seems unnatural.

Fixed a couple noises recently. There was a thumping sound that seemed to somehow be connected to the steering but hard to really locate. The more anxious among us were asking questions like: "Do we have an emergency procedure plan for when the rudder falls off, etc." It turned out to be a previously unnoticed (As an aside let me make the observation that a lot of bumps, thumps, scratches and dings go unnoticed until the next louder one gets fixed.) almost microscopic amount of play in the fit of the rudder post into the uppermost bearing directly under the driver's seat. So, not only was there a noise but also a bump in the butt. For now the fix is a paper thin shim of high tech Teflon from Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory where I used to work. It was a little piece of scrap from a project to develop ultra thin flexible printed circuit boards. Knew it would come in handy sooner or later.

This morning's noise was a little more bothersome. After a hard roundup the other day we started hearing a popping grinding sound. A little like tearing metal. Turned out to be the radar mounting pole. This pole gets torqued back and forth as the radar swings from side to side. It has held up pretty good for standard marine hardware. (I.e. meant for day sailing on small ponds.) For now it is probably a good idea to stop the toque. This has been accomplished with a RRB. (For the non-sailors among you that's a Radar Running Back - see photograph above.)

Bill

Oh yea! Just in passing. Cirrus was first in class as of this morning's roll call. The hitch south and pushing hard for two days is starting to pay off. We were 55th in the fleet. At approximately 70 boats overall, that puts 15 of them behind us. Guess I get to be navigator for at least another day.

Joel will be pleased to hear that we are finally seeing "Cirrus' Whiskers".

ETA 8 DAYS?

2007-07-15T21:32:00.000-07:00

I hate to be the party pooper but, per my conversation with Bill this morning, the 8 day ETA that caused Captain LG such joy is what the GPS says. That prediction is based on the belief that the speed that they were going at the time would be maintained to the finish line.
Cirrugator evidently believes the ETA will be 10 days...more likely, unfortunately.
Valerie

CAPTAINS BLOG

2007-07-15T16:39:00.000-07:00

CAPTAINS BLOG SEA DATE 15 JULY 2007

POSITION: 24'41N, 126'49W

ok, sorry to be so late on today's blog, its been busy. i am going to try and tell you of the events of yesterday as simple and as quick as possible, then i can go to sleep. here we go. it started like any other day, a line had formed at the computer to check the mail and to send out the blog, some of us were in the cockpit enjoying our coffee and cereal. Caroline and Christin had got the energy up to take a shower on deck, while Nancy and i were having a competition to see who could get the boat going the fastest, i was holding strong at 8.3 knots. once Nancy took the wheel the wind and seas had picked up a little, i had just unclipped my safety harness and was in the process of saying "im going down to get a heavier spinnaker" when Nancy called out "8.7 knots" and then wham!!!!! the spinnaker blew out, it ran from the tape to the top and then hung in the air like a ghost. by this time i was on the fore deck pretty well tangled up in my safety gear, my mom was right behind me, just as the sail was starting to fall into the water we were in a position to drag it on deck, meanwhile Nancy was still on the helm, Christin was getting me sail ties and assisting in pulling the sail out of the water, Bill was on the halyard trying to get down what ever was left of the sail, and Caroline was working the sheets. we got it all under control pretty quickly. Nancy did a great job driving. it is not easy to steer in that kind of situation.
i left Bill and my Mom on deck finishing up, while i went down below to get another, heaver 1.5 oz spinnaker. Christin made sure the lines were run right, and up she went, the whole ordeal was over in about 20 min. after that we had a good hard long look at the weather maps, and this program were using, and i came to the hard decision to jibe, and go further south, for reasons that have to do with the wind direction and speed later in the race. so once again we all piled on deck. Bill was on the fore deck and i was on the wheel, that's all i remember as far as positions go, but it went smooth. on that tack the boat was not to settled, but sure was going fast. Nancy was back on the wheel, Christin was her watch mate. the rest of us were trying to get a nap in before dinner. i had just fallen asleep when we all heard Nancy say "OH NO!!!!" i was out of my bunk and into my safety gear before i was even awake, my Mom was already on deck, we did a quick assessment and realized the guide broke at the shackle on the port side, we went up to the fore deck, Donna grabbed the spin sheet, Caroline slaked it off, Christin drooped the pole down, just in time, it was about to bust through the spinnaker slammed it in to the jaw of the pole, Christin brought the pole back and up, while Caroline trimmed, the whole event was done and under control in less the 15 seconds. Bill and Donna went down below and jury rigged some doughnuts for the two guides.
after all of that we had a very nice dinner of shrimp scampi over pasta, with fresh broccoli and corn. the evening seemed pretty hairy due to the new tack and the wind and seas building a little, we are having to focus more on our driving, in order to keep the spinnaker from oscillating too much, therefore nobody got very much sleep last night. we were all very grouchy this morning. Caroline set today's speed record at 9.5 knots. we tacked back over this morning, i was on the for deck, Caroline was on the wheel, and the rest were on the sheets, we all feel a little better now that our ETA has gone from 20 days to 8. i have to go now, i would rather be looking at the backs of my eye lids then this computer screen. have a nice day everyone.

CAPTAIN Lindsey girl

More on VMG

2007-07-15T12:58:00.000-07:00

I found Ulli's post so very helpful! Never was all that clear on how they made their navigation decisions. So I found this simple explanation of VMG (Velocity Made Good) that I thought I should share with you because I found that it helped me too:
VMG is a mathematical calculation for how much progress or speed you are making while you sail at an angle to the wind. In sailing it is impossible to sail directly into the wind. Therefore, the fastest way towards a particular point is not always a direct route. VMG measures how much speed you are producing toward your ultimate goal as you move at an angle to the wind.
Clear now? Well maybe this helps us understand why there are so many PhD sailors out there!
Valerie

Weather and Navigation

2007-07-15T08:20:00.000-07:00

When you looked at Cirrus' route in more detail, you may have wondered why on earth they were going south, when Hawaii is in the west? They could have gone west, but obviously the catch in a race is that you want to go fast - this applies to the deep-pocket sailors starting tomorrow - or at least relatively faster than others - this applies to us. The driving force is the wind, which in turn is driven by the pressure difference between high and low pressure areas. So, all you need to do is look on the weather map showing the highs and lows and plot the route. Yeah, right.

The summer on the Pacific is determined by the Pacific High. To understand take a map - oops, a chart (which is a nautical "map") - and draw a line from Los Angeles to Hawaii. Now draw an equal sided triangle with this line as the bottom side, and the third corner of the triangle being north of it. This third corner is (very roughly) the expected position of the Pacific High. Finally draw a circle touching every corner of the triangle. Within this circle you will not find any other Highs or Lows or other disturbances. The wind along the race track is fully determined by the Pacific High and the costal influence of California, overlaid with some benign, global-scale weather effects. Any interested novice will be able to figure out how to sail. This scenario is forming stably every summer. At least this is what the textbooks say; now look at the real world.

On the right sidebar you'll now find a small picture of a weathermap. Click on it, and you will -always- get the most recent one, published by the NOAA. Find Hawaii at about 21N/157W, and LA at 34N/118W and figure out where the triangle would be. It is not hard to see that the current weather isn't near the textbook thing; in fact it is particularly ugly! Maybe some few NOAA guys can figure out where the wind blows, but I doubt any of the sailors in this race can. And if they could, what about the next 10 days?

Fortunately, computer technology has brought additional options. NOAA is doing a global scale weather model on the computer, updated every 6 hours. The results are publicly available; we need the wind section covering our race area. What we get (by email) is a computer file with numbers, only a computer can understand. The numbers provide wind speed and wind direction on e.g. a 1x1 degree grid, in time intervals of e.g. 24h for a total of e.g. 10 days. Admittedly, weather forecasts beyond 5 days may have a fairy tale nature, but this is all you have available. Find a program and print out 10 days of nice wind arrows on a chart. Then what? Think of stacking all 10 above each other, with 1 inch distance. Now you need to find the path from page to page to your destination. But this thread isn't a straight line. Not even in the space between two individual sheets, as the speed depends on the initial direction chosen, the location, the wind speed, wind direction, the time and the change of all of the above between sheets. So how can you figure out the best path? Easy answer, unless you're a braniac, you can't! Cirrugator comes to the rescue.

Cirrugator had accompanied Cirrus on the last three Pacific Cups in various forms. It is now a web application featuring also a router. A router solves the above problem, by "simply" calculating ALL possible routes - limited to a couple thousend - and then picking the best one(s). Of course it takes into account Cirrus' polars (which, in short, tell the program how fast Cirrus can go under which wind strength and wind angle). This takes a few seconds on today's medium-speed computers.
This picture shows the router output valid for the start of the tp07 race last Monday. The black lines looking like wave fronts emanating from LA are "isochrones", lines Cirrus can reach in 1,2,3,... days. From that the seven best routes are picked, shown as diamonds; red is the best one. The tiny red arrows represent calculated, time and postion adjusted, wind strenght and direction. All routes are identical for the first week, only then, with diminishing forecast quality, do the routes diverge. Cirrus did not go as south as Cirrugator suggested, but given the conditions near LA this might have been easier said than done. Interestingly, though, Bill now says that he wants to again head deeper south.

To see the latest routing projections, click on the router map in the right sidebar. I am updating this regularly. If you want to play with the Cirrugator prgram itself, you can also do this. The link is above the routing picture. The program is running on my home computer, the one at which I am typing this now. It may feel a bit sluggish on occasion, since my upstream DSL speed will be the bottleneck. You will see everything what Bill sees on Cirrus, and you can do everything he can do, except modifying race data. When the captain says Bill is "punching numbers", this is what he is working with. Have fun.

Ulli

Yet Another Hitch

2007-07-15T06:53:00.000-07:00

Not an easy decision but the Skipper and Navigator decided yesterday to give up our beautiful run toward the islands (ten day arrival predicted) and jibe off to the south once again. The weather maps and the routing program both were looking at a patch of light air directly ahead that might be avoided by another hitch to the south.

There were some other events of note yesterday (boy oh boy) but I'll leave them to the Skipper's Blog. Don't miss it.

The Sunday, 15 July 2007, 0600 PDT position was 25N30, 125W57. Course 200M, speed 7.4 with the true wind from 050T at 14.

Bill

CAPTAIN'S BLOG

2007-07-14T11:27:00.000-07:00

(Editor's note: This is a 6 yr. old picture - just wanted you to see how happy the Captain is when she gets to go fast!)

CAPTAIN'S BLOG

SEA DATE: 14 JULY 2007

POSITION:27'09N 124'36W

we got through Friday the 13th with out breaking anything!!!!

not much to report, yesterday was a pretty lazy day. we have the same spinnaker up as when we started, but the wind has been coming around from behind so Nancy and Christin did a little spiker trim while i steered, Bill and i decided to change the course a little, so after all that we were able to take down the whisker pole. the best part of it all is that now our V.M.G is a lot more optimistic. I don't have enough time in my life to explaine what V.M.G. is, but in short its the speed your making toward your destination. (Stands for Velocity Made Good - ed.)

it seems like we are all getting in to the swing of thing pretty good, we are spending more time out of our bunks and hanging out with each other. with the exception of Nancy, poor sucker is reading some Michner book, something about Hawaii. Bill held his celestial navigation class around the same time, this time Caroline joined in. My Mom won't have anything to do with it, she says " you shouldn't learn how to navigate from family and friends."

we enjoyed a very nice dinner of veggie lasagna with an awesome salad and fresh garlic bread, and for desert we had fresh cantaloupe, if any of you are reading this and have access to a Costco i highly recommend that you get your self some of that Cantaloupe, the crew and i really cant get over how good it is, it is really good!!!

After dinner Mom, Caroline ( Nancy is cheating on us with Michner ) and I introduced Christine to trivial pursuit. i don't think she cared for it much, she took off after her watch was pau. but we had laugh out loud fun for a few hours, laughing more then playing. the rest of the evening was pretty quiet, till some big ships started to cross our path and not responded to us on the VHF, the one that crossed about 1/4 of a mile off our bow finally acknowledged our presence, we asked if he could see us on from the bridge and see us on radar, he said "yes, yes." in my book that means i don't speck English. very early morning, like 0400, i woke up to my Mom digging around in the steering area, at first i thought we had lost our steering, that makes a icky feeling in your stomach, but then i realized we had not rounded up, and our sails were still full, it turned out that Christin had dialed in to some mystery noise that seemed to be coming from the steering area. we never figured out what is was but it stoped at some point.

Caroline thinks its shower day, wait she just chimed in "it is shower day, and fishing day" we all think it is still a little chilly for all of that shower action. but im all for fishing. at the moment we are enjoying some Mozart and watching Caroline eating one pound chocolate bar from trader joes.

thats all for now, Captain LG

Messages:

Dana: Aloha Anty Dana, we got your message about the interview upon arrival, i asked the crew if they were in to it, and once they checked with there agents, they are all about it. thank you so much for everything. see you soon, Mahalo Lindsey girl

Dman: Hi we miss you and Mr. Oopu, do you have any news reports for us? thinking of you. olives LG

Settle In

2007-07-14T06:53:00.000-07:00

We did 153 miles yesterday. That's a 6.4 knot average. There are 1856 miles to Makapu'u and at yesterday's rate that is about 12 days. So, we might still make it before the fat lady sings.

Our Saturday, 14 July 2004, 0600 PDT position was 27N19, 124W16. Course is 230M, speed about 5 knots. The wind is light, about 8 knots, and is slowly, day by day, changing direction, 330T - 000T - and just now, 035T. Still have the half oz. chute up that went up a couple days ago. Might last the whole trip at this rate. Perfect sail for the conditions. We are reaching more now and running a bit. Not so close hauled as before.

Still no seas to speak of, so it is still pretty smooth sailing.

CAPTAIN'S BLOG

2007-07-13T11:00:00.000-07:00

CAPTAIN'S BLOG SEA DATE 13 JULY 2007

POSITION: 28'22N 122'10W

this is a picture of me checking the chafe. (Editor's note: Look closely - no doubt about who is the Captain!)

i think i forgot to mention that a few days ago we busted out the whisker pole, it's a pole that is about half the size of a spinnaker pole. it connects to the mast and then at a 90' angel connects to the guide. it's a pole that is used with the spinnaker pole, its purpose is to allow us to reach with a spinnaker up, and not bend the crap out of our stanchions, and take stress off the spinnaker pole. if you have any questions about any of that you can Google it. it seems to be working very well!!

Nancy has been saying that this is the best sailing of her life, we have been sailing between 6 and 7 knots, my Mom just chimed in "easy 7". we did not demand perfection for lunch yesterday, seeing as how Caroline is under the weather (head cold), but Mama Mia, she whipped up some thin crust pizza, and a fresh salad complete with sugar snags and cucumber, and a choice of three dressings. it really hit the spot!!! about the same time as lunch we saw another pod of dolphins, we think they were feeding because they were acting funny, and they did not come by to say hi. the weather is getting warmer!!!! later in the afternoon my mom was helping me put on some sun screen when we both saw a massive marlin jump straight out of the water, so high its whole body was out of the water. i have only seen something like that when they have a hook in their mouth. i don't think the hand line my brother Phillip made us could of handled that kind of fish. Nancy, Donna, Christine, and i spent most of the late afternoon sun bathing, Christine is just a few shades lighter then me now. (haa haa ha)

bill got out his sextant, i took a sun sight and once we corrected it out, it was perfect, so we thought something was wrong, we handed the sextant over to Christin ( we think it was her second time taking a shot) and what do you know, perfect, then bill took a shot, his was off just a little. we got a big kick out of that. today we might do take a few sights and correct them the old school way.

this subject here deserves its own paragraph. Nancy went south of the boarder last night for dinner, and it was unreal!!! we had Carnitas, with your choice of corn or flour tortillas, fresh avocado, green onion, and chilled sour cream. oh it does not stop there, we busted out the Costco sized container of salsa, and for desert chocolate chip cookies. it was muy bueno!!!

a few hours after dinner, at sunset, Donna saw a green flash again... this time there were witnesses, Bill and Caroline saw it too. at 2230 with the help of Ron Ellis a man on Oahu, i was able to hale my dad on the SSB radio. it was really nice to get to talk to him. he is taking a ship from Papua New Guinea to Seattle. i think earlier on his trip he passed my big brother Phillip, Phill was leveling Midway on a tug an tow, while my dad was heading north to Seattle, now in a few days my dad and i will be passing each other. small ocean.

STAR REPORT:

Nancy saw 9 shooting stars, and got to watch the big dipper set in to the ocean, and one fast moving ship.

Donna saw a shooting star that you could see all the way across the sky till just about 2 inches above the horizon.

Caroline was able to see big fish swimming around the boat due to the disturbance of the phosphorescence

I saw 13 shooting stars and one satellite.

i think that is all for now, LG

Ein Deutscher Blog - A German Blog

2007-07-13T10:17:00.000-07:00

Can you believe it? Last time, Pacific Cup 2006, we had 1 nation per 10 ft of boat length and 1 blogger (=me), this time we have 1 nation per 20ft of boat length, but three bloggers writing in two languages! Notice the new entry in the right sidebar under "Related Links": it is Christin's blog, which she feeds from the boat. And she writes in German (and in English too). So, if you want to brush up your rusty language skills, this is your chance to read on a familiar theme. And now the translation:

Ist es denn zu glauben? Das letzte Mal, im Pacific Cup 2006, hatten wir 1 Nation pro 3.048m Bootlänge, und 1 Blogger (=ich), dieses mal haben wir 1 Nation pro 6.096m Bootlänge, aber drei Blogger, die in zwei Sprachen schreiben! Beachte den neuen Linkeintrag in der rechten Seitenspalte unter "Related Links": Es ist Christins Blog, welchen sie auch vom Boot aus beschickt. Und sie schreibt auf Deutsch (und auch auf Englisch). Wer seine eingerosteten Deutsch- kenntnisse auffrischen möchte, wird sich hier zu Hause fühlen. Und wer Englisch lernen möchte: meine Übersetzung ist oben ;-)

Aloha, Ulli

P.S. : Wow, the word "Aloha" reminds me: Hey, you Hawaiian natives aboard Cirrus, what about a little blogging in Hawaiian?

The Agony is Over.

2007-07-13T06:54:00.000-07:00

At least we hope so. Weather predictions point to a good solid downhill run for the remainder of the trip. Now we'll see if those of us who pushed hard to get south in the light air made the right decision or not.

Friday, 13 July (Oh dear!) 2007, 0600 PDT position is 28N41,121W49. Course is 222M, speed 6.7 knots. It is a beautiful (high pressure area) day. Clear, and warming up as the sun appears (0618 today).

1994 miles to go.

Bill

CAPTAIN'S BLOG

2007-07-12T12:06:00.000-07:00

CAPTAIN'S BLOG, SEA DATE 12 JULY 2007

POSITION: 30'03N, 120'22W

yesterday afternoon, still not to much wind and very little boat speed, we lost that boat Anna something or other behind a cloud bank, and have not seen here since.
lunch was once again a winner,, thank you Caroline!!!
i got woken up at around 1400, Mom thought it might be time to put up a spiker, so i got the 1/2 oz out from the forward peck. Christin, Bill, and I worked together on the for deck to get the lines run right, once it came time to hoist Caroline and Christin were on the sheets Donna was on the helm, i did the hoisting, while Bill gave us feed back. once everything was in order the boat speed jumped from 2.5 knots to about 5.5 knots, latter on in the evening we were doing about 7 knots.
at about 1700 Nancy started dinner, life is good, flat seas, the wind coming more from behind, and not a cloud in the sky.
dinner is served, Nancy has made a salad, a pot roast with gravy and mashed potatoes. it hit the spot.all night long the dolphins hung out around the boat, jumping, swimming in our bow wake, and talking to each other. i guess my mom woke up around 0200, Christin was on the helm doing 7 knots, we started thinking it might be time to put a heaver spiker up, but we decided to wait a little till the wind picks up a little.
at 0608 the sun came up with a great big green flash only Donna could see. the wind is dieing a little but were still moving about 5 knots. the ocean is incredibly flat, not a cloud in the sky. there is still a little chill in the air, we continue to were our full bibs, jackets, boots, gloves and watch caps. we are all looking forward to it getting warmer. Caroline is a little under the weather with a cold,but everyone else is feeling great.
Bill keeps busy at the Nav station and the position reports. but he took time out of his day to show Christin how to use a sextet. he has a new student on board, the rest of us are old news or bad news, we don't know witch one. oh and two things i forgot, Donna and Caroline saw fish jumping straight out of the water, not like flying fish. and this morning we saw our first albatross.

thats all for now Captain LG

Messages:

RICHARD can you please send us Debbie Dehais e mail address, don't send it over the blog, e mail it to us. thank you, hi to nate, larry, and kinky

KIMMIE i think it is amazing you got Stryder to wave buy at me from that far away!!!! LOL Personaly i like west Maui, is the hole family on there way over there or just you and Stryder?? Let me know how Dman and i can help. love you LA

Dman last night there were so many stars in the sky i could not find one single satalight. oh well. tell Mr. Oopu i still remember him peeing on my foot once. love you guys LG

CEC & 777 hi guys been thinking a lot about you guys hope your not flying to much, or at least getting something to show for it. see ya

Sounding Better

2007-07-12T11:25:00.001-07:00

Just spoke with Bill and things continue to go very well. They are "cooking along" at 6.1 kn. and "it sure feels good." Seas are calm and smooth. Everyone is getting into Blog mode so you should start seeing more entries from the crew. That should be fun reading!
If you have ever been to a planetarium and looked up and seen the black silhouette in the sky from the projector, you will be able to picture what it looked like to Bill as he looked out the hatch at the milky way last night. Beautiful sky with Cirrus' radar creating a black outline in the middle of it. Surreal!
There is a possibility of some live, or maybe recorded, presence on "Think Tech Hawaii with Jay Fidell" on HPR. I'll let you all know if it actually gets scheduled.
That's it from me today. Keep up the good wind thoughts and dances and offerings.
Aloha,
Valerie

Chute, Chute, Chute ...

2007-07-12T06:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday evening we were drifting along in almost no wind (as usual) when Donna noted that the little traces of breeze were coming at us from aft of the beam and suggested that we consider putting up the half ounce. (This will get a little technical.) Those of you who know about such things will guess that this probably isn't going to work. When you are moving along (as we might be with the chute up) the apparent direction of the wind moves forward in response to the wind generated by the boat's motion. That means that (for a given course) what looked like a broad reach when you were stalled, becomes close hauled once you get moving. Catch 22. What we really needed was a huge super light headsail. Well guess what. We started out reaching and as the wind and boat speed increased over night the watch was able to trim and tweak until we were boiling along (on a good heading) at 6-7 knots with an apparent wind angle in the 45-55 degree range. Let's hear it for the crew! We are really cooking.

Another crystal clear cloudless sunset followed by some bright pink wisps of high clouds as darkness set in. This was proceeded by a big porpoise pod visit. Playing tag with each other and the bow of the boat for about 20 minutes. We also continue to see the occasional California Grey Whale.

The Navigator is a softie for this kind of stuff. When I got up in the middle of the night I noticed a glow from outside that was lighting up the inside of the boat (a little). Turning to see what it was took my breath away. The Milky Way. So bright it felt like you could almost read by it.

Thursday, 12 July 2007 position is 30N23, 120W13. Course is 186M, speed 6.3 knots. It is clear and beautiful. True wind from about 330T, 6 knots. Not enough waves to report.

CAPTAIN'S BLOG

2007-07-11T11:15:00.000-07:00

CAPTAIN'S BLOG SEA DATE, 11 JULY 2007

POSITION: 31'51 NORTH, 119'35 WEST

well i guess you might call this day two, there is not much to report. yesterday Caroline made a fantastic lunch!!! we had turkey sandwiches with avocados, and jalopino cheese on a very nice whole wheat bread, she even busted out the pickles!!! after comparing Caroline's with Nancy's sandwiches, we came to a unanimous decision, Caroline is the designated sandwich maker.

Bill and i spent some time together looking over some weather maps, it looks like it might turn around in the next couple of days. we also spent some time looking at our progression amongst the rest of the fleet, were all still really close together.
a little after lunch Donna and Christin noticed something funny going on with the water, we all got out of our bunks, piled on deck, and watched what looked like the water boiling, it turned out to be a huge school of fish, it was pretty neat. Nacy made dinner, we had spinach and cheese ravioli with a parmesan garlic sauce, and home made garlic bread, it was so good we all had seconds.

my Mom said that it was perfect sailing weather yesterday, flat seas, ten knots of wind, with a boat speed up to eight knots. by the time i came on watch at 2100 the wind had died out again and we were drifting more then sailing. during my 5 hour watch i think i saw about 13 different ships pass around us, none of them Transpac boats. it was by far the most boats i have ever seen on one watch. oh i almost forgot, Nacy and i also had a bunch of dolphins come by last night, we could not see them but we could here them, the really cool thing was that as they would swim around they would leave behind them a trail of phosphorus.
Christin noticed some seals spy hoping around us, and breathing in our general direction. this morning on Donna and Caroline's watch they sailed by some kelp patties that were being circled by a few black tip sharks.

today the weather is very nice, the ocean is as flat as a pancake, we have about 8 knots of wind, we are moving along nicely. there is not one cloud in the sky, so it is a heavy sunscreen day. we have a sailboat about 3 miles off our starboard beam, we think it might be Anna Katarina, were not to sure but what ever, she is not in our class anyways.

Derrick: thank you to Derrick for sending us the article from star bulletin, we got a kick out of it!!! olives

Kimmie: help me out here, how fast is god speed??? LOL

No Wind Night

2007-07-11T07:13:00.001-07:00

Let's see. Was it Pac Cup 98 or 2000 when we sat outside the GG for three days? [Edit by Ulli: it was 2000, see the Pacific Cup 2000 reports] This is a little different in that we spend the rare gusts of wind going south with a VMG of zero.

Huge (tanker we think) covered with lights, not moving, not responding to Channel 16, sort of in our way last night. So we went around (slowly). As we passed Cordell Bank (a shallow spot out in the ocean) yesterday I was joking with the crew and noted the toxic dump site that was ahead on the chart. I told them to hold their breath if there was a lot of bubbling and boiling. Couple hours later I got a call on deck to observe large patches of boiling water. We think it was fish (attracted a lot of sea birds) but we are not sure. Caroline was on the deck in a flash with the fishing gear but didn't get to use it since no one really feels like eating fish at the moment, and besides we haven't yet put much of a dent in the provisions. Latest event, several fins in the water nearby. Donna says shark. Don't drag your fingers in the water.

Wednesday, 11 July 2007 position 31N57, 119W35. Course (of the moment) 160M, speed 2.4. Wind is light, sea glassy, overcast 100%.

And that's it from Lake Wobegone (AKA, Pacific Ocean).

Bill

Lindsey gets what she deserves

2007-07-10T14:16:00.000-07:00

Lindsey was featured in today's Star Bulletin - (http://starbulletin.com/2007/07/10/features/story01.html)
As you can see - she was comfortable at the helm from an early age!

It's a very nice article! Thanks, Dana!

CAPTAIN'S BLOG

2007-07-10T10:37:00.000-07:00

SEA DATE 10 JULY 2007

well we got of to a nice start yesterday, we were the first to exit the harbor. We got out to the line around 1100, took a few bearings of the wind and off the line, and decided to start on the committee boat side of the line. Bill spent the whole time glued to the computer and running numbers in order to get us on the best course possible. It was a quick, stress free start.

there were a few spectator boats bidding goodbye, one of which was complete with a one man brass band, and thanks to our neon green Cirrus shirts we were able to see Christin's husband Joseph standing cliff side. The most exciting part of the start was all of the wild life that came by, we sailed along with a huge school of dolphin, and at one point we almost had to dodge a massive Grey whale, oh and how could i forget all of the seals and sea lions.

about 20 min. in to the race all the boats were pretty well scattered around the course, it took us about 5 or 6 tacks to get past Catalina, we passed by Eagle Rock about 1700. that is about the same time the wind died, we spent most of the evening drifting around trying to hold a course as vague as between south and west.

Nancy made us wonderful smoked turkey and jalapeno cheese sandwiches for dinner, Donna and Caroline had the seals talking to us all night and some how managed to attract a school of dolphins. Nancy and Christin were a able to get the boat sailing at 6.5 knots in about 8 knots of wind. despite there best efforts i woke up to my watch this morning still being able to see Catalina. Christin informed me that even though there is no wind she is still having fun, and that goes for all of us on board. Bill did our first radio check in this morning with minimal confusion.

the crew of Cirrus would like to send our regards to the mystery transpac crew men that injured them self yesterday at the start.

CAPTAIN LG

MESSAGES

Hey Jonah, We saw sea lions!!!! Give a big huge to Noah, Jonah, Bbelle, Marisa, Domi, Ashley, and London. From Auntie Caroline.
Hi Dman thinking of you, to many clouds in the sky to see any stars. Olives LG

Here We Go Again

2007-07-10T06:43:00.001-07:00

Tuesday, 10 July 2007, 0600 PDT position is 33N02, 118W57. Course (almost meaningless at this point of wandering around in light air) 275M, speed 2 knots.

We had a wonderful start. Put in a tack up the coast to help us clear the tip of Catalina and set out across the channel. There were porpoise all around and a pretty good sized California Grey Whale was on a collision course with us until about one hundred feet away when he went tail up. We saw him later off in the distance. There were curious seals all afternoon and through the night.

After clearing the west end of Catalina Island (just barely) we have had some little puffs of good wind and we thought we were on our way, but then (again and again) it would go light and come at us from exactly the direction we wanted to sail.

TRACKING CIRRUS (and other, less important, boats)

2007-07-09T17:37:00.000-07:00

FYI
New for 2007, the entire Transpac fleet has been provided with Satellite Transponders from FIS Tracking Services LLC. These position charts are generated automatically. Rather than publish position charts once a day this service will continuously monitor the progress of each yacht in the race.

At first the positions shown will not be the current position for the yachts. Reports for the first start boats (i.e., Monday, 9 July, 2007) are supposed to be every 3 hours but they may go to every 2, the 2nd (12 July, 2007) and 3rd (15 July, 2007) starts the reports will be every 2 hours. The delay is set at 6 hours.

On Saturday the 21st (when the bulk of the boats should be arriving in Hawaii) the delay is removed and all positions will be reported in real time.

To see these tracking reports, click on the Transpac link (again, there on the right) and then click on the link to the FIS Tracking in the upper right hand corner. This is up and working now - play around with it. It is very sophisticated and good fun!
Valerie

They are on their way!

2007-07-09T14:15:00.000-07:00

The last load went on the boat and off they went to the start line.
According to Bill, the start was "beautiful" - 24 boats at once, some great big ones, but they all behaved themselves and it was a clean start. It is hazy with the wind light at about 5-6 kn and coming down the channel (that would be parallel to the coast.) According to the "text book" it was recommended that they tack shortly after the start which they, and about 20% of the boats did. Bill said it didn't buy them much and they will see what happens as they get to Catalina Island.
While we were talking there was chatter on the radio - evidently someone on one of the boats cut a finger pretty badly and was passed off to a spectator boat which was taking them to emergency. Pretty sad way to start and end a TransPac experience for that poor sailor.
All is well and calm aboard Cirrus. Unless I hear more, that's it for today. You might also want to keep an eye on the TransPac web site (link is there on the right) for other stories.
Aloha,
Valerie

Latitude 38 agrees with our Navigator - Unfortunately

2007-07-09T13:12:00.000-07:00

Well we aren't the headliner but it is a good, fair article in 'Lectronic Latitude. Along with a great picture of Lindsey (amazing the well deserved coverage one gets with a young, photogenic captain!) Check it out: http://www.latitude38.com/LectronicLat/2007/0707/July09/July9.html

10, 9, 8, ...

2007-07-09T07:14:00.000-07:00

Monday, 9 July 2007, 0600PDT position 33N45, 118W11, at the dock in Rainbow Harbor, Long Beach, CA.

Counting down to our 1300 start off the Point Fermin Light at 33N42, 118W18. Then we pass Santa Catalina Light to port and we are on our way to Hawaii. The weather predictions are really awful. No, not stormy, quite the opposite. At the moment it looks like we will have one or two good days and then we be sailing directly into a huge (hundreds of miles on a side) region of almost no wind at all. No way to go around. Just plug along and hope it will go away. The long range forcasts for the other side of the hole look good. Smooth sailing to Hawaii.

Skipper and Navigators meeting last night followed by a Banquet. Noisy. Glad to be back on the boat. This crew has been through so much the race itself is almost an anti-climax. (Almost.)

Hawaii is getting ready

2007-07-08T16:52:00.001-07:00

Large article, evidently the first in a series, about the TransPac in today's Star Bulletin which mentions, if only in passing, that Bill Myers' "Cirrus" is among the racers. Bill said there were several interviews so there may be additional mentions as the week goes on. See: http://starbulletin.com/2007/07/08/sports/story01.html
Training and shift assignments are under way for the support staff in Hawaii. I will be working communications this year as I have done for the Pacific Cup for several of the past races.
They start at 1PM PDT tomorrow. So, dear friends of Cirrus, time to start to focus the winds on a good, steady shot from Long Beach to Waikiki.
Valerie

Role Reversal

2007-07-06T09:33:00.000-07:00

How many mothers can in their wildest dreams imagine themselves taking orders from their daughter in physically stressful, maybe even life threatening, situations. Well, it seems to work for these two.

Cirrus is in good hands.

Bill

Hey! Fuzz!

2007-07-06T09:18:00.000-07:00

A new spinnaker provided by our sponsor, Transpacific Mortgage Group, arrived and was formally presented to us by "Fuzz" Foster of North Sails Hawaii. Fuzz is here in connection with providing sails for Pyewacket.

Friday, 5 July 2007

2007-07-06T09:07:00.000-07:00

Donna and Lindsey did some serious Costco yesterday and Cirrus is sitting much lower in the water. Lindsey went up the mast and fixed the erratic masthead light, checked halyards, lubed some blocks and gave everything aloft an inspection.

Then. As if they don't have enough to do, they threw a party in the evening for just about everyone who has been helpful to us since we got here. I get tired just observing the level of activity.

Status - July 3

2007-07-03T11:01:00.000-07:00

Nothing like a hot shower, a good meal that you didn't have to eat on your lap and a good night's sleep to make the world look better.
Based on Richard's recommendation they replaced a small fuel filter on the engine(way down line from the major "much better" fuel filter), "bled the line" (got the air out) and wonder of wonders the engine started up and is running like a top. The main sail has been removed and is going to the sail maker to get new slugs (they run in a track on the mast to raise, lower and hold the main in place - some had broken and some pulled out.) All is falling into place as it should.
I find that my shoulders have lowered about 2" and I slept wonderfully all night. Such a fine thing to have our special people safe and comfortable again.
Next report will be when there is anything to report.
Aloha for now.
Valerie

ENDLICH!!

2007-07-02T10:55:00.001-07:00

7:40 AM HST = 10:40 AM PDT Cirrus safely had lines over and secured to the dock.
The came into the harbor via the Los Angeles entrance because they were fogged in solid and almost missed it! With about 50' visibility they went along the breakwater. About half-way along someone from the marina gave them a tow. They were passed off to a couple of "professionals" who finished the tow and tucked them into their slip. Lindsey is handling the paperwork with the harbor master and, wonder of wonders, shore power is on its way.
CONGRATULATIONS you hardy and tenacious crew!!
Aloha nui,
Valerie

Update 4 AM HST

2007-07-02T07:00:00.000-07:00

Cirrus has arrived at Pt. Furhman flopping around in very light air and the morning mist. They are working their way in the last five miles but it is difficult to really steer in the light air. Paul Imire, their "host" in Long Beach is going to check in at his office and anticipates being able to come out in his Zodiac and bring them in.
That's it for now...back to sleep.
Valerie

Update 6:45PM HST

2007-07-01T21:45:00.000-07:00

Cell phone call from Bill. They are off Palos Verdes headed towards Pt. Furhman but it is very light air and they are lucky to make 2 kn. boat speed. First goal is to get across the shipping channel. Next goal is covering the 13.6 mi. to Pt. Furhman and another 5 to the mooring site.
From being so cold last night that they thought they were going to die to being on deck in shorts and t-shirts now has been quite a transition. As we spoke the moon had just broken the horizon so they will have plenty of light and the harbor itself is, reportedly, lit up completely.
Contact with Ric Saunders (Harbor Master) has yielded information about mooring in a slip next to Pyewacket. Ric told them that if they aren't in on their own by 10 AM he will send out a tow for them. Unless the wind dies completely they should make it sometime in the wee small hours.
Because he is not able to charge the phone, it has been turned off but Bill promised to keep me posted as I will, in turn, promise you, dear readers.
Aloha,
Valerie

Update 8:15 AM

2007-07-01T11:15:00.000-07:00

Couple of things -
Both Agnes and I think they must have meant 14 hours, not 24 (when we do the math anyway) - we'll see.
And the second thing is that Bill and I are celebrating 7 years of marriage today. Those of you who know him know how lucky I am. I just received a lovely arrangement of flowers and who knows how he knew to do this but this picture was e-mailed 2 days ago for posting today.
Happy day - Valerie

Update 7 AM HST

2007-07-01T09:58:00.000-07:00

Southern tip of Catalina Island is 50 miles away, Point Furman (sp?) - the start line for the TransPac is 72 miles away at 060 magnetic. Happily, Cirrus is on target heading 060. Lat. 33 deg. 23 min. N, 119 deg, 41 min. W.
Last night was very rough with high winds and 12-15 foot breaking waves. No jib and a double reef. Everyone is licking their proverbial wounds this morning but the wind is now lighter and they are making 5 kn. and anticipate putting the jib out and shaking out the reef. At the current pace, they should make Pt. Furman in about 24 hours.
They have several possible people to call to help with getting into the slip. There's good old reliable Joel. In addition, TransPac has assigned a host who lives near the harbor and there is also the possibility of aid from the harbor master.
That's it for now. I'll keep you posted.
Aloha,
Valerie

Latest word from Cirrus 4:30PM HST

2007-06-30T20:09:00.000-07:00

Received via e-mail:
"Hello everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that we have lost our engine. We are sailing along fine, and we have lots of wind, but we have decided to eliminate all unnecessary electronics to conserve our batteries. So this is our last email for now. We expect to be in cell phone range by about 6:00 pm PDT tomorrow, so we'll try and resume normal communication then. We may also try the satphone again before then.

In the meantime, with no engine, our fuel shortage is not an issue and we will not be putting in to Two Harbors, but going on directly to Long Beach, Rainbow Marina. Once we are close, we'll call TowBoatUS for help getting unto our slip. We are leaving our VHF on, monitoring channel 16.

Current position at 4:15 pm HST: 33N24.362 121W30.420, Course: 085 true at 6 knots
Distance to the west end of Catalina Island: 145 Nm
Distance to Long Beach: 166 Nm"

.......
I will update blog as soon as I hear anything new.
Valerie

Navigator Bill sensing the position of the planets

2007-06-30T13:04:00.000-07:00

I always wondered how you measure interaction of celestial bodies with simple earthly tools - now I know!
Ulli
My video goes here

That's what I'm talkin' about!

2007-06-30T11:01:00.001-07:00

Last night, during my watch before midnight, we saw a peak boat speed of 8.5 knots. The true wind had built to 12 knots and was heading for 16. So, when Bill came on watch, we did an "all hands" exercise to furl the jib and put a reef in the main. Even with this drastically reduced sail, we were still doing over 6 knots in fairly smooth seas. This morning, it's more of the same, still doing 6+ knots, but the seas have gotten lumpy. The weather conditions are gorgeous, clear skies, bright full moon last night, and sunny skies today. At sunset, Donna saw TWO green flashes.

Bill spent much of the night chasing a stray engine alarm signal. It's a very weak buzz, probably not indicative of an engine problem; more likely a chafed or corroded sensor wire. He continues to puzzle over it, investigating various ideas as they come to him.

Position at 7:45 AM HST: 33N24.4 122W29.9, course 080 true at 6.5 knots. Distance to go to West End of Catalina 195 N miles.
- Chris

Thank you, wind dancers.

2007-06-29T16:16:00.000-07:00

I awoke this morning to find the other members of the crew discussing the fact that the wind was freshening and moving forward, so it was time to switch from the spinnaker to the big jib. But first, run the engine to charge the batteries and clean the barnacles off the propeller. I was gonna say cobwebs, but what sense would that make?

But yes, the wind has freshened, to about 8 knots, and clocked to the NW. After we turned off the engine, we were able to make a steady 5 knots, with bursts to 6, with full main and full jib. So, a big thank you to Valerie, and the other members of this worldwide virtual wind-dancing coven, for all your help.

In case Bill didn't mention it, we have used up all of our bottled water and are now drinking from the big blue jerry cans. Not literally; we pour a jerry can, about 6 gallons, into the fresh water tank, and then use that until it's gone. And we have lots more jerry cans. But the jerry cans contain hose water, eminently drinkable, but not as tasty is the bottled stuff. So we really appreciate the fact that Donna provided a huge stash of orange Crystal Light, specifically for the purpose of masking the "tank water" taste. That's about all we drink now.

Trash report: We passed a huge kelp stalk and root, about 3 inches in diameter and about 12 feet long. It was hanging down in the water and you could clearly see the entire length. The water is that clear here.

We have now decided that our first planned port of call in California will be Two Harbors, Catalina Island, rather than Long Beach. We expect to be able to refuel there, possible get a burger and a beer, and (in Bill's fantasy) a shower. It also allows us to time our arrival into the LB shipping channel during daylight hours. The idea is to hang out at Two Harbors and then depart at the right time so as to arrive in the shipping channels with daylight to spare. We are specifically not discussing ETA because of the possible negative karma. However, you can draw your own conclusions from our position report which follows below.

Current position at 1300 HST: 33N21.3 124W58.6, Course 085 true at 5.5 knots, 324 miles to go to Two Harbors.

That's all for now. -Chris

Status report

2007-06-29T09:51:00.000-07:00

When I spoke with Bill this morning his spirits seem to have lifted a bit. They do not feel that Richard's friend would need to come out to provide fuel but they are going to contact Richard and find out how to communicate with this person directly so they can get information if not fuel. He also said food was not a problem either now or for re-provisioning as Donna and Lindsey are magicians.
I have been looking at the Geostationary Satellite wind maps (thank you Agnes) and, as usual, it looks like they should be experiencing 15-20 kn. winds where they are but in actual fact the wind is not there. They anticipate another 2-3 days for ETA. I think we will all be relieved when that happens!

Spin

2007-06-29T09:22:00.001-07:00

Sliding along with the 1/2 oz. spinnaker up. Did a couple jibes during the night just for fun. Wanted to get some practice jibing in the pitch dark, and ,oh yes, did I mention the fog and misty rain. Anyway it is morning and 351 miles to go to Catalina, where we may try to refuel.

The Friday, 29 June 2007, 0600 HST position is, 33N24, 125W38. Course at the moment is 090M, speed 3.3 knots. Spinnaker on port pole.

That's it for now. Got to rush. So many things to do.

Bill

Cirrus under sail - straining to get to Long Beach

2007-06-28T21:23:00.000-07:00

A couple of pictures of optimism in action: Bill standing in the cockpit demonstrating one method of getting some knots out of the zephyrs - flying the main and jib "wing and wing". Next they tried the 1/2 ounce spinnaker and managed to eke out another knot of boat speed. Tenacity! You can judge how long this trip is taking by the length of Bill's beard! He was clean shaved when he left Hawai'i.

lindsey girls first blog

2007-06-28T20:03:00.000-07:00

this is my first blog. i would like to start by thanking my mom for braving the fore peak and getting out the 1/2 OZ. once we we put it up, the boat went a whole knot faster, that really is saying a lot in these conditions. i would also like to give her a pat on the back for all the wonderful cooking she has done. in all my 22 years of life i can honestly say this is by far the most i have ever seen my mother cook, and it tastes really good too.
i would also like to thank Chris for doing all the radio stuff, and for teaching me some new things, ( like how to do this blog). also for taking time out of his life for coming out on this nice sail with us.
bill does a lot too, but ill save all of that for another blog.
i cant remember why i sat down to do this blog so im going to come to a close now. we have 401.9 miles to go till we get to long beach (or some way point off of long beach), we are out of fresh and frozen food but have LOTS of delicious can food and rice, to hold us over till we get to long beach and then some. fresh water is of no concern. we are very low on fuel, but we have enough fuel to charge the battery's, making it possible for the boys to chit-chat on the radio and blog to there hearts content, as well as allow for my mom and i to keep our drinks cool in the fridge. the wind is out of my control, but we are very happy that it is coming from behind, and if you are one to believe in weather maps, well hey boy we'll have more wind then we need in just a few miles. the wind we have now is thanks to Valerie and Christin. thats my summery of the situation as of now.
HI D MAN AND MR. O'OPU. i miss you guys i hope all is well, my mom and i are really enjoying the news reports!!! i have decided that we are going to take up spear fishing when i get home. oh and my mom and i saw 2 satellites, and now on my watch i get to see Venus and Saturn set. olives, give O'opu a big hug from me, say hi to everyone. LG

Lemons ...

2007-06-28T15:23:00.000-07:00

The Cirrus version of "When life deals you a lemon, make lemonade," seems to be "If the fluky puffs go aft, its time to break out the 1/2 oz." So now we are cooking along at 3.5 knots (1.8 knots of apparent wind) and chasing down debris piles to see if we can find another glass ball.

In the meantime, we saw a ship, the container vessel Hanjin Parma (sp?) out of Korea. He steamed (dieseled?) within 1.5 miles of us. Lindsey talked to him on the radio and mentioned we were low on diesel. He seemed sympathetic. He said "That's too bad. Have a nice day."

Current position at 1200 noon HST: 33N23 126W58 420 Nm to go.

Sunny, Warm, Beautiful

2007-06-28T10:01:00.001-07:00

Sunny, warm, beautiful. That's what it is like in the middle if a High pressure area. Probably a lot like that in the middle of a black hole. No clouds or rippled breezes to spoil the symmetric serenity.

These are the kind of thoughts I was having on my (0000-0300) watch last night. I was composing a sort of last will and testament for Cirrus and it's crew. The wind was 3, boat speed 2 and the distance to go 480 miles. Let's do the math. That would be 240 hours (more or less, depending on the weather). That would be 10 days. Making our arrival in Long Beach simultaneous with the start of the race. (Could some kind hearted soul please bring us the instructions from the Skipper/Navigator's Meeting to the starting line.) A couple cases of Cup-of-Soup and some bottled water would also be nice.

Seriously though, a couple jerry cans of diesel, and/or a tow from Catalina Island would be a gift from heaven.

The Thursday, 28 June 2007, 0600 HST position is 33N22, 127W23. We are motoring at the moment to charge the batteries. Course is 070M, speed 6 knots. (About 15 gallons of diesel remain and about 3/day are required for the batteries.)

Support crew slipping too?

2007-06-27T11:44:00.000-07:00

What's with us? We mustered up a bit of wind and gave up on our efforts? Historically we have been able to create near gale force winds. More dancing. More burnt offerings. More voodoo like you do so well ..... please!
Bill says that if they weren't in a hurry they would be really enjoying the mellow sail. Although it is cold on deck it is pleasant below. If they get in Monday they should still have 6 prep days which is ok - but they would like as much time as possible. Did I already tell you that Joel is on dry ice patrol? Anyone else in the area planning to help?
Sorry about Agnes having to manage her house guests without Chris. I know how it feels having had 2 (family - might not count) last week, one this week and two next week.
Back to main subject - BLOW BABY BLOW - vent, vent, tout est le vent! (can't remember if wind is masculine or feminine, sorry.)
Valerie

Slipping

2007-06-27T09:20:00.000-07:00

Looks like our arrival might be slipping to Monday. We see 10-15 knot winds just ahead on the weather charts but they are only 6-8 when we get there. Slow and smooth that's us.

Wednesday, 27 June 2007, 0600 HST position report is 33N21, 129W12. Course is 080M, speed (motoring at the moment) 6.6 knots.

It is 530 miles to the tip of Catalina Island (Our current reference point.) and something like 20 more miles to go after that.

Steady breeze yesterday afternoon so we decided to skip our usual Trivial Pursuit game. Bill

You're probably tired of reading this . . .

2007-06-26T16:26:00.000-07:00

Light winds. In the last hour, it has picked up some and we are now averaging 5 knots, with spurts to 6, but it has been mostly 3 knots with sessions of much less. When it gets really light, we pole out the jib. Two reasons: one, it keeps the jib from flapping and driving everyone crazy. And two, it keeps us busy for a while. The skies are 100% overcast and when the sea is calm, it looks like lead cellulite. Not a trace of wind ripples.

Trash flash: This morning we passed a red ball that had a five-foot mast on it, and a five foot beard. The water was so clear we could see the beard very distinctly hanging down in the water. Other than that, no ships, no icebergs, no space ships.

Agnes reports that she thinks she has successfully vanquished the skunk from under our house. You go girl! It does a sailor man's heart good to know that things are under control at home. For anyone interested in reading more about the topic, I highly recommend the book "Ahab's Wife". Speaking about books, another top item on the Cirrus book club list is "Ghost Ship" about the recovery of the Marie Celeste. I haven't read it yet but Bill says it's fascinating. And if I haven't already mentioned it ten times, you gotta read "Gales of November" about the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. And, of course, listen to the Gordon Lightfoot song of the same title.

In other news, Donna saw the most amazing thing this morning; a sunrise green flash, very rare.

Time for my nap. See you tomorrow.
- Chris

Ghosting Along

2007-06-26T08:48:00.000-07:00

Hope some of our NOAA friends are watching. We are at Latitude 33N40 and sliding along a ridge that extends eastward out of a high pressure area towards Los Angles, which is our goal. We are 666 miles out and have been on this ridge for days. The GRIB charts we have been consulting show good solid winds from the north increasing from 5-10, 10-15, maybe even 20 knots as we move toward the mainland. The reality is 3-5 knots and sometimes nothing at all for extended periods. Our GPS has a feature that predicts our time of arrival based on the distance and our boat speed. it is a little discouraging to sit here and note that after each hour the arrival time has receded two hours. Of course, the worst example of this phenomenon occurred on the second day of the 1998 Pacific Cup race. On that occasion the GPS predicted that we were likely to cross the finish line in Hawaii on Christmas Day.

It is Tuesday, 26 June 2007, 0600 HST, and it feels like Long Beach is just over the horizon. Actually, we are at 33N37, 131W35 and our course is 090M, speed 3 knots. True wind is about 300M, 3-4 knots.

Lacking anything better to do with my time let me give a little lecture about relative and true wind. Yesterday we made the interesting observation that the boat speed was 6, the relative wind was 6 and the true wind that we had calculated was also 6. Here is how it works. The true wind was actually hitting the boat 60 degrees from aft on the port side. That's 30 degrees "abaft the beam" for you sailor types. The 6 knot forward motion of the boat that resulted created a wind that appeared to move the apparent wind direction forward so that the wind appeared to be coming from 30 degrees ahead of the beam on the port side. The wind vectors formed a perfect isosceles triangle where an extension of the port beam would be a symmetry axis for the triangle.

Cirrus is great in light air, but there is a limit.

Joe Cool the Navigator

2007-06-25T20:12:00.000-07:00

Getting ready for Long Beach?

Yes, But . . .

2007-06-25T17:31:00.000-07:00

As Bill reported earlier today, it is truly wonderful to be aboard Cirrus when she squeezes six knots of boat speed out of six knots of wind on a flat sea. During my watch, we were charging the batteries and motor-sailing at about six knots when a puff came up and gave us 7.5 knots of boat speed for about ten minutes. Sweet! However, as I write this, we have sailed into another hole. And worse, we are being headed by about 30 degrees. But the surface chart sort of predicts all this. We are on the eastern fringe of the high and it is all very oddly-shaped and disorganized. We will probably have sub-ten-knots winds, from an interesting variety of directions, for another day or so.

Meanwhile, we are enjoying your reports of various world news events. Like the Honolulu stabbings (was it stabbings? or stubbings?), and the America's Cup, and Alakai's progress. So, keep them coming.

Today's trash patrol report: two miniature sargasso seas about six feet in diameter: one composed of a snarl of one-inch sisal rope with a beard of green nets; the other a large wad of fine netting, like a giant yellow cheesecloth.

Talked to Lou last night on the 7085 kHz amateur band and it was surprisingly low in static noise. Surprising, because right next door, marine SSB 8B, 8297 kHz, was extremely noisy. I can't really explain it except to speculate that 8B has a lot of distant traffic on it that adds up to a lot of static here. We're going to try 7085 again tonight at 1930 HST.

It's 1400, time for my nap; PacSea up at 1730. See you later . . .
-Chris

And some newer ones

2007-06-25T12:05:00.001-07:00

Three more pictures. Lindsey, ever the optimist, is keeping her bikini ready for...the return trip maybe? A picture of the PCC of yesterday's blog fame. And a picture titled "Message" - fantastic!

Some older photos

2007-06-25T10:18:00.001-07:00

Several photos have been struggling to come through. These are the latest although they are not exactly current. Bill and Donna --clearly it is cold! And a pictorial representation of why, occasionally, they needed to motor! If you look you will notice one of the black floats that Chris suggested mark the path to Long Beach.

Support crew does it again

2007-06-25T10:09:00.000-07:00

Bill said he was going to post "Valerie's coven does it again" -- not sure what we do is really witchcraft but I assured him that we will always do what we can. In other words, the wind is back - not much yet (5+ kn.) but steadily building. Very calm seas and mellow sailing.
Support in Long Beach is being sought for dry ice and laundry. So far our good friend and fellow sailor Joel Gober seems to be stepping up to the plate. Since I am not going to be there it is a relief to me to know we have auxiliary support "staff".
Based on experience at the seminar in April, Cirrus has requested to be seated with the team from Mexico at the send-off banquet "because they seemed like the most fun." Sounds right to me!
On the home stretch now - wahooo. More tomorrow.
Aloha,
Valerie

Happy Boat

2007-06-25T07:52:00.001-07:00

Cirrus is one happy boat. Crew doing well also. We are close reaching in about 5-6 knots of true wind from 300M. The course is 076M, 6 knots, and the motion of the boat carries the wind forward. Luckily the sea is smooth. Cirrus just leans 10-15 degrees to leeward and is absolutely cooking. Not unusual for her to have a boat speed bigger than the wind speed in conditions like this.

Monday, 25 June 2007, 0600 HST position is 33N45, 134W07. We have about 790 miles to go, and a rough ETA would be next. Saturday or Sunday.

Got to hit the books. Figure out if that red spot in Scorpio is Mars or (more likely) a star. Also it looks a lot like Mercury coming up just before the sun.

Keeping busy . . .

2007-06-24T16:09:00.000-07:00

The main feature of this morning's weather was the wind speed: zero. But, because we are sailors, we chose to play with the sails anyway. We poled out the jib and tweaked the main until we saw 1.5, then 2.2 on the knotmeter. Then we settled down to a rousing game of Trivial Pursuits to while away the watch. At one point we got a nice puff and sailed at 5+ knots for a while, hitting 7 at one point, but overall, it continues to be very light.

Just around noon today we spotted a ship heading our way. Lindsey spoke to them and they said they were a PCC, bound for Panama. Does anyone have any idea what a PCC is? We can see that it's a pretty big ship, but nothing else sticks out. Speaking of ships, yesterday Lindsey talked to an officer on a container ship bound for XingDao in China. This guy told us he was Filipino and he was very chatty. He rattled off all the stats about his ship and all the ports it had been to and where it was destined. He discussed the TransPac at length with Lindsey. At one point, we were all listening to this very lengthy exchange go on and on and we were all betting that he was going to ask her for her number. Alas, no.

Current position: 33N55 135W37, course 080 M at 2.7 knots. Winds from the north at 2 knots. Sky is mostly overcast, but it's very warm and bright out there.