CAPTAIN'S BLOG

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