Support crew does it again

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

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 . . .

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.

IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN

Those of you have followed my postings over the years already know the drill. It is time for a wind dance, wind chant or whatever wind voodoo you know. Let's give these guys some help! I asked the Navigator for permission to put out the word...he said it certainly couldn't hurt. I suggested that those not driving the boat go overboard and kick...no takers.
I hope those of you who don't know Bill well appreciate the poetry of his post this morning. A Renaissance man, my husband - plumber, electrician, carpenter, roofer, sailor, philosopher, poet, artist and, oh yes, theoretical nuclear astrophysicist! Sigh.
Hope we have better news tomorrow.
Valerie

PEACEFUL

There is a good reason it is called the Pacific Ocean. At midnight last night the weather quit fooling around with little spurts of wind here and there. It just went to a good solid, unchanging, cast in concrete, zero wind speed. Boat speed went to zero and the autopilot lost the ability to steer. So start the engine we did. When you want the force to be with you, sometimes you need to turn it on. The center of a high is a beautiful thing (When you are not on a sailboat and in a hurry.) It is sunny, crystal clear, blue sky and (oh yes) did I mention, no wind.

As I type it is 0400 HST and Donna reports a hint of green flash as the bright, hard, orange ball of the morning sun leaped from the sea. We are still motoring. It is an interesting navigation problem. Motor too much and run out of gas, too little and run out of food.

Sunday, 24 June 2007, 0600 HST position is 33N58, 136W06. Course is 071M and speed 4.7 knots. Motoring.

Beauty of crisp clear moonless night sky is hard to express. There are so many stars that is hard to pick out the familiar ones that you know. The milky way glows like a continuation into the sky of the phosphorescent trail that the boat leaves in the sea.

Compass light? we don't need no ...

Well, actually, it would be nice to know what the course is, even though Otto is doing a superb job at the helm. Last night, at dusk, we were going through the ritual of turning on the various lights and, when everything was on, Lindsey (on watch) hollered below, Hey, could we have a compass light please. We checked the obvious stuff like switches and fuses with no joy, so we got a flashlight out for the night watch. The good news is that Bill was able to repair it quite easily this morning. We think it was a Martian prank. Or maybe a slightly corroded light socket.

Speaking of corrosion, the barometer is working again. I had gotten it working earlier by throwing out the old leaky batteries and using an emery board to clean the green gunk off the battery holders, but it quit again a couple of days ago. So, today's project was to clean it a few more times, and if necessary, threaten it with a soldering iron. Several cleanings did not seem to work, but I guess the threat was sufficient because it finally blinked back to life.

During the voyage, I've had occasion to glance at the new boom, a very nice piece of work from Ballenger Spars of Watsonville California, just down the road from my home port. So today, I took a picture of it and maybe we can get it posted sometime soon. The thing that strikes me is how uncluttered it is; no cleats, no winches, etc. Just a couple of reefing line anchor knots. I like Bill's approach of running the forward end of the furling lines to sheet stoppers on the deck, rather than cleats on the boom. And a real full-sized winch on the deck to grind on them.

Agnes pointed out to me that today is June 23rd, the official last day of Catholic school in Quebec. Tomorrow is the feast of St. John the Baptist, a major French-Canadian holiday. Agnes did not mention this, but I'll bet if the 23rd comes on a Saturday, like today, school gets out a day earlier. You'd have to grow up Catholic in Quebec to appreciate any of this. Or you could rent a movie. Either "Mon Oncle Antoine" or "Kamouraska" should do the trick.

As Bill mentioned earlier, we have sailed into a hole. Winds have been generally from the north, blowing from 2 - 5 knots. It's a real struggle to keep the sails filled an d the boat moving. But we remain optimistic that the 15-knot stuff is getting closer and closer. To be followed by the 25-knot stuff.

Current position at 1300 HST: 34N04.0 137W23.3, course approximately 090 M at 1.5 knots. Winds are from the north at 2.5 knots. See you tomorrow. - Chris

Smooth sailing.

Actually. A little too smooth.

About 960 miles to go with very light winds from the north for the first half and then ramping up near the end. Our problem is that we are both eager to be there and low on fuel. So, we just have to poke along and wait for things to pickup.

The Saturday, 23 June 2007, 0600 HST position is 34N10, 138W00. The course is 090M, speed 6 knots, wind NNW at 5 knots. There are no waves or swells to speak of, just a few little bumps here and there.

Bill

Swingin' Halfway Party Caught on Video

Apparently they all dressed up for the occasion in colorful clothing, masquerading with caps and scarves and all. How beautiful! And all four are on camera.

Wait a minute - aren't there only 4 people on the boat? Who is holding the camera?

I think it is time to admit it: it's Otto. Yeah, I know, you all thought Otto Helm is only the autohelm, some mechanical gear down below. But no. Bill did not want to talk about it because of the high expenses involved, you know, but he had invested into a real robot, who is now assisting on board. Bill told me it is quite a relief from the routine duties. You can here the robot's "ribiddibiddibit" voice sound faintly in the background. It's faint, but when you listen to the video often enough, you will here it for sure! Of course, Bill had to cut down on other things, like navigational lights, propane gear, and why do you think weren't the waterpump and generator not replaced in time? See!

But isn't it great that they can now send us such videos? Bill said that Otto had served champagne to the crew, but the captain had to do with sparkling apple cider. Otto can be so tough; I think I need to reprogram him, he is really going too far on some essentials.

By the way, this great video was transmitted using Sailmail over the Marlink Iridium Data Link.

Don't wait any longer - call the local newspapers, TV stations, call the sponsors, call Iridium, call CNN for goodness sake, and point them to this site. This is a big moment for this Hawaiian boat to open a new chapter in boat to shore communication. You have not seen it before anywhere!

Aloha from the other side of the globe,
Ulli

Another day in paradise, and on trash patrol

Big news: this morning an albatross followed us for a while and then I saw him land about a hundred yards behind us. It's the first time I've ever seen an albatross land. OK, so it's not the space shuttle, but I thought it was captivating.

And in trash news, I saw a rust-colored "milk crate" go by, but this crate looked big enough to hold 12 1.5 liter bottles of, you know, cheap wine. And it must have been a recent arrival in the sea; no beard, no crabs, no mollusks. Glass balls sighted today: none.

In sailing news, not much to report. We are close-hauled on a steady course of 105 true in a band of variable northerlies and the result is boat speeds of from 4 to 6 knots with occasional bursts of 6.5 to 7.0 knots.

Yesterday, we shot a six-second video which we emailed to our pal Ulli. If all goes well, it should appear here in the blob soon. Thanks Ulli, for all your support.

Oh, and speaking of thanks, I forgot to mention my T-shirt sponsor, Pacific Yachting and Sailing of Santa Cruz. The owner, Marc Kraft, just gave me two new PY&S T-shirts recently. Thanks Marc. And remember folks: if you're ever looking for the best sailboat charter experience in Santa Cruz, be sure to call Marc at 831-423-SAIL (7245).

For the second year in a row, during my night watch, I reported a ship on the horizon, only to later realize that it was the setting moon, albeit in heavy cloud cover. But, just prior to my "ship sighting" there was some legitimate excitement on deck when I looked up and realized that I could not see the three bright red flags of the masthead fly. Nothing but a pitch black sky. At some point my caffeine-starved brain started to formulate the realization that the masthead navigation light was out. OK, so I dropped below in full-cold-weather gear to look for the blown fuse or breaker. Nope, it's apparently the bulb itself, and we still have seven dark nights or so to go. The good news is that Cirrus also has a conventional deck-level running lights setup, so I switched them on and we were again visible and legal. The bad news is that the ScanMar wind-vane-autopilot sits behind the stern light and is constructed of a mass of brightly polished stainless tubes which are highly reflective and it just flooded the cockpit with a bright white light. Sure makes it hard to see those "ships".

Last night, I had a tough time hearing Lou on the radio and then, suddenly, he started coming in much more clearly. I think we have identified another local source of interference, the refrigerator. However, Donna put me on notice that there will be no turning off of the fridge until we have an absolutely bulletproof system for ensuring that we turn it back on again afterwards. So I'm working on that.

Right now, we're barely ghosting along, doing about 3 knots. This is a violation of the well-known 4-knot policy, so it might be a great time to charge them batteries. Current position at 1430 HST: 34N23.7 139W26.6. We have not calculated an updated ETA today, so still shooting for Friday morning, the 29th. Thanks for all your comments. Please keep them coming.

Fair winds,
Chris

Day 12 Valerie's report.

A good long chat last evening with Bill from the Ickler's base of operations. The half (quarter)-way party occurred at about 4PM HST (if I recall correctly - we had a wonderful dinner and evening after the call) with much celebration, making it a 5-C event when you add in the champagne, chicken, cookies and corn. To top it all off, they had their best day yet...156 miles made good.
Another nice visit mid day today. Evidently he took some grief from the crew on his night watch because he was "following the wind" and the sail adjustments make a lot of noise. On the other hand, if he didn't make the adjustments the boat would slow down and then speed up and heel over...everything is some sort of compromise! When he came on watch this morning it was sunny and beautiful but 10 minutes later it was completely overcast. But seas are calm with wind at 8-10 knots and the weather forecasts look like they are almost "on rails" to Long Beach with tweaking (sorry about the noise, crew) to accommodate shifts.
Bill has been in touch with the Port Captain at Long Beach and their arrival for some time at the end of next week is being anticipated.
All is as it should be and we look forward to each report.
Aloha for now. Valerie

All is Image

Does the phrase "Going for a sail." bring up an image for you? Sun and sea? Chicks in bikinis? Maybe a cool brew in the shade of the main'sl?

That's just what its like. Honest!

Friday, 22 June 2007, 0600 HST, position is 34N27, 140W14. Course is 080M, 5 knots, and it is really bumpy. The wind is from the north at about 10 knots. Conditions are good and getting better, it's just a little hard to take proper advantage of them because it is so bumpy. That probably isn't going to get any better. Distance to go is 1078 miles, total overcast, occasional light rain.

Pacific Spirit

As most of you know, I left Santa Cruz rather suddenly ten days ago, so I didn't have a chance to say goodbye to a bunch of my sailing buddies. So here's a shout-out to the crews of Pacific Spirit and True North. Diana, Valerie, Jo, Kathy, Fred, Karen, Shelley, Kris, DJ, Bi-Bi, and Mike. And of course, my honorary first mate aboard True North, Agnes. Oh, and the crew of Reachable Star Too, Steve, Edd and Deb. Fair winds to you all. And to Diana: I sure missed sailing with you guys in the last two Tuesday night Catalina fleet races. I hope you kicked butt.

Now that we, Cirrus, are more-or-less on a straight path to Long beach, with fairly strong winds forecast for the foreseeable future, it might be reasonable to start discussing our estimated time of arrival. Here are three likely scenarios based on projected average speed over the remaining 1,175 miles to go:

Spd Day Time
7.5 Thu 0800
6.5 Fri 0800 (*)
5.5 Sat 1700

Spd is average speed in knots; Thu is Thursday, June 28th, and Time is Pacific Daylight Time. (*) indicates the most likely ETA. I can revise and republish this as we get closer.

I spent most of my watch this morning working in the rain, continuously adjusting the sails for the light variable winds. Some times we were blasting along smoothly at 7+ knots, occasionally starting to round up, other times we could barely make 5 knots. However, during my last hour, the winds built steadily until I took in half the jib. Then, when Bill came on watch, we assembled the entire crew and put the reef back in the main. It all went very smoothly and we even took a minute to videotape some of the action.

The worst part of all this action was the incredible roasting effect on my body. Before each watch, the person going on watch suits up with all the thermal and foulie gear required to withstand three hours sitting still in the cold wind. And even then, you're just barely warm enough to be comfortable. But 30 seconds of winch-grinding in this get-up and you suddenly feel like you're in a sauna. Whew, get me outta these clothes.

Anyway, that's enough for now. Current position at 1430 HST: 34N48 142W03, course 100 true at 6.7 knots. We are sailing a little below our desired track to fill the sails and maintain our speed. We are expecting a huge lift later in the week when the 25-knot northerlies kick in. Stay tuned.

Chris

June 21 - Summer Solstice

When I reminded Bill that today is the Summer Solstice he noted that they had not seen the sun for a couple of days and probably would not for the rest of the trip so it was somewhat irrelevant. Being Hawai'i born and raised, I don't think I could stand that! Yet another reason I don't have any desire to make the crossing!
And again - no horror stories, no big problems. Just another day of good sailing heading in the right direction. Hurrah!
Aloha, Valerie

It's About Time

Best current estimate for the halfway point is 1300 today.

Thursday, 21 June 2007, 0600 HST, position is 34N55, 143W10. Course (sailing under full jib and main) is 081M and speed 7.5 knots. The wind has been 330T at 8 knots, but it seems to be picking up at the moment.

Glad to hear the video on the blog was such a big hit. Of course, now the boat is going to want its own You Tube.

Bill