Status report

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

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

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

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 ...

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

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?

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

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 . . .

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

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

Getting ready for Long Beach?

Yes, But . . .

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

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

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.