The crew rattled off a 100mile 12 hour and then did it again through the night. Jack hit what I'm sure will be the the fastest reported speed ever achieved by a Beneteau 411 at 17.7kts. The next fastest time is 15.3, so it's a pretty ridiculous number.
Most of the night was sailing a freight train at 10+, often it was actually very benign, an almost serene slow motion explosion. Other times it was near impossible, the wheel loads increasing to the point it was hard to hold on. . The sheet and the guy are steel bar tight at times, seemingly impossibly tight. Such are the forces required to tow us at steady 9.5-11kts. The day run was actually hindered by a spin sheet (yes it was taped) blowing off at 6am. The shackles show significant hinge degradation from the steel on steel friction, but should be good for a while longer.
Standby for further update if we can... naviguessing to do!
-----
At 7/14/2012 12:11 AM (utc) our position was 38°06.27'N 122°16.02'W
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Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Day 3: Water World
All,
The race continues! The biggest change for us has been that we are clearly in the water world. Huge sky, vast ocean of deep blue, cloud structures all around and well into the pace of the watches, and life at sea. Everybody is comfortable and doing well. Crew dynamics are warm and jestful. The Chef continues to amaze, with great food and a devotion to the crews health. (i just looked at the table -Capresse salad with lasagne and wine! Awesome)(note later: it was fantastic!)
The boat has drawn first blood - Dennis cut a finger, and Travis hit his head on a corner getting into bed. Neither were smooth moves, but no real harm done.
Gotta Run for now: time to set a kite and see how it goes!
1915PDT- Kite is working.... We are down near 210M, but ok with that for now. Boat speeds are up to steady 8kts (9mph) after some slow periods at 6kts. For the last two days, we've not needed any help from the "standby" crew member. With the kite up on a tight reach, we will most certainly need more help on deck. Going to be a tougher night.
In the meantime, we are collecting weather fax and Dennis has the volume turned up pretty loud; He calls it "music". It sounds worse than a normal fax machine! The crew fought back, and we've now turned it down.
The two boats in front seem to be really fast in these conditions, we're going to work to reel them in a bit, time will tell.
We're back to sailing, task: sail into sunset!
-Bequia Crew
p.s If you want to send a few sentences to the crew, please email the people below: "<>"substitute for the thing... (prevents bots from spamming their address>
Becky Ronk <lastname>co@aol.com
Roshawn Bowers <firstname><lastinitial>@gmail.com
Nicholas Vetter <firstName>.<Lastname>@gmail.com (Still on honeymoon till ???)
p.p.s. current water depth, 15,300ft!
-----
At 7/14/2012 12:11 AM (utc) our position was 38°06.27'N 122°16.02'W
----------
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The race continues! The biggest change for us has been that we are clearly in the water world. Huge sky, vast ocean of deep blue, cloud structures all around and well into the pace of the watches, and life at sea. Everybody is comfortable and doing well. Crew dynamics are warm and jestful. The Chef continues to amaze, with great food and a devotion to the crews health. (i just looked at the table -Capresse salad with lasagne and wine! Awesome)(note later: it was fantastic!)
The boat has drawn first blood - Dennis cut a finger, and Travis hit his head on a corner getting into bed. Neither were smooth moves, but no real harm done.
Gotta Run for now: time to set a kite and see how it goes!
1915PDT- Kite is working.... We are down near 210M, but ok with that for now. Boat speeds are up to steady 8kts (9mph) after some slow periods at 6kts. For the last two days, we've not needed any help from the "standby" crew member. With the kite up on a tight reach, we will most certainly need more help on deck. Going to be a tougher night.
In the meantime, we are collecting weather fax and Dennis has the volume turned up pretty loud; He calls it "music". It sounds worse than a normal fax machine! The crew fought back, and we've now turned it down.
The two boats in front seem to be really fast in these conditions, we're going to work to reel them in a bit, time will tell.
We're back to sailing, task: sail into sunset!
-Bequia Crew
p.s If you want to send a few sentences to the crew, please email the people below: "<>"substitute for the thing... (prevents bots from spamming their address>
Becky Ronk <lastname>co@aol.com
Roshawn Bowers <firstname><lastinitial>@gmail.com
Nicholas Vetter <firstName>.<Lastname>@gmail.com (Still on honeymoon till ???)
p.p.s. current water depth, 15,300ft!
-----
At 7/14/2012 12:11 AM (utc) our position was 38°06.27'N 122°16.02'W
----------
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Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Day 2: (close) Reaching for freedom.
1430PDT: We can no longer see the Farallon Islands! We continued to see seals out way past the islands- a bit of a surprise!
Multiple Sail changes so far this morning - trying to get the most out of the available wind. The swells are building, perhaps a early sign of some wind to come?:S
We have finally lost sight of any part of California. A big accomplishment in the conditions, and a sure sign that we are truly off on an ocean adventure.
2200PDT, 0500Z: The winds have filled in! We are now close reaching toward HI at a great clip. We've been 1-2 people on deck, just getting faster and faster as the night rolls on. The race optimization software has varied solutions based on tiny perturbations of the inputs. Classic optimization sensitivity. We are taking all this into account and will revalidate after the next weather download. The next roll call should be interesting; who got the wind first? Did everybody get it? How did they adjust their track based on info from yesterday?
It has been a really nice evening with wonderful food cooked by Mark, including excellent tomatoes and mixed green salad! 4 of us ate around the table, left Jack upstairs to single hand for a bit - he looked so happy. (and then happy again when he got to join in with dinner)
The ocean seemed big today - clouds WAY off in the distance, and a glossy sea. The swells were huge, but the gap between was also very large - seemed like long rolling hills as far as the eye could see. We have passed a few tankers/freighters, but have not seen our competitors since mid last night.
-Bequia Crew, blasting through the night
-----
At 7/14/2012 12:11 AM (utc) our position was 38°06.27'N 122°16.02'W
----------
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Multiple Sail changes so far this morning - trying to get the most out of the available wind. The swells are building, perhaps a early sign of some wind to come?:S
We have finally lost sight of any part of California. A big accomplishment in the conditions, and a sure sign that we are truly off on an ocean adventure.
2200PDT, 0500Z: The winds have filled in! We are now close reaching toward HI at a great clip. We've been 1-2 people on deck, just getting faster and faster as the night rolls on. The race optimization software has varied solutions based on tiny perturbations of the inputs. Classic optimization sensitivity. We are taking all this into account and will revalidate after the next weather download. The next roll call should be interesting; who got the wind first? Did everybody get it? How did they adjust their track based on info from yesterday?
It has been a really nice evening with wonderful food cooked by Mark, including excellent tomatoes and mixed green salad! 4 of us ate around the table, left Jack upstairs to single hand for a bit - he looked so happy. (and then happy again when he got to join in with dinner)
The ocean seemed big today - clouds WAY off in the distance, and a glossy sea. The swells were huge, but the gap between was also very large - seemed like long rolling hills as far as the eye could see. We have passed a few tankers/freighters, but have not seen our competitors since mid last night.
-Bequia Crew, blasting through the night
-----
At 7/14/2012 12:11 AM (utc) our position was 38°06.27'N 122°16.02'W
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Day 1: Animals under glass
=All,
The crew got a great start with Ashley and Carly cheering us on from the deck of the St. Francis. Also, Stephen and Andy sailed down to Richmond on Tutto Bene Monday and out to the start line with us on Tuesday. It was nice to see her and have good friends and family there as we started this adventure. We moved quickly out of the bay escorted for a while by a dolphin. It is quite rare to see a dolphin in the bay - surely a good sign overall.
Sunset was classic, no clouds perfect gradation from pink to the deepest violet. Very nice view.
Soon after the gate, wind speed dropped. At the time I'm writing this (0400) we have cleared the Farallon Islands. We were becalmed for a short while, the rest has been just moving along at 0.5 - 3 kts. Which maybe the world knows just as well as we do with the new tracking devices. Yes, that track looks pretty funny but you will go to great extremes to find wind during a race. Luckily the wave state has been 0 or 1 (gentle rollers) so, we aren't slapping around too much. We actually set the 0.5oz bedsheet, have jibed twice, and are starting to get some momentum (we hope). As the night went on it got more frustrating as we would get a puff off our left shoulder and then on the right side of your face and then nothing....then it would start over with a different pattern. When you don't know where the competition is, you try everything you can think of to find something to push the boat.
We'll see where we are in the morning, 2-3 boats got a big jump, others took very different routes, we will have to work hard to catch them anytime soon. Again, though, you have better situational awareness than we do! (the link to the right of this blog takes you to the "yellow brick" plugin and you can select us, or our whole fleet,updates every 15 min(ish)) We only get position reports once a day on the other boats. The rest of the time we are guessing.
'The ocean is a desert with it's life underground and the perfect disguise above' : we have seen and heard large numbers of dolphins, whales, whale spouts, sea lions and birds almost continuously.
The bird calls are near and far add sound, sometimes like babies or cats. The eating must be good out here for them! One whale was within 50 yards of the boat - they are really huge. Other dolphins and sea lions have swum up behind us and we can hear them breath,close aboard, but can't see them. Erie, and cool!
We are all settling into the watch scheme and doing well. Dinner for us was grilled chicken. Sleeping has been easy, aided by various meds preventing mal-de-mare. Spirits are high despite the VERY slow start. Perhaps we can make it out to the high tomorrow - a full weather analysis will be downloaded shortly. Today is Mark's birthday! One more birthday in the ocean on Bequia.
This morning at 0800 we found out there was a hitchhiking chunk of kelp snagged on the rudder. Dennis thought of looking using a camera held underwater behind the boat.
Shawna handled those undersea duties. BTW, the water is 50+ degrees cold. Then Mark took off his shirt and grabbed the boathook. He poked around getting some of it off. Finally, Travis put on the goggles and stuck his head under so he could see it directly. Off it came. Film at 11 ..... days from now. Multiple avenues were explored before a diving mask was procured and we leaned over the transom backward and fished the kelp off with a boat hook. This was a great thing since the only other option was a very chilly morning saltwater swim!
The roll call reveals that our night of frustrations were shared by the whole fleet. Our "day run" of 38 miles seems short compared to our 150-200 mile runs later in the race. On the other hand, in a race, everything is relative. We are excited when the wind speed hits 5kts true. the whoops and hollers that just happened at 1100 hours were the first 5kts wind we've had in a long time.
From the crew, we wanted to say "thank you" to all those who have helped make this happen. It has been a bequitiful day.
-----
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The crew got a great start with Ashley and Carly cheering us on from the deck of the St. Francis. Also, Stephen and Andy sailed down to Richmond on Tutto Bene Monday and out to the start line with us on Tuesday. It was nice to see her and have good friends and family there as we started this adventure. We moved quickly out of the bay escorted for a while by a dolphin. It is quite rare to see a dolphin in the bay - surely a good sign overall.
Sunset was classic, no clouds perfect gradation from pink to the deepest violet. Very nice view.
Soon after the gate, wind speed dropped. At the time I'm writing this (0400) we have cleared the Farallon Islands. We were becalmed for a short while, the rest has been just moving along at 0.5 - 3 kts. Which maybe the world knows just as well as we do with the new tracking devices. Yes, that track looks pretty funny but you will go to great extremes to find wind during a race. Luckily the wave state has been 0 or 1 (gentle rollers) so, we aren't slapping around too much. We actually set the 0.5oz bedsheet, have jibed twice, and are starting to get some momentum (we hope). As the night went on it got more frustrating as we would get a puff off our left shoulder and then on the right side of your face and then nothing....then it would start over with a different pattern. When you don't know where the competition is, you try everything you can think of to find something to push the boat.
We'll see where we are in the morning, 2-3 boats got a big jump, others took very different routes, we will have to work hard to catch them anytime soon. Again, though, you have better situational awareness than we do! (the link to the right of this blog takes you to the "yellow brick" plugin and you can select us, or our whole fleet,updates every 15 min(ish)) We only get position reports once a day on the other boats. The rest of the time we are guessing.
'The ocean is a desert with it's life underground and the perfect disguise above' : we have seen and heard large numbers of dolphins, whales, whale spouts, sea lions and birds almost continuously.
The bird calls are near and far add sound, sometimes like babies or cats. The eating must be good out here for them! One whale was within 50 yards of the boat - they are really huge. Other dolphins and sea lions have swum up behind us and we can hear them breath,close aboard, but can't see them. Erie, and cool!
We are all settling into the watch scheme and doing well. Dinner for us was grilled chicken. Sleeping has been easy, aided by various meds preventing mal-de-mare. Spirits are high despite the VERY slow start. Perhaps we can make it out to the high tomorrow - a full weather analysis will be downloaded shortly. Today is Mark's birthday! One more birthday in the ocean on Bequia.
This morning at 0800 we found out there was a hitchhiking chunk of kelp snagged on the rudder. Dennis thought of looking using a camera held underwater behind the boat.
Shawna handled those undersea duties. BTW, the water is 50+ degrees cold. Then Mark took off his shirt and grabbed the boathook. He poked around getting some of it off. Finally, Travis put on the goggles and stuck his head under so he could see it directly. Off it came. Film at 11 ..... days from now. Multiple avenues were explored before a diving mask was procured and we leaned over the transom backward and fished the kelp off with a boat hook. This was a great thing since the only other option was a very chilly morning saltwater swim!
The roll call reveals that our night of frustrations were shared by the whole fleet. Our "day run" of 38 miles seems short compared to our 150-200 mile runs later in the race. On the other hand, in a race, everything is relative. We are excited when the wind speed hits 5kts true. the whoops and hollers that just happened at 1100 hours were the first 5kts wind we've had in a long time.
From the crew, we wanted to say "thank you" to all those who have helped make this happen. It has been a bequitiful day.
-----
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Monday, July 28, 2008
(Travis) Pau!
Sunday, July 27, 2008
(Travis) Tiki Blue Finished -> Timer Is Running...
Tiki Blue finished (Pau) at 15:46:58 HST (18:46:58 PDT).
If Bequia's finish time is 20:22:58 HST (23:22:58 PDT) then they will secure thrid place.
Their predicted ETA at 25 miles was 20:00 HST (23:00 PDT) ...
The wind as the night progresses generally gets lighter...
Go Go Go!
-T
P.S. I really hope i got these calculations correct...
If Bequia's finish time is 20:22:58 HST (23:22:58 PDT) then they will secure thrid place.
Their predicted ETA at 25 miles was 20:00 HST (23:00 PDT) ...
The wind as the night progresses generally gets lighter...
Go Go Go!
-T
P.S. I really hope i got these calculations correct...
the final run!! Sunday 7/27
DATELINE JULY 27, 1600 PST, PACIFIC OCEAN NEAR HAWAII,
hi folks
SHIVVER ME TIMBERS!! this is going to be close. at this morning's check in, to our delight and amazement, we were 15 minutes AHEAD of tiki blue. heaven only knows what the night had held for them. for us, the night was too rowdy for words. we smoked through several squalls with the last one about 0300 clocking in at 30 knots. but we handled it well on course and with lots of nail biting but no real problems. we went like crazy clocking 11-12s+ and one 15.8 by jack a new but short lived record.
there was only one squall to go that night and it looked kind of puny compared to the looming black clouds in the one before. the rain came and it started to blow. the wind was up to 30 right away and we were screaming through it. jack was driving but it was more and more obvious that the storm was building and would not hold at 30. the inevitable round up that could not come under control lead to wild variations in course amid huge seas and wind that reached 40 easily. the kite, old yeller, was flogging mercilessly and the crew was more and more apprehensive. finally, in an effort to fill the spinnaker by heading down, a wave added a bump in the wrong direction and we jibed. Bequia was pinned with the kite and the main holding her down at a crazy angle. the preventer was so loaded up it could not be released. eventually a wave released us and the boat came up on its feet.
a fresh driver, Jeff, took over. it seemed things were getting under control. jeff said something like "trusty old yeller" just as the kite filled... and then quit drawing at all. death of a legend. photos of the pieces to follow...
now it was time to take down the remnants. Dennis and jack headed forward while mike and tom managed lines in the cockpit and Jeff drove. only the main was up as the boat careened up and down barely under control. boat speed went from 14s to 15s to 16.8! ! for those who have no way to compare, that is incredibly fast. the noise was deafening. crew shouted to each other as loudly as possible as Stephen took the shredded kite into the forward hatch add the pole was recovered.
after a few minutes efforts began to furl out the jib which was let out about 8 feet at first then as time went by let out to the second reef point. meanwhile down below, the boat was in a shambles with everything on top of everything else. Dennis was muttering and Stephen was swearing but some semblance of order finally took over. as the sun came up, the second chute was launched.
with the news that we were ahead of tiki blue, the crew was ecstatic. we redoubled our efforts to drive perfectly on the best downwind angles with no errors in line or motion. mid afternoon we figured we were going well but fell into another wind hole, uncharted on the grib files and unpredictable in any other way. the crew struggled with hundreds of variations of steering angle, main and spinnaker trim. but at least an hour of maximum boat speed was lost.
we had no idea how we were doing vis a vis our competitor. did they suffer the same lack of wind? at 3:17 Tiki Blue made her 25 mile check in. we were 58 miles out, a 33 mile difference. by handicap they give us 4 hours and a few minutes. tom figured that our overall trip average was just above 7.25 knots. that computes to a dead heat if we only make our average and a win if we beat our average even by a minute.
we are directly upwind of the finish. all provided input based on hunch, experience, rumor and OUIJA predictions but tom gave us our real info. the wind veers near oahu so we will contrive to come in on port pole with that in mind. By tonight we'll know.
jack
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(Travis) Finishing Process...
Each boat must call the race committee when they are 100, 25 and 5 miles from finishing.
They have to post "ETA" in each case... some boats spend a lot of time on guessing others do not... so ETA is a pretty bad guess until you're in the 25 ->5 mile range...
I've posted a new link with the checkin data at right. Remember that these times are uncorrected for rating.
We anxiously await the postings for today!
but...
Tiki Blue Gave their 100 mile check in at 01:58 this morning
Bequia Gave their 100 mile check in at 06:45 this morning
The rating difference is between is 4:36. Remembering that the standings are more accurate and that the finishing weather is EXTREMELY local (no map we have will help) and time of day dependent (not favoring our guys)... it would suggest that they are a mear 11min. behind Tiki Blue!
One more thing.... The number of racers that have lost significant time near the finish because of navigation issues and wind management issues is HUGE. The finish is hard to find, intimidating, and tricky... It really is "Down to the wire"...
(That should build some drama! )
-T
They have to post "ETA" in each case... some boats spend a lot of time on guessing others do not... so ETA is a pretty bad guess until you're in the 25 ->5 mile range...
I've posted a new link with the checkin data at right. Remember that these times are uncorrected for rating.
We anxiously await the postings for today!
but...
Tiki Blue Gave their 100 mile check in at 01:58 this morning
Bequia Gave their 100 mile check in at 06:45 this morning
The rating difference is between is 4:36. Remembering that the standings are more accurate and that the finishing weather is EXTREMELY local (no map we have will help) and time of day dependent (not favoring our guys)... it would suggest that they are a mear 11min. behind Tiki Blue!
One more thing.... The number of racers that have lost significant time near the finish because of navigation issues and wind management issues is HUGE. The finish is hard to find, intimidating, and tricky... It really is "Down to the wire"...
(That should build some drama! )
-T
Saturday, July 26, 2008
End game: Saturday 7/26
Hello All...
End game.
Bequia is as light as we can make her and is flying along to our secret way point. Crew spirits high and extremely focussed. Sailing on the edge now with caution to the winds, no pun intended. We all enjoyed a huge Spanish frittata for breakfast to hold us through the day.
Our battle with Tiki Blue continues unabated. We were behind then pulled ahead. at one point we were two hours ahead then fell into a wind hole that left us giving up five hours on corrected time in one day. we aced them the next day and made up a full hour and a half. they knew we were coming for sure. with both of us going at it as hard as we could we made up another half hour by 0900 this morning.
Now they are slightly south of us and about one hour ahead. If we can see them, we will beat them on corrected time. We have favorable winds at 20+ knots all morning. it is a long race, as they say, and anything can still happen. Our big spinnaker, 'Old Yeller', continues to amaze. This is it's 3rd Pacific Cup and it is pulling hard. It has been up for 10 consecutive days!
Unfortunately, Tiki Blue should have the same winds as we do now. It is a game of constant tuning, trimming and hairline driving. There can be no mistakes.
Last night was our most difficult in terms of night time driving with squalls lashing us for several hours,dumping gallons of lovely fresh water all over Bequia and watch-standers. It was a dark and stormy night. Then, at the stroke of midnight, the northwestern sky lit up with a brilliant flash!. Armageddon? No, just the U.S. Navy with the annual Rim Pac Exercises. Oddly, not another flash nor sound was heard the rest of the night. Thankfully, this is not a live fire exercise. Pac Cup communication boat said to be aware of the odd Chilean destroyer or Japanese frigate that may sail by.
Kepano is planning the final meals to be made and consumed on the fly. The last night at sea is tonight with a guesstimated time of arrival Sunday at 3 pm-ish Hawaiian time.
Crew dogs are all taking turns with salt water bathing on the fantail. Quite fun actually. You strap on a safety harness, clip on to the boat, crab the canvas bucket and douse away! The water temperature is a delightful 74.6 F.
We can almost smell Oahu now!
Cheers and from all of us, thank you for your support and understanding!
Bequia
28757
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Friday, July 25, 2008
[PacCup 08!] Bequia blog Friday AM
DATELINE EASTERN PACIFIC, 08/7/26, 0930 PST
Good morning Beautifuls...
Well, we made great gains yesterday, over 170 miles and 98% of that was "good" or in the best direction towards Hawaii. We should be rubbing shoulders with the US Navy shortly. They are having a major exercise just Northeast of Oahu, an area that all of us Pac Cuppers will be sailing through at some point. We will probably see a destroyer or two. The Navy has been alerted to the fact that 70 or so sailboats will be slipping through the fleet. We will be sure to make nice to them as they have some very big guns.
Moon, stars, squalls, and nighttime driving are beyond description.
Everyone is getting a little tired and anxious to finish. discussion topics include family, animals, employment, wives, girlfriends, childhood, the meaning of life, the scurvy competition, and just about every other thing you can imagine. it would be appropriate to assume that everyone on board knows all your deepest secrets...
The boat took a very unanticipated roll a few days ago and Stevie, standing below in the salon, putting on his rain coat, took a tumble. He (Bam-Bam) banged his side on Dennis' chart table pretty hard ("you didn't scratch the table did you?"-Dennis). Pretty sore for a day or so. "Doc" Caplan fixed me up with ibupro-fun, and did his first aide thing on me. As an ultimate precaution he ran it by an MD friend who confirmed nothing to worry about. It was nothing near the severity, bruise-wise, as the arm thing back in March. As a matter of fact, there is no bruise visible at all! And he stayed on the boat. He feels great now, especially since we made up 3 1/2 hours on our closest rivals. Tiki Blue look out!! you only have 1h 29m ahead.
we all miss our respective SOs terribly. Tom says, as of this second, that we will get in around midnight (ugh) Sunday. But we will update you, especially as we get in cell phone range. Becky and Deanna are cautioned about having too much fun on the flight out.
Quartermistress (?)Becky needs a discussion about men on vacation.... we ran out of all alcohol on board days ago, we only have one cigar left and all the dancing girls jumped ship! we do have lots of bagels. how will we survive? the chef is designing a still....
Don't forget that Sail Mail is still giving us a hard time with the amount of time and bandwidth they will allow us, so don't be frustrated at the lack of e-mails. If we had our way, you would each get 10 a day!!
Very short emails only. we have been cut off by the SAilmail sheriff three times now!
Love and aloha,
Kepano, et. al.
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--
Posted By Bequia PacCup 08 to PacCup 08! at 7/25/2008 11:06:00 AM
(Travis) - Analysis?...
A few points - since we haven't heard from the boys today...
1) Bequia has been on starboard heading about 260 for a few days and jibed yesterday eve onto port and is now heading about 230ish - this indicates that they are either A) on what they think is a layline for HI (unlikely) B) are consolidating the leverage of the last few days (this is likely because the circulation from the storm behind them would make the north approach to HI bad) I hypothesize that the software is telling them to consolidate the leverage they had and to get back to the bottom of the course... I expect them to jibe one more time and enter HI on starboard.... we wouldn't expect to see that jibe until they were almost due East of Oahu, depending on how much lift they get on port and how much pressure (wind) they forecast on the bottom side of the course.
2) The Tropical Storm that has been below them all race is now, only a strong "east pacific wave" and forecast to weaken more -> they should beat it to HI, making the south side of the course slightly favored very near the finish. (how much favored is the tricky part)
3) There is now officially, Hurricane Genevieve much behind the fleet. currently due south of San Diego(ish)... Max winds at 65Kts gusting 80kts. Moving 285 at 10kts. This speed and direction make it no threat -> so no worriers out there... There has been a Hurricane down there somewhere almost every year...
Now the good news:
Between yesterday and Today, they cut the lead of the third place boat in half. down from 3 hours to 1.5 hours (that is a big change) They did it because there heading is better, Tiki Blue sailed slightly more miles, but in a less beneficial direction. in fact the Boats to the north (Sweet Okole and Bequia) gained yesterday consistently on the boats to the south.
They are now expected to finish around 2am Mondy morning. at 3 days out, we would expect that number to move forward a bit... Say midnight ish on Sunday, not a bad run!
- Hopefully they can squeeze an update into there limited bandwidth (in the mean time, I'm sure they are downloading more weather info then anything else! )
Lubbered,
-Travis
1) Bequia has been on starboard heading about 260 for a few days and jibed yesterday eve onto port and is now heading about 230ish - this indicates that they are either A) on what they think is a layline for HI (unlikely) B) are consolidating the leverage of the last few days (this is likely because the circulation from the storm behind them would make the north approach to HI bad) I hypothesize that the software is telling them to consolidate the leverage they had and to get back to the bottom of the course... I expect them to jibe one more time and enter HI on starboard.... we wouldn't expect to see that jibe until they were almost due East of Oahu, depending on how much lift they get on port and how much pressure (wind) they forecast on the bottom side of the course.
2) The Tropical Storm that has been below them all race is now, only a strong "east pacific wave" and forecast to weaken more -> they should beat it to HI, making the south side of the course slightly favored very near the finish. (how much favored is the tricky part)
3) There is now officially, Hurricane Genevieve much behind the fleet. currently due south of San Diego(ish)... Max winds at 65Kts gusting 80kts. Moving 285 at 10kts. This speed and direction make it no threat -> so no worriers out there... There has been a Hurricane down there somewhere almost every year...
Now the good news:
Between yesterday and Today, they cut the lead of the third place boat in half. down from 3 hours to 1.5 hours (that is a big change) They did it because there heading is better, Tiki Blue sailed slightly more miles, but in a less beneficial direction. in fact the Boats to the north (Sweet Okole and Bequia) gained yesterday consistently on the boats to the south.
They are now expected to finish around 2am Mondy morning. at 3 days out, we would expect that number to move forward a bit... Say midnight ish on Sunday, not a bad run!
- Hopefully they can squeeze an update into there limited bandwidth (in the mean time, I'm sure they are downloading more weather info then anything else! )
Lubbered,
-Travis
Bequia blog Friday AM
DATELINE EASTERN PACIFIC, 08/7/26, 0930 PST
Good morning Beautifuls...
Well, we made great gains yesterday, over 170 miles and 98% of that was "good" or in the best direction towards Hawaii. We should be rubbing shoulders with the US Navy shortly. They are having a major exercise just Northeast of Oahu, an area that all of us Pac Cuppers will be sailing through at some point. We will probably see a destroyer or two. The Navy has been alerted to the fact that 70 or so sailboats will be slipping through the fleet. We will be sure to make nice to them as they have some very big guns.
Moon, stars, squalls, and nighttime driving are beyond description.
Everyone is getting a little tired and anxious to finish. discussion topics include family, animals, employment, wives, girlfriends, childhood, the meaning of life, the scurvy competition, and just about every other thing you can imagine. it would be appropriate to assume that everyone on board knows all your deepest secrets...
The boat took a very unanticipated roll a few days ago and Stevie, standing below in the salon, putting on his rain coat, took a tumble. He (Bam-Bam) banged his side on Dennis' chart table pretty hard ("you didn't scratch the table did you?"-Dennis). Pretty sore for a day or so. "Doc" Caplan fixed me up with ibupro-fun, and did his first aide thing on me. As an ultimate precaution he ran it by an MD friend who confirmed nothing to worry about. It was nothing near the severity, bruise-wise, as the arm thing back in March. As a matter of fact, there is no bruise visible at all! And he stayed on the boat. He feels great now, especially since we made up 3 1/2 hours on our closest rivals. Tiki Blue look out!! you only have 1h 29m ahead.
we all miss our respective SOs terribly. Tom says, as of this second, that we will get in around midnight (ugh) Sunday. But we will update you, especially as we get in cell phone range. Becky and Deanna are cautioned about having too much fun on the flight out.
Quartermistress (?)Becky needs a discussion about men on vacation.... we ran out of all alcohol on board days ago, we only have one cigar left and all the dancing girls jumped ship! we do have lots of bagels. how will we survive? the chef is designing a still....
Don't forget that Sail Mail is still giving us a hard time with the amount of time and bandwidth they will allow us, so don't be frustrated at the lack of e-mails. If we had our way, you would each get 10 a day!!
Very short emails only. we have been cut off by the SAilmail sheriff three times now!
Love and aloha,
Kepano, et. al.
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Thursday, July 24, 2008
(Travis) BRIEF COMMENTS ONLY!
Per instructions from the Bequia crew - i will turn the feature of comments being sent to the boat back on, however there may be a delay in posting the comments to the boat in the new format, (which is to say i will be checking your comments for brevity! )
I used to sail... now i am the mean blogger guy...
-T
PS (comments are being sent to boat - these posts are not)
I used to sail... now i am the mean blogger guy...
-T
PS (comments are being sent to boat - these posts are not)
thursday 7/25 Bequia Blog
Hi folks,
first order of business:
first order of business:
WE got busted off Sail Mail altogether for over use so... expect fewer shorter notes from us directly and through the blog. ILY replaces the famous three words. we are back on but on limited volume.
Please make your responses to the web log brief. we love to hear but can't afford a long discussion or we won't be able to get weather or emergency traffic.
we saw a pod of whales 2d ago 100 yds ahead crossing. ltd visibility but neat.
paul Cayard himself on Hula girl raced past us 2d ago mid day 50yds (to windward) told us we were faster than he expected, that they took pics and would share w/us. very cool in the middle of the ocean!
lemon drops during happy hour made everyone "feeling happy" except the driver who kept full concentration, i assure you.
our two pole jibes go better and better. Jeff did the first w/o me around. most of the crew is now proficient.
we thought we had a good day yesterday but tiki blue must not have had to jibe like we did. we were wound up to 290+ and down to 180- but were going like crazy all day and night. i hate to say it but south paid for them even though we were straight to the barn. they are 60 miles south of us now. we have had to choose between conventional wisdom [south] and Expedition [west] the whole trip. the boats that have stayed up haven't done too well but we haven't either since we made solid choices but ended up between the two options. the scenario plays a little like last race but tiki blue took tutto bene's course.
after discussion, this is our plan: we are five hours behind Tiki Blue and cannot catch them on their line. our nearest competition behind us is a full day back. expedition says go west roughly for a 1/3, then above rhumb line for 1/3, then port pole reach into the finish. if we acn make up time it will be on that last day. we will run an optimization every day and follow it religiously.
it will take work and some luck to get our place back but this crew is really top drawer. i do not anticipate problems here. its a long race and a lot can happen yet.
we all love you all. see you soon.
jack
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