THE ADVENTURE ENDS

Turicum and her delivery crew made it safely back into her home port at the Vancouver Rowing Club.

The return trip was not without it's challenges as one of the crew developed a medical condition and had to be evacuated. Turicum rendezvoused with the the Greek  container ship a thousand miles north of Vancouver. More can be found here:

http://www.virtual-strategy.com/2012/08/10/greek-amver-container-ship-caves-canadian-sailor

We greeted the remaining crew and their skipper Jack Dale with some beer and champagne at the docks. A mini welcome party.

Since then the team and mainly Hale & June returned Turicum back into cruising mode and spent a lot of time cleaing everything up.

Next weekend Turicum will leave again for a cruise and learn with Hale on board.

The race crew is already discussing future adventures :)

Vic-Maui 2014 - we will be ready again!

Thanks for following us on Team Turicum during the last weeks and months.

Turicum out!

Arrived in Victoria

Turicum completed the last few miles into Victoria last night. The arrival time was Aug 16 @ 00:08 PDT. The plans are to clear customs in Victoria today, then to head over to Vancouver. The estimated time of arrival in Vancouver is between 15:00 and 16:00 PDT. Jack will be updating Gunnar with their progress.

Now for our little contest. The closest estimate for the arrival time in Victoria was Linda. She guessed Turicum would be in Victoria Aug 16 @ 01:00 PDT. She was 52 minutes off their actual arrival time. The runner up was Don who guessed an arrival time of Aug 15 @ 22:00. He was 2 hours and 8 minutes off the actual arrival time.

Update August 15

Just got a text message from Turicum. The text was simple, "Land Ho". This also means they have some amounts of cell coverage. From the tracker they are now 100nm from Victoria. Weather looks pretty quiet for the next few hours, so their progress might be a little slow, however they were still running at 6.1 knots. We will continue to keep track of them over the day. As they get closer and get better cell coverage we should start hearing a little more from them.

More updates as I receive them.

Update August 14

Turicum continues to make great progress towards home. They are now 193nm from Victoria. From the tracker they have been keeping some great speeds. I have not seen anything below 7 knots over the last day. The wind looks to hold out overnight so they should be into the straight of Juan de Fuca tomorrow. From there it will all depend on the local winds. The local weather report looks to have light winds tomorrow afternoon and increasing again tomorrow evening.

Several people have sent me their guesses for arrival times. I will keep track of these and ensure I let you know who guessed the closest.

Update August 12, 2012

Have not heard from Turicum over the weekend, however if you have been following the tracker they are making steady progress. They are currently 532 nm from home. They have managed to keep some steady speeds over the weekend. The weather continues to look favorable for the rest of their journey.

Now for my little contest. I have 3 estimates for Turicum's arrival in Victoria:
Terry Reid - Aug 15 @ 17:00 PDT
Gunnar - Aug 15 @ 18:00 PDT
Darren - Aug 15 @ 20:00 PDT

Some of you may be feeling shy about guessing, but let's have some fun. You have just as much information as the rest (Perhaps more if you have received a phone call). Make your best guess for their arrival time in Victoria and send it to me. I will announce who is closest when we know their final arrival time.

Anyone watching the blog that does not have my email address. Please leave a comment and I will watch for these.

Just got an update directly from the boat.

Turicum reports fine weather with 13 knots of wind across the beam. They have been maintaining a steady 7 knots of boat speed. They are currently aimed straight at the entrance of Juan de Fuca with 500 nm to Victoria. All crew is reporting that they are happy, but looking forward to getting home to see family and friends.

August 10 Update

Had a quick chat via sat-phone last night. Here is the latest updated from Turicum.

All is well onboard Turicum and they are having a great sail. They were in 25 knots of wind averaging over 7.5 knots. They were sailing with a double reefed main and a jib. Their max speed so far was just over 13 knots. Jack said he was taking it easy on the boat; much slower than the max speed of 18 knots on the way down to Maui. As of 14:00 UTC today, they are 877 nm from home.

The weather looks to be in their favor for the rest of the trip. There might be a day or two where they slow down. Just depends on how close to the HIGH they cut. However once past that, they should have great winds to bring them home. It is still a little early to guess as their time of arrival. However if anyone wants to venture guesses it would be fun to see how close you can come. Sorry no prizes other than the bragging rights. Feel free to send me your best estimate. I will track and let you know who is the closest.

Past the 1/2 way point

The following update was received from Turicum via Red Sheilla.

Andy Dawes was evacuated for non life threatening issues on August 7.  Andy is now aboard an LA bound freighter.  He plans to fly home from LA.  We wish Andy a speedy and safe trip home.  The rest of the crew is doing is well and has continued their passage.

They are now past the 1/2 way point.  Only 988 miles to go.  Over the next several days they look to have great winds that will carry them towards home.  Still no luck with the sat-phone, so we are still communicating via a relay with Red Sheilla.

Just over 1/3 of the way home

Turicum is now 840nm out of Maui and 1457nm to the entrance of Juan de Fuca.  They are following Red Sheilla at a distance of 6nm.  All communications have been relayed through Red Sheilla as they have not been able to get the sat-phone working.  All crew is doing well and enjoying the trip.

Turicum on the way home

Turicum left Maui on August 29 @ 18:00 HST.  Over the first several days they have been making steady progress towards home.  Sailing is great and the crew is enjoying themselves.  They are currently 1642 nm from home.  The forecast is showing a light wind patch upcoming over the next week; this will quite possibly slow their progress while they negotiate this area.  If you would like to follow their progress you can follow them at http://yb.tl/vicmaui2012return.

We have not received any comments directly from the boat as they have had trouble with their sat-phone.  We have had a few relay emails from other boats that are in the area and in radio contact.  We will post further updates as we receive them.

TURICUM - BEHIND THE SCENES part 2

And some more pictures from our second on board camera.

 Marie, Mort, Ede & Gunnar in Victoria

 Margaridaville - Don & Maggie's boat with friends and family sending us off.

Hale is on the helm.

 Maggie

Family Affair - we had here in sight for two days & nights.  

Gunnar & Chris.

Mort - full concentration needed at night.

Ninja Sailor Terry. 

 Dave - on top of the world, feeding a halyard down the mast.

 "A monkey could not have done it better, Dave!!"

 "John, the goody bags are for the people on watch!"

Terry: "Look, we even have pillows!"

Mort & Marie provisioned Turicum and Mort took pride in serving every meal!

Thank you both for the culinary journey. 

Many thanks also to Ede, Don & family for the welcome additons. Every meal was a treat.

Night sailing - it's hard to see the luff of the spinnker. We sailed by instruments a lot.

Sunsets were some of the most amazing moments aboard. 

John and Thunder Chicken.

Red watch: Do you prefer the Spinlock tan or the Mustang tan?

Land Ho!!

Team Turiucum, this was an amazing journey of adventure, exitment, friendship and fun. Thank you!!

I wish you all a save journey home.

We wish the delivery crew (Maggie, Dave, Ed, Graham & Andy) with skipper Jack Dale a great sail. 

Team Turiucum out!

TURICUM - BEHIND THE SCENES

These are the pictures from our board camera - courtesy Team Turicum.

 Lois & John

Ede & Kinetic skipper David.

Maggie, Leonardo & Andrea 

 I want to go too!!

Dave getting ready. 

Mort - full concentration.

Chris on A-sail trim. 

John - rest between watches.

 Gunnar: "Eat your oranges or else you get scurvy."

Don on main trim.

Dave on top of the mast. Awesome!

Gunnar at the helm & Dave on trim.

Gunnar's favorite spot when he is not at the helm. 

Dave - having a good time!

 Dinner time (Don, Terry, John and Mort)

Sunset on the Pacific Ocean.

Chris - taking a rest on the windward rail.

 Dave on the foredeck.

Zelda, take us home!

 Terry - as happy as a man can be!

Chris, Gunnar, Dave and Mike (Black Watch) and Don from Red Watch.

John, a quiet moment on deck. 

 Don & John

 Gunnar comes on deck.

 Getting ready for a sail change.

 Gunnar: " Champagne Sailing!"

 Don - looking for the treasure under the rainbow.

 Happy B'day Terry from all of us!

 Dave, back on the transom imporving the jury rig on the backstay.

A happy skipper with a happy crew!

 Don, Dave, Terry, Gunnar, Mort, Mike & John - we are nearly there!!

 Salmon for lunch!

 Sheppard's pie for dinner!

Chris & Mike, driving into the night.

 Mort and Dave

 Another beautiful day on the ocean.

 Getting ready for another squall and a shower!

The dolphins greated Turicum when we she was becalmed just a mile before the finish line.

 Yeah, we made it!

Gunnar and Mike with Chuck, our sponsor for the welcoming party.

 Lenny is still trying to get used to have dad around again.

Leanne, Gunnar, John & Marie.

 Gunnar & David: Team Turicum congratulates Kinetic for their 1st in class!

 The welcoming team.

The dock party in full swing.

Bring on 2014!