CHAMPAGNE SAILING

Day 4 – July 10th

We are just getting off the morning watch. We had a fantastic run: 55 miles
in 6 hours. We are pleased with our position and progress. The other watch
still holds the current record of 57 miles, but we are working hard on
beating this. It is a friendly competition we run between the watches.
Within each team, we take half hour to one hour turns on the helm and run a
little competition as well. This keeps us on our toes and is fun.

The food is delicious. Yesterday we had meat pie with mixed veggies and
today we will have home-made lasagne. Each night we get a little goodie bag
filled with chocolate bars, Twix, OhHenry, Mars, Sneaker etc. There is one
for each night, to have something to look for at midnight. The bags are so
generously big, that they provide little sugar boost throughout the
following day. We are on a “chocolate trip”.

No wildlife today, but sailing was awesome. Our skipper coined it “Champagne
Sailing” – I could not agree more. The last hour on the helm was
exhilarating. With 20+ knots of wind from our quarter, Turicum is doing an
average of 9 to 10 knots with speeds up to 13+ knots. I get off the wheel,
soaking wet from a good work out, but with a big smile on my face.

Time for another chocolate bar and some sleep before the next roll call in a
few hours.

Only two hours into our resting period it’s all hands on deck. The wind
picked up to close to 30 knots and we can’t hold our course anymore using
the spinnaker. Down comes Green Meanie and up goes the Genoa. Turicum is
back on course with only minor loss in speed. We chopped off the ends of our
spinnaker halyards as they were showing chafe damage from two days of
working hard.

On we sail, less than 2,000 miles to go.

P.S: If you have some questions for the crew, post them on our blog and we
will do our best to answer them!

Aloha!

TRANQUIL AND MAGICAL

Day 3 – July 9th
We are still moving well and over the past two days “Family Affair” has been
in our sights and at one point within a good golf shot from us. But they are
nowhere to be seen now as they took a gybe heading to the coast this morning
and we logged over 200 NM yesterday thanks to some hard work by everyone!!
We have a great team.

All is well, no one sick, eating and sleeping lots. Already we are enjoying
the tranquility of offshore sailing. It is quite magical. Yesterday there
were dolphins playing in our bow wave and today we see a shark. We just got
our weather fax and happy with our position. Onward we go.
It is now 10 pm and our watch gets on deck again. It is pitch black outside,
not to cold and the wind about the same. After having lost sight of “Family
Affair” we now can see the light of “Red Heather” just above the horizon to
our east. The other watch is resting now after having carried us on our
course southwest towards Hawaii.

Checking our optimal course again, then back on deck. Just as I am writing
this the boat heels over more than usual. We are trying to sail a fairly hot
angle to stay on our intended course. It appears our wind increased a bit
and we are sailing just about on the limit for this sail in terms of wind
angle. Better check in on deck.

Aloha.

IN FULL RACE MODE

Day 2 – July 8th
We are now out of the Juan de Fuca Strait, into the Pacific Ocean. No more
land in sight – for some of us this is a first. The wind is now blowing from
the southwest, around 10 - 15 knots and it is time to set our first
spinnaker. Zelda, an A- sail, perfect for these conditions goes up and
carries us through much of the day.
We see the occasional Albatross, the swell picks up, allowing us to
occasionally surf down a big wave, yeehaa. The wind veers more and more to
the west and picks up to 20+ knots. This is too hard on Zelda. Out comes
Green Meanie, our general purpose symmetrical spinnaker. A successful hoist
and now we are in fully Vic-Maui mode – racing down the Pacific at 10+ knots
working hard to keep the competitors behind us at a distance and catching up
to the ones in front of us.
It’s quite amazing, blue water as far as the eye can see, a steady breeze
from the West, the sails are full and the waves gently giving us a nice push
every now and then accelerating Turicum to 12+ knots.
It is now time for the roll call, a daily routine where all boats call in
their position and weather.

Off for now – more to come tomorrow.

Aloha.

RACING, AT LAST

Day 1 – July 7th
Finally, 10 am in the morning the start gun marks the beginning of the long
awaited race to Hawaii.. We woke up to a beautiful & sunny day and everybody had a smile on their
face. A last breakfast ashore, a final mug of coffee, hugs & kisses for
family and friends and we are off the dock. Margaridaville, our spectator boat with family and friends follows Turicum for a while after the start. Light winds prevailed initially. Once the wind
picked up we started to gain good speed and waved goodbye.
We are racing, finally. The wind gets stronger and it’s time for our first
sail change. That went smoothly and for the rest of the day we zig-zag along
the American shoreline towards the end of Juan the Fuca Strait.
The spirits are high and everyone is on deck enjoying a wonderful day of
sailing. We now switch our boat clock to Hawaiian time and settle into
watch rhythm where four crew manage the boat while four rest (and eat and
clean): 6 hour watches during the day and 4 hour watches at night.

Finally - the day of departure arrived. We had two spectacular days in Victoria for final preparations.

The boat & crew is now ready for the big event.

The crew, their families and friends were here in Victoria, working relentlessly in getting everything ready. Produce needed to be bought, fresh bread was brought aboard, sails check and re-packed, computers & electronics underwent a final check and the list goes on.

Spinnaker packing in front of the Empress Hotel

Final touches.

The dock party yesterday was a blast - thank you to the race committee for putting on a great event and for the endless stream of Mai Tais :)

Final Scrub

Hawaii - here I come.

See you in Maui.

Aloha!!

Last Practice Weekend.

Last weekend was our last practice. After loading more than 15 sails on the boat the crew was ready for an over night practice sail.

As usual during our last sailing adventures, it started out with light winds. The plan was to hoist all the different sails we have not yet used and practice some more spinnaker sailing.

Just as everybody settled in and we were about to enjoy a quite sunset the wind picked up and steadily increased to above 20 knots. No better time to test our #3 jib and look at different sheeting angles.

Working with our stay sail.

Reefing the main sail.

We sailed all night long and came back to pick up one more crew early morning. After some well deserved coffee, it was off the dock again and we continued with spinnkares and crew overboard training.

A quite sunday morning sail.

All went well and we enjoyed an exiting weekend of sailing.

What a team: Navigator Mort & Skipper Gunnar.

Next stop: Victoria for the start on July 7th.

Aloha!!

Lasqueti Race

Last weekend Team Turicum practiced during the Lasqueti Race. Here are some notes from the weekend: 

"Back from a fantastic Race Around Lasqueti hosted by Schooner Cove Yacht Club. The event is outstanding -- a fantastic "bang for your buck" Free BBQs, pancake breakfasts and even when the wind died and we weren't able to finish until 9:00 pm, the Fairwinds Golf Club kept their staff on to feed us at 10:00 -- 2 hours after closing.

The racing was great the currents were diabolical and it was a blast with 4 boat finishing within 5 min.

Well done Schooner Cove -- see you next year."

Hale