CHASING THE WAVES WITH GREEN MEANIE

Day 7 – July 13

After a wonderful day of sailing in the sunshine yesterday the wind started
to get soft. The speed of Turicum travelling through the water dropped and
we were losing some miles to Kinetic and Red Heather, our closest
competitors. We got some more weather information and it looked like it
would be soft for a while.

In anticipation of the wind veering we hoisted Green Meanie, our workhorse
spinnaker at watch change just after 6 pm yesterday night. The first hour on
the wheel was painful with boat speeds as low as 4.5 knots. It was driving
with fingertips to keep the boat at least exactly on course. No stars
yesterday. It was pitch black and no visual references. We could not even
see the bow of the boat. It’s “flying” by instruments. A wobbling compass
and a wind indicator that nervously pitches from one side to another as
Turicum rolls in the light swell makes this no easy task.

All of a sudden we feel some rain drops, the wind picks up and Green Meanie
started to pull Turicum ahead. As the boat speed picked up, a smile appeared
on Gunnar’s face. The crew hustled down below to get the rain gear. It’s our
first squall, not dramatic, but enough to wake up Turicum from her lethargic
pace and once again chased the waves towards Hawaii.

Later the wind veered even more and we adjusted the sails accordingly. As
soon as Turicum found her rhythm, Gunnar who then went below deck to check wind
forecast and course, stuck his head up with a new course and we adjusted
sails accordingly.
6 am, Red Watch comes and deck and it’s time for us to catch some sleep.

The morale onboard is awesome as Mort continues to quote Monty Python lines
and we engage in huge belly laughs. John suspects these movies had a big
influence on Mort’s childhood. Watches often become philosophical as 4 grown
men huddle together in the cockpit on each watch and at times struggling for
a topic of conversation. John, educated us in the history of mankind and how
we evolved to gain our present day intelligence???

The temperature onboard is quite warm. We sleep with just shorts on and no
bed covers. Catching naps on deck is the best way to keep from the heat below
decks. Keep in mind all food is boiled on the stove top or a lasagne takes
1.5 hours in the oven. Also we run the engine twice a day for one hour to
charge batteries and to make fresh water. Don earned a rather nasty scrape
on his shin but just some lost flesh in the episode. Nothing to worry about and
all in all just the normal cuts and bruises occasionally suffered from a
typical day of sailing.

Other things that occupy our time include John sorting out the candy in the
treat bag and determining which candy we don’t like and which ones we will
fight for. Terry dropped his finger nail clipper in the head (toilet) and
had to go fishing with fingers and pliers. That was not fun and involved
much bleaching afterward.

Time for meat balls and spaghetti now before Red Watch goes on deck to
report for duty and Black Watch gets a few hours of sleep before the grave
yard shift.

Aloha!

IN HOT PURSUIT

Day 6 – July 12th
We got up on deck at 10 pm for the graveyard shift. Coming on deck a star
lite sky left us breathless. The Big Dipper and Polaris to our starboard and
the tiniest of crescent moon was glowing orange just above the horizon on
our stern.

To stay on course I put a star between mast and the starboard shrouds and
kept it there. The slightest deviation from our optimal course is instantly
visible – no instruments needed. The winds diminished a little bit but
Zelda, our light A-sail is pulling Turicum along steadily at an average of 8
knots.
It’s a wonderful night and Turicum enjoys dancing with the stars, getting a
little nudge every now and then from one of the waves pushing her to pick up
the rhythm a bit.

2 am, time for us to get some rest before a new day will start at 6 am.

It is now 8 am and we are cruising along our course. The sun is up, the
foullies come off and sunscreen gets lathered on. Two of the on watch crew
get the “tough” job of hiking to windward, their face in the sun. It is hard
to see if they pay close attention to sail trim or just drift off into
dreamland.

I have not introduced the team yet. On black watch we have Gunnar, skipper
and fearless leader, Dave, Mike & Christof. On Red watch there is John,
watch captain, Mort, Don and Terry. While Red watch is made up of Vic-Maui
veterans, Black watch is the rookie team with only Gunnar having done
Vic-Maui. Other than for a brief moment during watch changes and for all
hands on deck manoeuvres we hardly see the other team. Currently Red watch
holds the 6 hour record of 57 miles. Black watch is only two miles behind.
(Red watch would like to add we have the all out 2012 Vic Maui World Speed
Record on Turicum of 16.3 Knots by two stellar drivers Don and Mort). We
hope the tie can be broken.

We have now logged 950 miles since the start in Victoria and have just over
1,500 miles to go to Hawaii. Light winds are in the forecast until we will
hit the trade winds a few days from now. The crew is in good shape, really
well fed (we had chicken “a la parmesana” with pasta yesterday), thanks so
much to Mort, Marie and Ede for the grub and we are in hot pursuit of
Kinetic who is currently leading our Division.

We are feeling like it is time to get to business on this race and Terry
yells to Mike “DRIVE IT LIKE A RENTAL”.

Lunch time, back later.

GREAT TEAMWORK AND A SHOWER AT LAST

Day 5 – July 11th

2 am, get out of the bunk and on deck to start our watch. It’s a quiet
night, but we are still making good progress. Driving the boat at night is
magical. It is pitch black and only the glow of the instruments penetrates
the darkness. The occasional bio-luminescence sparkles in the wake coming
off Turicum’s stern. It seems like she knows her way and only small inputs
on the helm are necessary to encourage her to surf down the odd wave and to
not stick the bow too much into the wind.

The day awakes to a grey sky and a light drizzle. A lonely Albatross greats
us as we are carving through the waves.
It’s almost 6 am and time to get off watch and we are looking forward to our
first shower of the trip, when suddenly a bang made us look forward, only to
see our genoa falling into the ocean. Up on the foredeck we go, retrieve the
sail from the water and up she goes again on the second halyard. Only
minutes are lost, but we are now short one halyard.

The old halyard looks a bit tired and we decide to use a new halyard
instead. After talking through it carefully we send Dave, our mast climber
up the 55 ft stick to re-run our new halyard. We take down the foresail,
turn downwind to square the boat with the waves to minimize swing at the top
of the mast. Luckily the sun is out, the seas are not too heavy and the
entire operation takes less than 20 minutes from the time we lowered the
foresail and run it up again on our new halyard. A text book operation -
great team work everybody. Once again we are on course to Hawaii – more than
600 miles in our wake and just under 1,700 miles to go.

For those worried about Hurricane Emilia: We have been carefully watching it
and it will not be a factor on our course.

After a well-deserved pancake breakfast it is now time for the shower  and
a nap.

Aloha!

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.