PICTURES FROM THE RACE

And finally some pictures from the start and the race. I don't have the pictures from everybody yet, so this is a limited selection from Dave's camera.

 The race has started.

Turicum will be dancing with Family Affair for the next two days.

 Mort & Terry discuss the currents in the Juan the Fuca Strait.

Green Meanie - pulling Turicum towards the big open Pacific Ocean. 

Zelda - working hard hundreds of miles offshore. 

 Terry, John & Don of Red Watch.

A squall line approaches Turicum.

Don & John - Happy Sailors! 

Chris during the daily roll call.

Gunnar - everything under control.

Don, John, Terry & Mort - getting ready for another squall approaching just over Mort's shoulders. 

Red Watch - a thousand miles from anywhere!

Chris & Mike - Champagne Sailing! 

 Sunset in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Gunnar working on tactics in preparation for landfall.

 Approaching Hawaii.

Last day - Zelda is taking us home.

 Land Ho! Maui in sight.

Happy Faces - that is before the wind died. 

Only a few miles to go.

Turicum makes landfall in Lahaina, Maui, HI.

 Team Turicum

Top (from left): Mort, Don, Dave

Bottom: Mike, Chris. Gunnar, John, Terry

ALOHA - TURICUM COMES IN 2ND

Throughout the last night of racing we had good winds and we were making steady progress towards the finish line. The morning greets us with a spectacular sunrise.

Land Ho!! In the distant we could make out the mountains of Maui. The entire crew was on deck - simply fascinated by the sight of land. After more than 2,300 miles off-shore, we see land for the first time. 

Turicum was at her best with Zelda tightly trimmed and fully powered up. We could almost taste the Mai Tais waiting for us at the dock. Cheers all around.

Hawea Point, our last turing mark, was in sight. Just three miles to go to the finish - and then there was no wind. The sea turned glassy like a mirror. There was no wind, anywhere. Turicum came to a grinding halt. Boat speed: Zero.

It was not just a hole, that we sailed into. There was no wind anywhere between us and the finish line. Up went the wind seeker. A little puff - Turicum was moving again. Up goes Zelda. The wind died again and once more we changed sails. 

More than once we were moving away from the finish line at 1 knot, this was pure agony. Minute, after minute ran away from us and everybody knew that time was running out quickly and we would loose being 2nd in or class to Red Heather. 

Everybody worked as hard as they could. Terry and Mort on the wind seeker, trimming it like their life depended on it. Gunnar on the helm, barely touching the wheel as not to upset Turicum momentum whenever we would gain some speed. Dave & John never tired of adjusting the main sail to follow the wind seeker. Don & Mike helping out the others where needed while I was at the navigation station calling out Turicum’s speed over ground and direction she moved. It was tense - yet everybody stayed positive. Simply a great team. 

Each puff got us closer to the finish line - not without doing one complete donut. All of a sudden dozens of dolphins appeared all around Turicum. It was a beautiful spectacle and a welcoming diversion from the pain we were all in. We took it as a good sign.

Finally, a last little breeze and we were across the finish line. July 21 at 13:31, we finished an epic race. 2,308 miles as the crow flies from Victoria to Maui, just in over fourteen days we concluded the Vic-Maui race and got 2nd in class. Everybody cheered - the emotions were high. 

The race committee’s tender pulled up - and delivered cold beer. Cheers! 

Shortly thereafter - Gunnar docked Turicum at Lahaina Harbour where a big crowd of family, friend,s supporters, other sailors and local people welcomed us. What a moment, seeing so many people greeting the team.

Hugs and kisses for our loved ones - hand shakes from our competitors. Tears of joy, laughter and biiig smiles. It was overwhelming. 

Mai Tais for everybody followed by a champagne bath. More Mai Tais and exotic drinks. The dock party was in full swing.

A great race - we all won. Gunnar, thank you for making it all happen and taking us safely across the Pacific Ocean. There were trying moments, tough decisions had to be made but we will not forget the champagne sailing. 

Both team and boat were well prepared helping us to deal with whatever was thrown at us.

A big thank you to Hale & June for helping us to prepare the boat and lending us all their experience from previous races. I know, Hale was cheering for us when things went well, and sitting on needles when the going got tough. 

Molly, many thanks for being our on shore communications liaison and for posting the blog. 

Last but nor least: We simply had the best imaginable shore team: Loved ones, family and friends cheered for us making them part of this successful voyage. 

I will try to post some pictures as soon as I get them off the boat camera. 

In the meantime - it’s now time for some Island living:  Enjoy Mai Tais, walk on the beach and eat dinner from a plate rather than out of a bowl. 

Thank you for reading this blog, Christof.

MAUI LIGHTS GLOW ON THE HORIZON

Final Approach:

Friday July 21

The wind picked up late last night and we managed to average 8 kts. For some
time now we can see a glow over the horizon where Maui is. The sky is clear,
full of glittering stars. Venus and Jupiter shine in our wake.

Less than 50 miles to go. Our expected finish time is only a couple of hours
apart from Red Heather’s, our competition for 2nd place. Everybody is on
deck. Red Watch is on helm & trim, while Black watch takes their resting
period sitting/sleeping on the windward rail. Every mile, every tenth of a
knot counts now. So close, only hours to the finish, racing at its finest.

Terry & Mort are chanting some old sailor songs while Mike is encouraging
everybody with his “one liner” pep talks. Everybody is excited, team spirit
is high. The sails are full, the wind is blowing steadily and we are making
good progress. On we sail, pushing as hard as we can and Turicum dances
through the water, pulled by Zelda.

Wish us good luck and fair winds on our final miles to Maui.

Aloha!

POSEIDON IS NOT KIND TODAY

Day 14 – July 20th

Holy Heat Batman!!! It is 33 C at 10 am Maui time and much hotter below
decks. We are ghosting along at 3.7 knots and very flat seas. The
anticipation of landfall is delayed as it will be light winds till the
finish. Last night Terry got the fright of his life while sitting in the
cockpit talking to Mort. All of a sudden, a flying projectile came missiling
at Terry from just over Mort’s shoulder and narrowly missed Terry`s face. It
was the first onboarding of a flying fish. Christof, start melting butter in
the frying pan!! Actually we took a quick picture and set him back to the
sea. Surprisingly that is the only flying fish that came a board, as
typically many can be found on the decks each morning. We did however find a
small squid one morning.

We are now expected to make landfall within 24 hours. We vote on what to
have for our last hot meal on board and today everyone gets a shower (Our
second shower of the trip, not including rain showers). Salmon and dill
sauce will be on the menu for lunch, followed by shepherd’s pie for tonight.
Just two of many fine meals we have had on board. Food has never been an
issue on this trip as we have all ate well; no weight was lost on this trip.

The wind all but died this afternoon. To make things worse, the wind
direction changed and we are no longer able to carry a spinnaker. Up on the
genoa. The sails flap helplessly as the boat rolls in the light swell,
making a terrible snapping sound. The surface of the sea is almost glassy,
not enough wind to carry the genoa. Up goes the wind seeker Where are the
Trade Winds?? Poseidon is not kind to us today. Maybe he did not like our
earlier offering of Screech? Next time we will carry a fine scotch. Turicum
comes to a screeching halt with the finish line in site. Painful. We would
like to know what conditions our competitors are in. The roll call in 40
minutes will tell us.

If we were not racing, it would be very beautiful out here: Drop the sails,
have a swim, get the barbie going, play some tunes, string the hammock from
the pole and have a G&T. Life would be so wonderful.

Don is nursing the boat along at about one to two knots, Terry is trimming
the wind seeker. Never relent, we are still racing!
We see some ripples on the water in the distance. Are they just teasing us,
like the clouds we saw around us promising the elusive wind or is it for
real this time? John is getting ready to get Zelda hoisted.

Gunnar orders to get the water maker going again. I don`t dare to ask him if
this has to do with our expected finish time.

The wind increases to 5 knots, too much for the wind seeker, down it comes
and up goes Zelda our large A-sail. The boat speed increases to 2.5 knots.
However, this is about 50 degrees off our course to Maui. It`s more
important to get the boat moving though and get somewhere where there is
wind. Time for the roll call. Back later.

Our official estimated time to finish the race is now 0830 am (Honolulu
Standard Time) on Saturday morning (Jul 21st).
6 pm – Black watch takes the deck. More sail changes as we are chasing the
wind. We are seeing a slight buy steady increase in wind. Every now and then
we get a bit of a breeze, only to see it drop off again. The boat speed
over the last hour was only 4 knots. Not enough to stay in 2nd place.
The atmosphere is tense on the boat now. Everybody is trying hard to keep
the boat speed up, constantly trimming the sails, focused on the helm and
closely monitoring boat speed.

As I am writing this, I hear the sound of the water rustling by the hull
change, the boat heels a bit more and I hear the winches creaking. Boat
speed is above 7 knots. Let`s hope this holds.

98 miles to Maui - back with more tomorrow.

Aloha

TRADE WINDS SAILING

Day 13 – July 19th

For some days now we have been receiving reports of an abandoned 40 ft
sailing vessel in the path of the Vic-Maui fleet. Her owner, who was
airlifted off the boat for medical reasons, left her autopilot on with a
course set for Hawaii. We receive daily position reports but don`t expect to
get anywhere near the vessel until maybe tomorrow.

From Terry: Today was more showers and lighter winds. The light winds and
choppy seas make it difficult to set our sails and make progress, which can
be frustrating when in the racing mentality and trying to get somewhere
fast. The rainfalls are still a welcome though to cool off and get a relief
from the heat. Today we took our shirts off awaiting the next rain shower
but it took an hour to reach us. So the red Watch are now the `Red Watch``
with backs and the imprints of our PFDs on our backs.

Last night was fantastic sailing, moderate winds and a full sky of stars.
Shorts and t-shirts only were required on deck. Gunnar said that this is
what he remembers of trade Winds sailing from previous years. As we call it
out here, it is ``Champagne Sailing``.
A big goal for us is to finish the race in under 14 days. It would be a
great achievement if we could pull it off.

Beef Stroganoff is on the menu for tonight – another culinary highlight on
our voyage. After dinner, once more we jibe the boat, hopefully for the last
time before Maui. 230 miles to go.

The sun slowly goes down on the horizon, painting the sky in warm yellow and
orange colors. Cumulus clouds draw like curtains over the scene. Happy faces
on the boat. Black watch is off duty, while Red watch takes over the deck.
Good night!

Aloha.

ALL IS CALM AGAIN

Day 11 – July 17th

The day greeted us with cloudy skies, but warm temperatures and a steady
breeze around 20 knots from the north east. Once it was light enough we
checked all our systems and found that the antenna cables for both the
Iridium Sat-phone and our single side band (SSB) radio were broken. This was
collateral of the back stay issues during the night.

Gunnar climbed into the aft locker and mounted the emergency SSB antenna.
How he managed to work in that confined space, all the while Turicum rolling
and pitching in 8 – 10 ft waves I don`t know, but he fixed it. Dave managed
to fix the Iridium antenna connection. Later that day, he also managed to
re-connect our primary SSB antenna.

Dave and team managed to come up with a much more stable and stronger back
stay adjustment system, allowing us to put all the tension we need on the
rig.

Somebody this morning said: ``This was a dark and stormy night``. Indeed it
was, we had a lot to deal with, yet we managed to sail 212 miles over that
24 hour period which is fantastic and as fast as Turicum would ever go under
these conditions.

From Terry: Thanks from everyone with my 39th Birthday wishes yesterday. We
do get your e-mails onboard. We celebrated (at 760 nm off Maui) with a pile
of traditional Newfoundland favourites from Purity. I believe we all had a
swig of Newfie Screech as well. Thanks to Don for supplying the traditional
goodies. My favourite B-day gift was driving the boat at 7 AM and then
seeing a 200 pound tuna jump 3 times off the bow of the boat. It truly is
amazing out here. Also driving the boat mid afternoon in a squall and down
the backs of 15 foot swells was great to get back on the horse since the
night before I was driving in a wicked squall and briefly lost control of
the boat. Nothing broke but it was quite an hour later as we cleaned up the
carnage and re gathered our nerves. But within an hour we were pushing the
boat hard again. Well . . . . . . time to cook dinner and watch yet another
beautiful sunset.

6 am, I am struggling out of my bunk, while Mort is preparing fresh pancakes
in the galley. The sun is shining, a few cumulus clouds are scattered in the
otherwise blue sky. It was a quiet night for both watches. Poseidon was good
to us.

With over 2,000 miles in Turicum`s wake we start a new day on the Pacific
Ocean.

Aloha.

A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT

Day 10 – July 16th

We all settled into our life at sea. Life is very simple: Sail fast, sleep
just enough and eat chocolate bars. 850 miles to go. We had another 201 mile
run over the last 24 hours. Gunnar is pleased and the crew happy with that.
Time flies now. Less than a day ago we were still over 1,000 miles from
Hawaii and now we are closing in on land. We have a fresh garbage bag this
morning – a clear sign of progress!

Black watch reported a school of Tuna leaping away from Turicum’s bow wave
earlier this morning – apparently surprised by our appearance in their
watery world. More flying fish – still carefully avoiding the frying pan.

Mike turned out to be not only a highly skilled trimmer and reliable mast
person but we also realized his secret talents as an ornithologist. He
discovered the elusive and rare White Pacific Seabird. We spotted it only
twice on this trip.

It was Terry`s 39th birthday yesterday. Being a Newfie, Don got him a `` Bag
of Cod`` and a bottle of Screech (Rum from NF). We all celebrated Terry with
a big swig of Screech and also paid tribute to Poseidon by offering him a
good splash.

I was just getting ready to go on deck when Turicum healed over more than
usual and we heard Mike on the helm yelling for more hands on deck. As I
scrambled up the companion way I saw him on the cockpit floor, holding on to
the helm with one hand. Looking forward I just got a glimpse of the pole
grazing the surface of a furious wave. With both of us on the helm turning
the wheel hard and Dave easing the spinnaker sheet, we managed to get
Turicum back on her feet.

It was blowing steadily at 25 knots gusting to 30+ knots and Turicum just
ploughed through the water. Like a race horse, she pulled forward with each
gust, accelerating down the waves. 14 knots, 15 knots, I broke my personal
speed record on the boat with almost every passing wave. One wave, bigger
than the others, lifted Turicum`s stern, accelerating her longer than usual.
Turicum hurled forward at 15 knots, then 16 knots, the wave still pushing
her stern she kept gathering momentum and we hit 18 knots boat speed. What a
rush – everybody on deck cheered in celebration of the new boat speed record
for the 2012 Vic-Maui race. This is sailing as good as it gets :)

Over the last couple days we noticed a more than usual loss of tension in
the hydraulic system for the back stay. This was not dramatic, but got
progressively worse until last night we run out of hydraulic fluid and lost
all tension on the back stay. This resulted in the forestay not being
tensioned enough and thus swinging violently back and forward each time the
boat rolled in a wave. It was agonizing to watch the forestay and listening
to the banging sounds each time it swiped from port to starboard and back.

John, Mort & Dave came up with a jury rig to stabilise the rig. Dave had to
hang off the transom, secured by three different tethers and two harnesses,
while mounting the jury rig. Meanwhile, we kept on thundering down the
waves, relentlessly pushing Turicum to make more miles and hopefully
narrowing the gap between us and Kinetic.

It was absolutely amazing team work. All hands were on deck. Some were
sailing the boat, others were assisting with the rigging work. We were still
averaging between 9 and 10 knots, pushing 14 and 15 knots in squalls during
the repair work. Dave later said he had water lapping up his backside every
now and then when a big wave overtook the boat.

We discussed taking the chute down before starting the repair work, but the
situation was assessed to be under control and safe to keep on sailing fast
while working on the rig. Never Relent!

6 am, time for our watch to get some rest. Good night!

Aloha.