Cirrus 2008 Pacific Cup

Sunset Picture

2010-07-12T15:13:00.001-07:00

While the crew of Cirrus tries to make the boat go fast, I thought I'd
contribute a picture I took on the delivery. The open ocean is a very
special place. Enjoy ~~Chris

Race Flags and Yacht Club Burgees

2008-08-03T17:56:00.000-07:00

Since I started sailing back and forth across the Pacific Ocean I've picked up a few race flags. On my first trip in 1992 the boat I was on "Arianna" did the daily roll call and communications but was not entered in the race. If they got a flag it is probably still with the boat. In 1994 I did the Pacific Cup race on "Sonata". If we got a flag for the Transpac race I did in 1997 on "Ka Ula Lani" it is also probably still with the boat. When I finally did the Pacific Cup race on my own boat "Cirrus" in 1998 I got to keep the flag. The same goes for the 2000 race. We did the race in 2004 but the flag is missing at the moment. We do have the flags for 2006 and 2008. The Transpac 2007 flag is especially nice, not only because it is big, but also because it shows that we were the winner of Division "Aloha B".

Over time we've also accumulated a few yacht club burgees. The one at the top is for Kaneohe YC here in Hawaii, where we are currently senior members. The one below is for Richmond YC in the SF Bay area where we were senior members for quite a while, and are currently listed as non-resident members. The next burgee is for Aloha YC in Pearl Harbor, where I once got an award. After that is the Hawaii Women's Yacht Racing Association burgee where (I think) I'm still an honorary member. The bottom burgee is from Waikiki YC where we were members for a time. The big burgee in the upper right that I skipped over is for the Pacific Cup YC.

By the way, counting some deliveries I've done, this was my 15th time across the Pacific Ocean.

Pacific Cup 2008 Awards

2008-08-02T19:03:00.000-07:00

Well, it's awards time and this is the big one. Cirrus gets to keep the beautiful carved wooden statue for two years because we were the "Fastest Boat from Hawaii". In addition there is a heavy glass vase that we get to keep that is also associated with being the fastest boat from Hawaii.

The other award was a gimbaled brass chronometer in a polished wooden box that we won by being the third fastest boat in "Division B". The two boats in front of us were quite a bit faster than we were but the boat behind was similar to us and gave is a good race for third place.

We finished in 12 days, 13 hours, 41 minutes and 26 seconds.
At a nominal 2070 nautical miles for the whole trip, that would be
164.7 nautical miles per day,
6.9 nautical miles per hour (knots),
0.11 nautical miles per minute

An Appreciation from Howard Green

2008-08-02T18:55:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone:
Now that Cirrus is "in the barn" for the 2008 Pacific Cup, I would like to add some remarks to Ulli's cirrus2008.blogspot.com that I only now have had the chance to read.

From my point of view as a racing skipper, Bill's 2008 effort was truly remarkable. The team members themselves were remarkable and the way the team worked together at critical moments was also remarkable. We started on a beautiful (for San Francisco) afternoon at 1:30 with moderate winds and almost no seas, and an ebb tide. Cirrus is equipped with a good Dacron main and a 125% Dacron roller furling jib that was enough to keep her competitive in these wind conditions. With Bill on the helm, we were under the bridge and out in almost no time. With two extra tacks along the north point then gone.

Ulli's “Cirrugator” computer program told us go south and we did...while a good part of the fleet continued tacking up the north coast toward the Farrallon Islands. Once we were on route, Bill's watch plan went into effect. It was a great plan. Each shift was four hours. Two people were on shift at all times. Every person worked four hours on and eight off...three of us, Larry, George and I were experienced race skippers, and Bill sometimes referred to us as "the A team". (But be assured, the other crew members were equally valuable with their contributions.) My shift was six to ten, morning and night, followed by Larry ten to two, and George two to six. Paired with the three of us were the other three: Chris, who had done two deliveries on Cirrus as Navigator and Communications expert, Ulli, with his huge additional responsibilities as navigation, tactician and communications officer and Bill, who had the responsibility for everything else on the boat. There were no shift captains...Bill was ever present or available. Bill wanted each person to get an even amount of helm time, except in crisis situations. Although for navigational matters Bill is a great navigator in his own right, he deferred to Ulli and his “Cirrugator” computer program at nearly every step in order to give the program a chance to prove its value. And prove it we did.
For sail trim matters Bill mostly deferred to the "A team" group on matters of helm sailing angles and sail trim. None of us was ever "in charge" but over and over, experience from each of us bubbled to the top and found its way into the nuances of the boat's sail trim and sailing strategy, and the boat was fast nearly all the time. Where there were conflicts between Ulli's program and the opinion of the sailing people the Skipper’s job was to work with everyone to get the best result.

There are many items of special equipment on Cirrus not usually found on a racing boat, and actually, not often found on cruising boats either. They each provided a measure of safety or security not ordinarily found on boats...and allowed things to be done with fewer hands. Things took longer to do, and were more cumbersome...but it was rare that we had the sort of equipment screw ups as are common on short distance race boats where the speed of maneuvers is often critical. On Cirrus, the boat is set up to achieve the long distance safety and security of the crew the boat and the equipment...no race can be won with a spinnaker that is blown.
Because of the way all the special equipment worked, Bill was the lead foredeck person. As racing sailors know...we greatly value our foredeck people, but skippers do not often venture onto the foredeck. If there was one staffing shortcoming of our crew it was that many of us are in our sixties and seventies...not the material we usually look to for the extraordinary challenges of foredeck work. When the spinnaker was going up and down, I was often on helm, and we had Bill at 72 together with Larry at 74 and George at 64 up on the foredeck. For you guys who have sailed a long time and never seen Larry and George on the foredeck before...it was a sight to behold. They always got the job done, but because of the special equipment it sometimes took a little longer.

For the spinnaker they would first secure the pole in position using a pole after guy (as opposed to the separate spinnaker after guy) as well as topping lift and fore guy. Then the spinnaker was raised inside a sock, the sock would then be hoisted and at the same time the spinnaker after guy and sheet would be brought in. The sock stays at the top of the mast until time to douse. At dousing, the boat heads down, the spinnaker guy is released, the sock is brought down, then the spinnaker is brought down and the pole is brought down. From the helm perspective the goal was keep the foredeck as flat and steady a working environment as possible, while all this is going on so that the guys can stay aboard and get their work done. So you stay steady at about 140 degrees apparent wind until the sock was hoisted and then go deep downwind, which is often a little unsteady and insecure, long enough to hide the sock from the wind behind the mainsail, and then to raise the sock and fill the spinnaker. It works and it never twists, but it did take quite a while to do it this way. So we had a few jokes about the geriatric guys up on the foredeck and the time it took. We accused them of forgetting what to do and so stopping to have tea or take a nap...but we actually knew it was an all out effort up there.

Our first near disaster happened early on when the port spinnaker halyard parted in the middle of the night and the spinnaker just began floating down into the ocean. It was blowing like stink. It was George's shift with Chris between two and four a.m., but I was up with them because I thought it would be good to have three people on board at night when the spinnaker was up. Luckily, George was on the helm. I knew from past experience that if the chute got to the water and it filled while we were going along, it would rip it to shreds. "Slow the boat down, head to weather." I told him. Meantime I figured that the best thing to do was to send the foredeck crew up to get the chute in. Then it dawned on me, only available fore deck crew was me. So I moved my safety clip, went foreword and started pulling the chute out of the water and inside the lifelines on deck as it was falling. George and Chris tightened the sheet to keep the foot out of the water. We managed to pull it aboard before it filled with water and with no damage to anything, something I’ve never actually seen achieved before on any other boat. Then we got the jib out and were sailing with little delay. In the morning we could see that the spinnaker halyard had jammed and the wire frayed at the top all in one place, and it was still in place in the mast. But we had no young buck to send up the mast...so we had only the starboard spinnaker halyard to finish the next 1600 miles...and we took extraordinary steps to avoid wear on that halyard. We put the spinnaker back up and were off and running.

After the first time we took the spinnaker down for the night it became clear that, even though it was prudent, if we were going to be in the race, we were going to have to carry it at night. So we extended everyone's night time shift two hours so there would always be three on deck at night...and it worked, but after only a day of this everyone was a little too tired. The middle of the race is a long sail...many days we had enough wind and the boat was challenged and we were cruising along with average speeds in the high sevens and low eights. Other days the speed averages dropped to as low as 5.9 with everything working.

Now about Ulli's computer program: The program does what it is supposed to do and does it well. It told us the most desirable route by comparing weather predictions for the next week with our boat's polars (These are speed predictions at various points of sail at every different level of wind.) and then telling us the route which the computer found to be the fastest through the predicted wind conditions, for our boat. The program kept us in wind, told us generally where it would be best to be, and we went there. It kept us out of trouble and sailing fast. The limitations of the program in practice are that the weather actually varies from predictions, and as wind speeds and direction vary, the exact direction the boat should sail will also vary. One big problem with the weather forecasts is that on a sailboat, the difference between 8 and 14 knots wind is big deal...and the direction a boat should sail to get the best results varies greatly...but even what is regarded as an accurate weather forecast often varies by that much or more. So while the general routing plan might work, the actual sailing courses can change.

Some comments on my fellow crew members:
George was an always happy jovial helmsman and crew member. He was also one of the best intuitive down wind helmsmen I have ever met, and clearly the best on Cirrus. Watching George helm in a squall was like watching a great artist at work. Rarely was the helm in need of large adjustments...and the boat stayed always under control. Even if you are not an experienced sailor you can appreciate that when a helmsman is sailing down wind, the forces that can come to play in causing the boat to go one way or another can overwhelm the ability of the rudder to steer the boat. So a helmsman is not really just steering a boat, but using the direction of the boat in the wind and the waves to keep all the forces affecting the boat in balance so the boat can keep traveling in the fastest possible direction. A truly good helmsman doesn't react to forces on a boat but anticipates and adjusts for them before they begin to affect the boat. Adjustments made, when timely are small and appear almost casual... Larry's first Pacific crossing occurred in the 1950's. His range of experience in racing has been vast, and his counsel always was even tempered and thought out. If anything had ever happened to Bill I am sure Larry would have been everyone's choice to become the captain. He also is an excellent helmsman.
For myself…sail shape, boat speed, performance...is a never ending quest. Almost a religion. George once asked me if I sleep with my GPS. It was a joke for him, but he laughed even more when he realized that, yes, of course I do. It works below deck. I was always watching the boat's performance, and was up on deck to help tweak things when it seemed slow. Larry and George had sailed together before...and as we all got to know and respect each other more, it was interesting to see each of us consulting more with the others about best sailing adjustments of the rig. On the last day we got trapped in a hole behind a mammoth squall that blew itself out and just parked in the ocean, leaving us in a permanent dead zone. It was George's shift, but I got Larry to take the helm and I babied the spinnaker on the rail for two hours till puff by puff we worked our way out of it. Chris was the least experienced in competitive sailing, but he was always looking for things that needed to be done, and cheerfully doing them, mostly before anyone else even realized they needed to be done. Chris became our main cook, a job at which he is clearly talented. Not to take away from Chris's sailing capabilities. He was on shift with Larry and George and had hours of instruction and practice in downwind helmsmanship. He is a smart natural sailor so he learned what he learned well. He will be a great asset to any boat. Ulli has sailed mostly in the past on Cirrus. As a helmsman on Cirrus he was quite experienced and very fast. His computer program “Cirrugator” will also be a great contribution to sail racing if he ever makes it available to sailors generally. Ulli's disciplined attention to detail in communication and navigation kept us organized and on track. Captain Bill...Cirrus is not just a good boat...it is a fitting, evolved expression of Bill's years of thoughtful experience in ocean crossings and ocean racing. His boom brake should be required equipment on ocean crossings. Bill has said that, “On this trip, Cirrus was better sailed that it has ever been sailed before.” Larry, George and I take a lot of pride in making that happen for Bill. But anyone who wants a challenge in life ought to think about trying to keep three captains who are used to making all the decisions on their own boats working together with each other and the rest of the crew and the navigator all in good spirit and cooperation...Bill's patience and social skills...well, incredible. This isn't to take away from his sailing skills. Once during an early morning squall, I clocked Bill's top speed as a helmsman at 13.9 knots, right up with the best from the A team, and a speed which any knowledgeable sailor will tell you is near impossible from a 40 foot 1970's racing design weighing 22,000 before crew and provisions.

There were two afternoon race incidents that deserve review: Twice the boat rounded up in strong winds and shortly thereafter saw its spinnaker guy come free from the pole. In the first incident, as the spinnaker was moving back and forth across the boat, the boat actually also rounded down, and did an unintended gibe. The solution to all this was amazing. First off, Bill's Boom brake functioned as designed, so that the boom made a controlled unintended gibe which did not damage anything. We flew the spinnaker free for a few moments on the lazy sheet. Bill was forward in a flash and reattached the pole guy as crew members in the cockpit --- I think George, Chris and Larry --- adjusted the lines to help Bill accomplish the work. Critical to this was the extra pole guy that kept the pole completely under control, even when the spinnaker guy had jumped out of the pole. Quickly the spinnaker was brought back under control. No damage, no injuries. No ripped spinnaker. Amazing. On a second occasion, the same thing happened, but as soon as the guy came loose, Ulli told George “You take the helm.” and George did and the boat remained under control as Bill, Larry and Ulli went forward and pulled the sock down then dowsed the spinnaker. Again...no damage...no injuries...no torn sail.
It is hard to overstate how unusual it would be that with the incidents I have recited, on a sail with plenty of strong wind, except for one broken halyard, the boat sustained no damage to equipment or sails. Incredibly good, well thought out equipment, and experienced sailors working together with a great Captain.

So I thought everyone might like to hear one crew member's observations about some of the boat and crew dynamics that helped us do as well in this race as it was possible for Cirrus to do.

Howard Green

Cirrus is in the Barn

2008-07-28T21:01:00.001-07:00

Cirrus has crossed the finish line at 03:11:26 Hawaiian time on Monday morning. We went the last miles under white sails with the jib poled out, with strong winds in the 20 kn range. Approaching the finish line was easy, but crossing it was an adventure! Some 100 feet from the finish line, close to the Pacific Cup buoy, a squall set in with such vigor that the communication with the Finish line by radio failed, and visibility dropped to zero! I sat in the back of the boat and with hand held GPS and VHF radio in my hands and was soaking wet from the rain. That wasn't the last douse - before docking we got two more squalls putting buckets of water on us. Finally, after getting rid of the soaked T-shirts we donned the Aloha shirts and posed for the photos. Kisses from the spouses, Mai-Tais and sinful sweet Hawaiian pineapples bites rounded the picture.

We made it again!

Aloha and Mahalo to all on-boat and on-shore crew and our faithful readers,
Ulli

Cirrus on Day 12

2008-07-27T21:17:00.000-07:00

This is our last day. We are now 60 miles away from finish, and will go into the barn this night.

Standings report today was a bit confusing, as the finish times of the already finished boats were not published. But not much of relevance for us seems to have changed. If we don't screw up in the last minute, we should be able to keep our position. If!
Last night got wild. We had the spinnaker up, but wind became so strong, Bill wanted it down at about 10 pm. It was dark, the moon was not up yet, and only a few stars were visible in the sky. It was really dark, the best time for a major sail change! Anyway, the whole crew was on deck, it worked well, and we did make decent progress on a poled out jib through the night with the help of some squalls. In the morning the light spinnaker came up, and we kept going.
George was at the helm when a squall hit again. George set a new record of 8.9 kn average over 5 miles, so Larry's record of 8.7 kn lasted only a few days. However, it then happened what I had described a few days earlier: we got stuck in the hole behind the squall. We basically did not move for 2 hours! Larry and Howard proved their skills and brought the boat into an area with wind. Howard took position on the rail as a kind of Spinnaker-Whisperer, and Larry on the helm watched every trajectory of an air molecule towards the sails to squeeze the most out of every puff of wind. It was a bit of a miracle success, but nevertheless it had cost us 2 hours. Now we are moving again, and have prepared for the final run towards the finish line.
It won't be the Hawaiian midnight any more when we cross over, but 2 - 3 hours later (assuming no further surprises). Hopefully the bar of the the Kaneohe Yacht Club will still be open - a cold drink would be so nice! I imagine there will be a few more boats to finish tonight; in a few moments we will be overtaken by Rage, one of the fast boats.

It was asked and suggested that we catch some fish, have an "Ocean Sushi Diner" eating place, and publish pictures of big fish that we have caught. As we did in all other races. Unfortunately, not this time. Nobody felt inclined to do it, and we also really had no spare time. The fish may have liked it. Therefore, I am attaching a picture in lieu of a that of a big Mahi-mahi or Tuna; it is surprising for what purposes red tape can be used :-)

Aloha, Ulli

Position: July 27, 2008, 2106 PDT, lat 21n54, lon 156w47, cog 260m, sog 8 kn

Cirrus Limericks

2008-07-27T14:52:00.001-07:00

Here is a compilation of Limericks from the creative corners of the Cirrus crew and from our readers. We'll add to it when we get more. So far this is the count:
Cirrus: 4
Readers: 4

From the Cirrus crew:

Cirrus, the old gal of the ocean,
Still fills the boys with the notion
She can fly down a wave,
Respond to a save,
And thrill the whole crew with her motion

We are the Cirrus geriatric crew
Went to the foredeck and forgot what to do
Went down for a nap,
let the spinnaker wrap,
But finally we did reattach the clew.

There once was a head from Nantucket
It was bad news, we can't duck it,
The pump broke apart,
Just days from the start,
Now Cirrus has brand new flush bucket.

There once was a head from Nantucket
It was bad news, there's no way to duck it,
The pump broke apart,
Just days from the start,
Now Cirrus has a brand new flush bucket.

From the Readers:

The Vogels
There once was a ship out at sea
Afraid of Klabautermann's glee
But the crew made a charm
Letting nobody harm
'Cept a small fish with too much esprit.

Jan (Jan's Paint By Words)
Another day out in the ocean,
Klabautermann created commotion.
He stirred up a squall,
We sailed thru it all,
With the mask on the mast as our potion!

Jan (Jan's Paint By Words)
We're racing the ocean so Cirrusly.
Driving and sailing so Furiously.
To be first in the fleet,
Would be quite a treat,
OK, we are thinking deliriously!

From nic:
There once was a guy named Lou,
whose limericks end on line two.

Cirrus on Day 11

2008-07-26T21:27:00.000-07:00

A wonderful day and no adverse reports!

As I had expected, it was a slow night. No squalls came through during the night nor today. That wasn't the case for some boats, who did loose spinnaker, halyards and other goodies during intervals of heavy wind, such as those we had experienced earlier that day (but came through without damage). Since we haven't had any additional ones of these encounters, having the white sails up did not give any more protection, but did hurt our performance. While the rankings actually haven't changed, my Cirrugator program allows a little bit of crystal balling and it told

me that other boats are working hard, a bit too hard for comfort. Kokomo isn't standing still, and Urban Renewal showed some amazing improvements. I convinced Bill that we needed to have the chute up, and we did hoist the heavy 1.5 oz one. This was done by our foredeck team with a combined live experience of 210 years. The picture is enclosed to prove it: Bill, George and Larry are at the mast and prepare the hoist. If they look a bit puzzled it is because they have forgotten what to do, but this is explained in our recent limerick ;-)

The weather is as you expect it from a Pacific Cup: sunshine from a cloudy blue sky, it is hot, big waves, and wind up to 20 kn. Driving was more of this Wiggle-Your-Butt thing: Standing at the helm requires a constant dancing to counterbalance the boat motions and keep a clear view on the boat, the water and the instruments. Your body posture and movements are a bit like in

downhill skiing, and you can imagine that after 40 min at the helm - our standard time - you are ready to hand the helm over. But it is wonderful when you are able to master the big waves and ride the boat up and down the mountains of water, and feel and hear it gushing by.

To my surprise we still haven't seen flying fish. At this location we should be chasing them out of the water by the hundreds of swarms, but nothing this year so far. What we did chase out of the water was - a whale! I have seen it come up only a hundred feet away, but the watch crew said that he first came up no more than 50 feet away. Other boats have seen a whale too, possibly the same one, described by one as a juvenile humpback whale, and one boat apparently had suffered some damage from this encounter! There may be more on this topic on the PCup website.

We exchanged a friendly chat on the radio with E.T., a boat from Division D, when they crossed our stern in close proximity. See the picture which we took. This is a very unique event; for me it is the first time in five Pacific Cups that we come that close to another boat. We were jealous to see how easy and fast they went by. However, this is a sport car E.T. meeting the SUV Cirrus.

We are almost on a Great Circle Route to the finish line, and with a bit of luck we may not even need to jibe again, but go straight through with the current port pole. Expected arrival is midnight Hawaiian time on Sunday, or shortly after.

Aloha, Ulli

Position: July 26, 2008, 2051 PDT, lat 23n6, lon 154w09, cog220M, sog8.0kn

Cirrus on Day 10

2008-07-25T22:58:00.000-07:00

No complains about mellow weather today, and Klabautermann took more shots at us, but failed thanks to our effective counter measures.

Once again, our standings haven't changed much, but we lost a little against the ones ahead of us, and gained a little against the ones behind us. Given the events of today, we are happy to still being in the race ...

The wind picked up today, the squall activity increased, and the waves got higher up to the point where you couldn't see the horizon over the wave ahead or behind. Worst of all, the waves came from an angle from behind. The wave lifts the boat, say, from stern port side, rolls the boat to starboard and raises the stern. The boat goes downhill, the wave moves ahead under the boat, lifts the bow, while letting the stern sink, letting the port bow sink before the starboard bow, thereby rolling the boat to port. The next wave repeats that. And occasionally, a wave comes from the other side. At the helm you need to anticipate the boat movement, and counter steer; but be careful not to overdue it, otherwise you may amplify the boat movement and then you run into very significant problems and major damages when the boat dips the spinnaker pole into the water. This is manageable on a normal day. But then there was today:

It was 6 am PDT this morning. Since we are keeping PDT time on the boat, and Hawaii is 3h behind and we being 2/3 there, the local time was about 4am. The moon, now a half moon, was up, shining through a thin cloud layer. So we could actually see the major features of the boat but not details. Howard was just coming up for his watch, and George was going down, with me having the helm. The wind was good at some 10-12 kn and we moved well. Suddenly the wind increased, possibly due to a squall, although no rain was coming down. A furious ride began with boat speeds exceeding 9 kn, sometimes pushing the rail in the water in the attempts to correct the swinging of the boat. The Klabautermann acted, ripping the guy (a line of the spinnaker) out of the clew of the spinnaker pole. The spinnaker, now without pole support, flew wildly.

We later looked at the clew, which has a steel pin about the thickness of a big thumb, which locks the lines in place. This lock was closed when we inspected it. Nothing was damaged. So how could the guy have come out? If that doesn't convince any doubters about the existence of Klabautermann, I really don't know what might do.

Now what to do with the flying, flapping, banging spinnaker? In the meantime we were 5 people in the cockpit, the wind had increased to well beyond 20 kn, howling even higher in gusts. Bill decided to go forward to put the guy back into the clew of the pole. He needed to go forward to the bow, and from the cockpit we had to bring the pole forward handling several lines. Cirrus was moving! She parted the water ahead of her, and the water gushed along her sides with the roar of a freight train. The bow was almost level with the water. Had the bow dipped deeper, the water might have gushed over the deck and swept Bill from his feet. But it went well. We now needed to bring the pole back and tighten the guy. During the whole process the boat was swinging with sometimes the port rail, sometimes the starboard rail being in the water. To recover, the sheet (the other line used to hold the spinnaker) was released to unpower the sail, resulting in ever wilder flapping. Somehow in the process an accidental jibe occurred, sure enough in the moment when Bill was coming back to the cockpit. He was hit by the blocks mounted under the boom and knocked down to the deck. Thank goodness we had the boom break on! Without it, there might have been one skipper less on this boat! If anyone wants to know what exactly a boom break is, just ask, I'll sing accolades for this device. (We had Bill lay down for the next few hours - just in case - but he is ok.) I got the boat back under control, the spinnaker was flying again, and miraculously, nothing was damaged. Obviously our counter measures proved effective. Soon after the wind subsided to the normal 10 kn or so. I had a good workout, but I was not really keen on another one.
But I got one. This one came in my afternoon watch, and came in a very similar situation. Good wind but very manageable, sudden jump in wind speed, and guy being ripped out of the intact and undamaged clew of the pole. This time I handed over to George to drive, and we socked the spinnaker and went on with white sails. We are in this moment still sailing with white sails, and wind is on and off from as low as 6 kn to as high as 25 kn. Speed is matching. I guess on average it will be a slow night.
Two attacks on one day and none successful - isn't that something? What if we had not put the mask at the mast? You can see it in the picture in some previous post. But looking at it again, I wonder which face is whose? What if ....

In the morning hours, before we switched to white sails, we realized that it is not a good idea to have the lightweight spinnaker, the 3/4 ounce, up during such strong wind, and so we decided to hoist the heavy 1.5 ounce one, which he had used in the beginning, and took the opportunity to inspect all lines for chafing. Bill, Larry and George went forward and did lower and reset the spinnakers fast and smoothly. Back in the cockpit we noticed that we had a combined 210 years of life experience working on the foredeck! We hereby challenge all boats to outdo us! Sure enough, in the later discussion in the cockpit this limerick came up:

We are the Cirrus geriatric crew
Went to the foredeck and forgot what to do
Went down for a nap,
let the spinnaker rap,
But finally we did reattach the clew.

Speaking about limericks, why should _we_ do the work and not our readers? Please send us your limericks, and we'll shamelessly present them as ours :-)
Here is a good example from the Vogel family about Klabautermann, which you find under the Halfway Party video post:

There once was a ship out at sea
Afraid of Klabautermann's glee
But the crew made a charm
Letting nobody harm
'Cept a small fish with too much esprit.

What a day!

Aloha, Ulli

Position: July 25, 2008, 2254PDT, lat 24n16, lon 151w42, cog240M, sog 6.8kn

Cirrus on Day 9

2008-07-24T21:04:00.001-07:00

And yet another mellow day with hot sun in cloudy sky and moderate wind. But it had its edges, particularly during the rain showers. We only got a little drizzle on the boat, but they brought some good wind with them. And wind shifts, so we had to jibe a few times. We are getting a lot better and faster at it. The waves are also getting bigger and make driving a bit more demanding and, particularly in the hot conditions, exhausting.
Standings are largely unchanged, still 3rd in division, and 1st among the Hawaiian boats. But the low distance traveled in the light wind took its toll in the drop in overall ranking. We hope for some wilder conditions.
Today we were at Cosco's Diner. The food was, hum, good. No, really. Barbecued Beef with ... oh you guessed it already. By the way: I noticed that the chef in all the places we were eating looked very similar, and quite like Chris from our crew!
No boat or ship, no wildlife seen for the last three days, except for another little fellow, who looked pretty dried out to me.
I guess you have noticed our post with a video from our half way party? If not, look below.

Aloha, Ulli

P.S.: Happy Birthday, Petra :=>

position: July 24, 2008, 2041 PDT, lat 26n18, lon 148w58, cog 210M, sog 7.5 kn

Halfway Party on Cirrus on Video

2008-07-24T13:26:00.000-07:00

It was a challenge to reduce the video to a format, which could be transmitted through the airwaves. Our main data connection is the short wave, SSB (Single Side Band) radio, which is connected to a special modem. It is similar to a connection via telephone modem on land, only that it is about 50 times slower, transmitting at about 1000 baud, and oftentimes less. The information we can transfer is therefore very limited. We also have a satellite phone, which can be used in a similar way, but it isn't much faster either. And I tried very hard to use the sat phone so to not hog the airwaves, but it wouldn't work. Finally the video made it through the short wave radio. I believe Cirrus during the Transpac 2007 race (Los Angeles to Hawaii) was the first sailing vessel to have transmitted a video in this kind, and let me know, but I believe this is unique in the Pacific Cup 2008? The video compression technology is similar to what is used e.g. in Youtube.
Enjoy.

Aloha, Ulli

Cirrus on Day 8

2008-07-23T21:40:00.000-07:00

Another mellow day with little wind, lots of sunshine coming from a cloudy sky, low waves, and Cirrus trying to find her way through. A bit of excitement came up, when a squall hit us. Squalls are rain showers, limited to a rather small area, like a mile or so. You can see them coming in the distance as a grey curtain ranging from the water to the clouds. It is well known that they always come only during the night. Except when they come during the day. They move faster than boats like Cirrus and bring with them wind, sometimes lots of it, and rain, sometimes lots of it. And with bad luck you are being crossed by them and then remain parked in the lull behind them. Faster boats can actually sail ahead of them, taking advantage of the good wind. We were hit by one last night, made good speed in refreshing rain, and escaped without being parked. During the day we saw many squalls passing by in the distance and got only a little bit of wind, if any, from them. We accommodated wind shifts due to the squalls with two extra jibes. Overall, performance is again disappointing, though it seems to be improving a little bit this evening.
Standings from last day had only minor changes overall, still 3rd in division, and 1st among the Hawaiian boats, but the pressure is mounting.
With a bit of luck earliest arrival will be on midnight from Sunday July 27 to Monday, or a few hours later. So we are pleased to say that we are back to arrival in the dark, as Pacific Cup sailing used to be, and regret the unfortunate break with that tradition as it happened the last Pacific Cup.
Tina's Diner served meat loaf with - you guessed right - mashed potatoes a la skipper. Bad news: Tina's Diner will be closed for the season! We noticed that a Cosco Diner has opened around the corner, and will have to go there tomorrow.
Strangely we haven't seen any flying fish yet, with the exception of the few poor fellows who lost their tiny lives after jumping onto Cirrus. One of them, who dried out on the foredeck, is shown in the picture.

Aloha, Ulli

position: July 23, 2008, 2135PDT, lat:27n28, lon:146w28, cog250M, sog7.2kn

Cirrus on Day 7

2008-07-22T21:23:00.000-07:00

It was a rather mellow night and day, with low wind speeds, low waves, a sun shining from a mostly blue sky, although a bit hazy, and so we were oozing along. Low wind is not what Cirrus likes, and so it was not a big surprise that we got bumped to #3 in division, and overall also one position down. The standings among the Hawaiian boats hasn't changed; there we are still leading. We surely hope for better winds, but the grib files are not overly encouraging.
If you are interested in the weather, click on the weather chart on the blog site (right column), and look in the bottom right corner of the chart. A hurricane, in the meantime downgraded to a tropical storm, is coming from Mexico and aiming at us. Likely, however, it will have dissipated before it reaches us.
No big things happened today. We initiated a jibe in the night, and after all people needed were woken up, had geared up and were on deck, the wind shifted by 25 degrees, and the jibe was canceled! We jibed a few hours later. No boats or ships seen today, no wildlife except for a little flying fish who had landed on our deck - surprisingly I have not yet seen a single flying fish gliding over the water - and wind and waves remain low. Right now a rain shower is passing in the distance and we get a little wind from it (but no rain). So we ended the day in "Tina's Diner" with delicious Braised Beef in Red Wine sauce with mushrooms and mashed potatoes.
You know that this Pacific Cup has a Limerick contest among all boats, and here is our work of fine art, which we presented today during Children's Hour on the radio:

Cirrus, the old gal of the ocean,
Still fills the boys with the notion
She can fly down a wave,
Respond to a save,
And thrill the whole crew with her motion

Aloha, Ulli

position: July 22, 2008 2048 PDT, lat:28N01.2, lon:143w37.3, cog250M, sog7.5kn

Cirrus on Day 6

2008-07-21T22:17:00.000-07:00

Another wonderful day out on the ocean, where you are exhausted at the end of the day although relatively little has happened.
Last night was rather mellow with the wind being down to 10 kn and less and the waves no more than 2 feet. We expected to have fallen back, being a big and heavy boat, but apparently other boats had similar problems. Our #2 position in the division was confirmed, and we actually gained an additional 1.5h on the first boat. However, we noticed that Music behind us is coming up strongly; we remain alert. Among the Hawaiian boats we are now first. Not sure what happened to Buzz off - they did not report today, and yesterday were way back with their fast boat. Smells like technical problems. Urban Renewal went from 12 to 33; wonder what happened to them. In the overall ratings we actually went one notch up, now on position 13. But the race isn't over yet. The wind is pointing almost directly to Hawaii, so it is like a horse race. The difference, however, is that boats don't sail well directly downwind, requiring some zig-zaging for better speed. The winner will be among those who do this best.
The weather has changed and so has our outfit. The days are warm to hot, with the sun being out occasionally, but mostly hiding behind a cloud cover. Even the moon had been visible for several hours, as well as some stars. But since the moonlight was so bright, and the sky cloud covered or at least hazy, only the most prominent stars were visible. Jupiter is very prominent: look at the sky in a southerly direction - the brightest "star" is the planet Jupiter. Our foul-weather gear gave room for T-shirts and short pants, and boots were put away for sandals. I went through my traditional cut-the-long-pants-once-per-day routine, and will have shorts when arriving in Hawaii. Down below it is now hot and it becomes strenuous to sleep during daytime.
Finally I also got to my first saltwater shower on deck. We laid a long hose from the forward end of the boat down below, where the hose is connected to a pump sucking in saltwater, up to a place forward of the mast, where one can sit down safely. The water is still so cold, it takes your breath away! But it felt great. And here it comes, faithful readers will already be expecting it, my pitch that saltwater showers taken on the high seas do not need a fresh water rinse. Everyone has the experience that after swimming at the beach leaves you somewhat itchy until you had a shower and washed off whatever the seawater had left on your skin. Not so on the high seas. You feel great without that rinse, and can even wash your hairs, and they will be soft and fluffy,. The only problem is that you need a special soap, because regular soap simply does not work!
There were years when we did not see a single boat or ship during the whole race, but this year it feels crowded. Today we saw four (4!) boats, likely all racers, at the horizon at the same time. Strangely, everyone went off into a different direction.

HALFWAY PARTY
Yes, we made it to the half way point. For me it was earlier than ever before on Cirrus. This point is 1035 nm (nautical miles, some 2000 km) away from land. The whole track is about the distance from New York to San Francisco, or from Moscow to Portugal. There is actually no point on earth, which is further away from any land than this midpoint in the pacific Cup! Downhill from now on; we think we can already feel going faster. The skipper brought out a bottle of Champaign - gasp, alcohol on Cirrus! - and "Tina's Diner" served Braised Chicken Thighs with noodles and green beans in mashed potatoes (the latter a special of the skipper from his yet-to-be written Bachelor's cookbook). Desert was Tina's famous Ka'alua Cake. It was wonderful and with the weather and sea being rather mellow, we could all sit in the cockpit and eat together. Thinking about it, I can't remember that we ever had bad weather during the halfway party.

Unfortunately, as pleasant as the conditions were for the halfway party, it meant that there is not enough wind for decent speed. This morning we took our very first jibe of the race! Cirrugator suggested that, and we did it. Hopefully this will position us better a few days down the road. The next jibe may come during the night; we'll see. We expect the wind to be picking up steadily over the next days. I wonder if the tracking website let's you actually see our route in sufficient details to make out tacking and jibing?

Time to hit the cushions, it is now cool enough in our bunks,
Aloha, Ulli

In Memory of Jo Schnetzler

2008-07-20T23:12:00.000-07:00

It is a very solemn day in Santa Cruz today. Our good friend and sailing buddy, Jo Schnetzler, passed away a week ago. Today, Jo's wife, Valerie, along with Jo's friends and family, have gathered aboard a small fleet and sailed out of Santa Cruz Harbor to scatter Jo's ashes, and to remember him. Here, aboard Cirrus, we cast a lone carnation into the vast Pacific, and we remembered Jo with a special log entry:

6/20/2008; 1130.
30-34 N
137-24 W
For Jo.

Fair winds, Jo.
Chris Doutre

Cirrus on Day 5

2008-07-20T21:35:00.000-07:00

Wow, another day on position 2! We celebrate them right away; you never know what comes next. We were surprised ourselves about our performance since while the daytime yesterday saw some hot rides, the night was quite a bit softer. When you look at the standings, you'll see that we had caught up on Checkered Past by 4 hours since yesterday and are now "only" 3 hours behind them. Overall we are on position 14 out of 60 boats, which is also a very good result for us. As part of the Pacific Cup we also have a race among the Hawaiian boats, of which there are three: Urban Renewal (Div C), Buzz Off (Div D), and us (Div B). Urban R. is on position 12 overall, i.e. two positions ahead of us; Buzz Off seems to have difficulties as they are on position 57. Urban R. is 40 miles ahead of us, which is a lead of about 6 hours of our driving. But they are rated much faster than us, so after handicap correction there is a chance left for us. I'll explain this some other time.
In the morning we saw Kokomo south of us, barely visible on the horizon. Late afternoon we were almost running over Plus Sixteen, a double-handed boat from the first start on Monday. Man, are these oceans overcrowded - somebody 's gotta do somethin' about it!
By the way: Double-handed does not mean sailors with some genetic manipulation that grew an extra pair of hands (which would be really useful), but two regular people, each with one left hand and one right hand. But on a boat you do need to hold on to something while you do your work, therefore one person equals one hand available for work. And a double-handed boat then is one with only two people on it. I did double-handing once, and not in a race, but I can tell you that this is exhausting, as you never get enough sleep. We already feel the impact with a crew of six. And we have to do it for 2 weeks!
The sun came out today, and it sure got hot. We dumped the foul weather gear and sailed in a T-shirt (with the life vest worn over it). Now in the evening it is mostly overcast again. Unfortunately, the wind speed continued to drop, and we sailed long stretches at only 6 kn. We can only hope that the competitors suffer similarly.
We were debating a jibe today. Buoy racers will freak out when they here that a jibe after 5 days out is "considered", nicht wahr, Christin? And at the end we did not jibe. Maybe in two days.
"Tina's Diner" was open again, tonight with hearty enchiladas. Highly recommended. Tina was on this years delivery crew for "Cirrus, and I believe she is linked to under "Delivery Crew" on this blog site, so you can read who made our delicious frozen dinners.

Aloha, Ulli

position: 20 July 2008 2125PDT, lat 30n25, lon 138w40, cog250, sog 6.5kn

Anti-Klabautermann measures effective immediately!

2008-07-20T13:03:00.000-07:00

Would anyone really believe that a "rumbling" and "noise making" creature is helping the sailors, when at the same time we have seen on multiple Pacific Cups on Cirrus what damage this guy can do? No Valerie, I believe you accessed the "politically correct" version of Wikipedia, valid only in California :->. Maybe our German readers can find out more about Klabautermann?

However, we do take advice from our readers seriously, and in particular I found that Valerie's suggestion of carving a face into the mast was a really good one. If it has helped in the past, why not now and in the future? So I took hammer, chisel and drill and began to work on the mast. You won't believe what happened: the skipper stopped me in my doing after only a few holes drilled into the mast! I had to resort to Plan B and painted a face on the mast, using our good-for-everything-red-tape.
I am attaching a picture; Klabautermann is the LEFT face, the right one is mine.
But taking advice from the readers is clearly taking advantage of outside help, and this post must be kept absolutely secret and hidden from the race committee!

Mahalo for the tip, and Aloha,
Ulli

Cirrus on Day 4

2008-07-19T21:57:00.000-07:00

What an eventful day! But let's start with the important matter. One word says it all: Lasagne. We dressed up for dinner and went to a good place, called "Tina's Diner". The special of the day was lasagne, which had finally thawed and was put in the oven. It was accompanied with a salad from green salad, tomatoes, and avocados, and skipper's choice of dressing. We had a bottle of red wine with it, although I must say the wine had little color, and tasted a lot like the water we drink all day long. Maybe it was water? Aaah, those were the days in the Pacific Cup 2000, when we had the red wine "Chateau du box" with us, a Premier Crue, carefully filled into a cardboard box... (see our PCup 2000 reports, link is on the blog site).
After this wonderful meal the evening was rounded out by a dolphin show, with a large school of dolphins zipping around our boat, jumping out of the water, and seemingly were enjoying themselves, playing with such a slowly - from their perspective - moving thing like Cirrus.
The morning began with the Klabautermann action, as I have already told you. The spinnaker was flying again, and we were moving, expecting, however, a dip in the ranking. What pleasant surprise to see instead that we had moved up to 2nd place in division! The first place boat is some 20 miles ahead, and although they owe us time due to them being rated faster, it is unlikely that we can get them unless they make a mistake (and we don't!). Defending current position will be demanding enough; these other boats have the annoying habit of not standing still.
Shortly after I finished the good-news-performance-calculations, Bill yelled down "All hands on deck". Oh dear, I envisioned our second halyard being ripped, and the sail in the water again. That would have been the end of the race, because you may get mild penalty from loosing the main (as proven in PCup2006, see our report), loosing the spinnaker is more severe. We do have two additional (light) spinnakers on the boat, but with no halyard to raise them up, they would be of no value. With wobbly knees we went on deck and fortunately saw the spinnaker still flying. However, Bill had noticed some apparent chafing at the halyard near the mast top, and was merely cautious for the same reasons that I had just mentioned. The spinnaker came down and it was quickly determined that the problem he saw would not effect our setup. So up the spinnaker went again.
Cirrus has a couple of lines for spinnaker handling in addition to what other boats have, which makes coordinated handling more demanding, although it makes it safer. We are getting better at raising and lowering the spinnaker.
In late afternoon we suddenly saw a boat ahead of us, sailing under spinnaker. We were expecting to pass them in a few hours, which made our blood flowing hotter again. But they turned south and sailed away. Now, we believe it was one of the racers, but what did they expect from going south? We don't know who that was. They had a white spinnaker with two big horizontal stripes, one in blue, one in red. Anyone knows who she is?
We saw the sun today! Ok, only for a few seconds, but we saw the sun. And now we even saw Jupiter. But the sky is still fully overcast, except for a few small patches of blue sky. And it is getting warmer. The clothing is getting lighter, we are now looking less like Teddy bears, but more like dieting Teddy bears. The first shower maybe no more than two days away; I am not going into this in any more detail ...
About 1/3rd of the race is done. Everyone of the crew in is good condition and looking forward to the next days.
Aloha, Ulli

P.S. more on Klabautermann later :-?

position: July 19th 2008 2153PDT lat 31n00, lon 135w35, cog240M, sog 7.2kn

Elizabeth's "Wonder Window" exclusive Dodger Designs

2008-07-19T19:44:00.000-07:00

Yet another plug for the dodger we are so happy with.

When I canvassed the local North Bay marine canvas workers for an emergency dodger cover for the Pacific Cup race I got the cold shoulder. I was told that 6 months was "maybe", 6 weeks "forget it", and 6 days "ridiculous". That is, until I spoke to Elisabeth at Durrant Designs. She has a small shop on the second floor of a tiny little old house in the KKMI Boatyard. Phone: 510-325-7501. Email: elizabethmdurrant@yahoo.com.

She listened to my plight and said, "Let's get to work."

At first, I specified just a solid piece of fabric in order to speed up the process. When my crew insisted on a window Elizabeth took it in stride. In fact she was smiling. Little did I know. I was about to receive a "Wonder Window". There is fabric on the top and sides but you do not see it because it is edge on from the wheel. The window is a HUGE wraparound, and from the wheel it looks like there is no dodger there.

The experienced downwind sailors in my crew think that the design of the dodger is worth at least one knot of boat speed.

Bill

Klabautermann is back on Cirrus

2008-07-19T08:35:00.000-07:00

Klabautermann, to all you non-German sailors, is that nasty gnome riding on ships and boats, creating trouble all along. When things go wrong it's him! To know this also comes in handy when you are e.g. working in a manufacturing business!
Here are the - literally - "Breaking News": At 3:30am today the spinnaker halyard broke about a foot above the head of the sail, letting the spinnaker sink into the water in full length. And now comes the fantastic part, which most likely made Klabautermann really mad: We recovered the spinnaker undamaged, and, after lengthy restuffing the spinnaker into its sock, done down below with all space being filled with spinnaker cloth, we hoisted the same spinnaker on the starboard halyard. We are back in business, 8.5kn!
I guess that extra delay of about an hour will soon be seen in the ratings.
Aloha, Ulli

position: 19 July 2008 0832PDT, lat31n40, lon133w38, cog220M, sog8.5kn

Cirrus on Day 3

2008-07-18T21:45:00.000-07:00

Standings didn't change a lot. Still 5th in division, and overall moved to 19 out of 54 (a slight improvement). Of course, the night without spinnaker made us fall back. But distance to the first boat is only 20 miles; some catch-up is still possible. As we are rated the slowest boat, all other boats of the division owe us time of up to 8h at the finish line.

This morning 8am we set the spinnaker again, and had a fantastic day at 8+ kn speeds in mounting waves. It has become something like a roller coaster ride, when big and heavy Cirrus rides up a wave and then slides down the hill - coming even a bit into surf mode - then dives into the next wave, scooping up a load of water. Or she comes to a sudden stop when falling into the valley behind a wave, shaking all her rigging and sails. It feels a bit like driving a school bus down a ski slope. Today Howard set an all time record on Cirrus with an average 8.7 kn over a >1 mile distance. That is more than Cirrus supposedly can do. Also, Chris got his Spinnaker-Diploma today, with his first helm time with a spinnaker up. And under those conditions it was not easy; he mastered it well. Adrenalin was flowing freely.

And guess what - the spinnaker stays up during the night! Mutiny canceled.

Today we decided to head over to Mom's Dinner place for a homemade, delicious lasagne. But it turned out that the thing was so thoroughly frozen that we wouldn't be able to thaw it in time for dinner without carbonizing the outside. Fortunately the Can-tina was still open, and so we had noodle soup with chicken. How can it possibly be frozen that much? Well, we have a cooler/freezer installed in the galley, which runs on battery power. And it needs a lot of it, so that we, if we were using it, needed to do the unpleasant thing of running the engine often to recharge the batteries (during that period the propeller must be disengaged to avoid taking illegal advantage of motor power). What we do instead is to stack the freezer with the frozen meals, and put a lot of dry ice around and between those food packets, and then even seal the freezer with tape to eliminate any air circulation. This freezes the food to the temperature of dry ice, which is -76(?, where is Google when you need it) deg Celsius. Then we take out one dinner package at a time and put in a camping-cooler, to cool other stuff while it thaws. You simply need to plan ahead and take into account that solid blocks like lasagne take a bit longer to thaw. This dry ice lasts for about 10 days in our setting; after that we run on battery power.
No sun, moon, or ... oh, I believe I said this before. We still have full cloud cover. How could the old folks navigate using celestial bodies when there weren't any to see? Well, I guess they didn't ;->, and had to rely on dead-reckoning using compass and measured boat speed.

Aloha, Ulli

P.S. I'm sorry that I may have created some confusion about commenting of a kind, which could be construed as illegal outside help. Clearly, none of the comments were anywhere near this border, so please, keep going! But it is a racing rule, and interestingly one that matters only since few years, as those modern abilities of communication simply weren't there before. Has any reader ever heard of "outside help" in a racing context due to information given via a blog?

position: 18 July 2008 2024PDT, lat 32n27, lon 132w09, cog 230, sog 8.3

Cirrus on Day 2

2008-07-17T22:26:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I think the comments are more exciting than the text I am posting ... keep going, we enjoy it! Remember: we can read the comments, but we do not see the posts themselves. By the way: please do not comment with information which could be considered "outside help"; this would be against the race rules and we could get some penalty. If Valerie does it as a post it is ok, as we cannot read the posts themselves! Question to our readers: are sun, moon and stars still there? We haven't seen them any more.

We are still 5th in division, but take a little bit of comfort that we had the best day's run of the division, and three of them are behind us. Since we are ranked as the slowest boat in the division, this is particularly pleasing. We did go a bit more south than the others, which means that we were heading less directly to the finish line than we others, and therefore our best performance did not translate into a better position. Cirrugator (our routing program, see www.cirrugator.com) wants us there, and the wind angle also would not let us go much higher under spinnaker.
Thanks for the message on Tiki Blue, we had not known it. Ripping two spinnakers can really inconvenience you! We have similar experience from past races, fortunately only with one spinnaker. Bill may have learned the lesson and become more careful, as you'll see in a minute.
Last night was a rough ride. We had the white sails up and were making very good speed in mounting waves and wind. Again full cloud cover, but thanks to a full moon bright enough to lighten the clouds we could even see the horizon. Only a bit of drizzling every now and then. But it was wild. Some faces did get a touch of that green hint that was usually seen on the first day, but had been absent this time. The sea is mounting further, with waves getting into the 2-3m scale, plus big swells. Such pattern is generally more typical for later in the race. When it became a bit quieter around noon, we raised the spinnaker and made good progress. Bill wanted to take it down for the night. Well, we are a tough crew and ready to go through the night with an apparent wind angle of 120 deg and 15 kn apparent wind; the protest this time became clearly more pronounced than yesterday, although not a mutiny (yet). The spinnaker came down. Soon after the wind peeked to over 25 kn; which could have made it spinnaker rip #1 of our race. (Why does Bill have to be right twice in a row, damnit!) Unfortunately, wind has come down again, so it not looking that exciting in the moment.
A small mishap when taking down the spinnaker: the guy (= a line holding the sail) jammed in the cleat of the pole due to debris from chafe of the guy blocking it. Bill played a bit the famous Titanic scene in standing in the pulpit at the bow, leaning out to pry the cleat open.
The Can-tina had opened today with Chef's Chili. Quite nice, actually.
We see some faint light on the horizon; likely big ships. We'll watch out for them and may have to call them on the radio, if they are getting too close for comfort.
Aloha, Ulli

position: July 17, 2008, 2201PDT, lat 33n48, lon129w12, cog228M, sog 7,4kn

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Cirrus on Day 1

2008-07-16T21:44:00.000-07:00

Our position of today was 5th in division, which was a bit disappointing. To top it off, a sailboat came up behind us, spinnaker set. It later turned out to be Tiki Blue, from the C division, who had started an hour later. These are boats faster than Cirrus by design, but still, it is not pleasing that someone comes up from behind. Then they seemed to have difficulties keeping the course, fell off quite a bit south, then changed to white sails and sailed north, then to a different spinnaker, then we saw them dressed again fully in white. Behind us! Ah, that did well!
How did we recover? Seeing them with spinnaker made us rethink our options, and we decided to set our big 1.5oz spinnaker, although we had to go more south than we wished for. Driving became a bit more interesting, but performance was awesome. The wind angle at 95-100 deg apparent was not well suited for spinnaker, but we managed well over 8 kn average SOG throughout the afternoon, which is kind of the limit for Cirrus. Bill decided to take the spinnaker down for the night, among (mild) protest from our side. But it turned out to be a good decision. Shortly after the wind did the long expected hike up to 20 kn, but the wind angle remained unfavorable for spinnaker. Now under white sails we are making close to 8 kn; looks good so far.
The weather this year is really sailor friendly. Although from the start we had a full cloud cover - no sun, no moon, no stars so far - but due to the full moon the night was surprisingly bright. And not quite as cold as expected; double long underwear under your pants and foul weather gear will do it for the night. I am using snow board gloves, but my hands were cold at the end of my night shift. We are so bundled up, I am always reminded of big yellow teddy bears! We had some rain drizzling down throughout the night. Nevertheless, we are all doing well. None whatsoever of this first-days-sqeeziness. We had a few cans of noodle soup enriched with some cans of chicken meat for the first dinner - which is usually the most you can take, and often you like to go without any meal - but I guess we could just as well have had steak cooked rare with fried onions! And a beer (but this is not served on this boat). For dinner today we had a few cans of clam chowder, which was also very nice. I guess this year we will have less of "Chef Mom's Dinner" but more of "Can-tina food"!
The small waves have changed to bigger waves, overlaid with some swells, but still easy to manage. However, we all got our workout at the helm when sailing under spinnaker. Cirrus, dressed in full spinnaker, liked to scoop up water with the bow and have the foredeck washed thoroughly, while spraying some to the cockpit. Many, many, many, many thanks to whoever convinced Bill of 1st) putting up a dodger, and 2nd) one with a window, and 3rd) with such a huge window! It is wonderful and helpful, and so far we stay dry behind it.
Aloha, Ulli

Position: July 16, 2008, 2132PDT, lat 35N28.7, Lon 125W58.2, cog225M, sog 7.9kn

Cirrus on the Start Day

2008-07-15T20:36:00.000-07:00

Finally the race has started and everything is going well. Although we must admit that the start itself brought a bit more excitement than we cared about: it was a tight situation, with suddenly four boats converging on the starting line, and Cirrus being one of them. Why getting us in such a tight spot, where one wrong move could have ended the race for us? Those few extra seconds surely do NOT determine the outcome of a long distance ocean race. But all were lucky, nothing but the adrenalin shock remained.
After that we smoothly went out, passing the Golden Gate bridge as second. Again, nothing that will determine the outcome of the race, as others who went out first and ended last can tell about. However, this is the only time in the race when anyone can watch you, and you do want to show off! Nobody will be there to see you during the race, and not even when we cross the finish line, as it is pretty much out in the ocean.
And we also don't see others. Today about 5 hours after the start the last sailboat dropped out of sight. We are now alone on the ocean on our little disc of some 5 nautical miles. From looking around me I can assure you that the earth is a disc - forget this modern nonsense about the earth being a ball of some kind. Flat it is!
Considering it is the San Francisco area, it was almost a nice day: mostly overcast, rather flat sea with waves only at some 2 feet and no swells to speak off, not raining(!), only as cold that regular ski underwear under full foul weather gear is sufficient, and the boat heeling no more than 45 degrees with a rail in the water. Cozy, so to say! But the typical sqeeziness in the stomach is absent. No fish feeding ceremonies yet! That is how good it is around here.

This night we are expecting a significant wind increase, almost doubling current moderate wind speeds. I will be an interesting night and next day.

It is 8:30pm PDT, I am heading for the bed. Next workday begins at 3:40am.

Aloha, Ulli

Position: 2008-07-15 2032 PDT, Lat 37N19.5, Lon 123W09.2. COG(Course over Ground) 218M, SOG (Speed over Ground)6.3kn

Phew!

2008-07-13T11:58:00.000-07:00

Shocking news on Saturday morning: the batteries can't be charged by the engine! Translation: no charging --> no racing!

Batteries and the rest of the electrical system were checked at the recent haulout at the boatyard, and all passed with flying colors. Back at the dock shore power was applied and all was fine. But good skippers have the strange habit of double-checking everything, and thereby Bill noticed that the engine won't charge the batteries, although he couldn't see anything wrong. It is Saturday noon, the mandatory skippers meeting coming up, and we need to get going. Boatyards wouldn't open till Monday. But because our start is on Tuesday, a tiny little bit of hope is left that we might get a replacement for that broken alternator, or whatever might have failed, and might get it installed. But maybe not.

Well, it helps to have a friend with a marine electrics and electronics business. Michael came out on Sunday morning at 8am(!) and fixed the problem in no time (only a bad connection; but you have to find it first). Phew! That seemed like a close call.

So, if your electric/electronic stuff on the boat is acting up, give Michael of Pardee Marine,LLC a call at 1-510-282-7282, or send him an email at michael @ pardeemarine.com. Mahalo to Michael for his quick and competent support!

Ulli

Friday, July 11,2008

2008-07-11T15:59:00.000-07:00

If it's not one thing it's another. How about the head falling off a bolt that holds the HEAD together. Of course there are four more that are probably just ready to fail. Wouldn't that be fun 100 miles off shore, going to weather in 30 knots of wind and 10 foot seas.

The other news is more upbeat. By popular demand decided to get a dodger for the return trip, so we would not have to wrap a storm sail around the cockpit like we did for the delivery. At first I was going to get something really simple with no window. Just solid fabric (to save money and time). Well, popular demand entered again so I told the dodger maker to put in a window. She said that she had a nice big piece of plastic, and did I want a big window (no extra charge). I said, "Why not."

You can see the result.

Cirrus at KKMI

2008-07-01T08:50:00.000-07:00

Small Sample of Excess Food

2008-07-01T08:45:00.000-07:00

Bill!!! doing Dishes!!!! and Skipper with new Friend

2008-07-01T08:39:00.000-07:00

More Photos

2008-07-01T08:32:00.001-07:00

Some Photos from the Trip

2008-07-01T08:23:00.000-07:00

Almost there

2008-06-18T15:02:00.000-07:00

Had a call from Bill -- they had passed the SF Buoy and were in cell phone range. Anticipate reaching RYC around 4 PM PDT
Happiness from Honolulu to Point Richmond!
(posted by Valerie)

Jan's Paint By Numbers - Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 3:08 pm

2008-06-18T09:01:00.000-07:00

This will by my last writing while on board Cirrus. Today is Tina's birthday, I ordered sun as my birthday present to her and currently it is shining brightly. Happy Birthday Tina!
John, Chuck will call you after we enter the Bay. We would greatly like to be picked up. We can discuss itinerary after we dock. Thank you and looking forward to seeing you.
Dawna, I will call you after we enter the Bay. My cell phone is charged and ready to go. I will call others after we dock (maybe wait until after I find a shower, not that I need one. . . HA! I haven't washed my hair for over a week or combed it for 4 days. Talk about a rat's nest!)
Julie, I miss our talks, and I'm looking forward to blabbing with you. Hi to Christina, I was wondering if you got moved; I hope you are enjoying your new place. I'm looking forward to catching up.
Chuck has the prize for the most water in the cockpit. This morning he was driving some on my shift and a huge wave broke over the boat side. A waterfall of saltwater went cascading down the companion way.
Well I have to sign off, dinner is ready. Our last dinner on board: New York Steak and mashed potatoes! Complements to chef Bill!

Wednesday, 18 June 2008

2008-06-18T08:53:00.000-07:00

0600 position (Hawaii Standard Time), that would be 0900 PDT 37N37 123W25 C052M, APP WND 257 S20

In the last 24 hours we went 139 Nm and we have 45 Nm to go to the
Golden Gate.

Reaching in 25-30 knot winds and big seas for the last couple days. Two reefs in the main and almost no jib (most of the time).

Haven't sighted land yet but the Farallon Islands are just behind the curvature of the earth.

Best guess is 1500 PDT at the Golden Gate and another hour or so to Richmond Yacht Club. I am nurturing the fantasy that we might win the beer can race in the special category of boats who by accident rounded Oahu.

Lets hear it for the crew. Dan, Tina, Jan and Chuck. These people have been there, believe me. I've not sufficient words to thank them. As for praise, it would take forever. I'm completely humbled.

That's it for the 2008 delivery part of the blog. Bye!

Tuesday, 17 June 2008

2008-06-17T09:24:00.001-07:00

0600 position 37N46 126W21 C084M S6.8, APP WND 260 S27

We have gone 153 Nm in the last 24 Hours and have 184 Nm to go.
Two reefs in main, jib mostly furled. Beam reaching and running to try to stay out of the way of some nasty swells.
8-10 feet at least and winds often over 30 knots.

If we get in in time for the beer can race one of my crew, Daniel Langford, is looking for a ride. Just stop by Cirrus and pick him up. What the heck, I might be looking for a ride myself.

Looks like the tide at the Golden Gate on Wednesday could not be more perfect. A flood starting at 0837, peaking at 3.5 knots at 1145 and lasting until 1506. Hope we make that window.

What a textbook delivery. This is exactly what the Pacific cup racers can expect on their return trip. Up to 40 North and through the high into a week long drive back into the Bay Area. The first part pretty easy, the last part a bit tougher; windy, bumpy, overcast and cold.

Jan's Paint By Words - Monday, June 16, 2008 at 4:46 pm

2008-06-17T09:24:00.000-07:00

Thank you every one for your e-mails. Nice to hear from you Linda. Dawna, I've done the first one on page 28. Julie and Josh, Chuck says thanks for the Happy Fathers Day wish. Thank you Susan, Doug and Kris for watching over our boat. Thank you Susan for the loan of towels, clothes pins, socks and boots. They are coming in handy. Thank you Tod and Sherry for watering my plants.
As I write this, we are less than 300 miles from land! Yee Haw!!! Cirrus seems to know, as she has picked up some speed and feels more determined!
"Sleep! I need Sleep!" continued. . .
Making the bed. I was going to go into minute detail, but I decided not to put YOU to sleep. So, short version. . . I've been using a lee cloth, which keeps me from perclunking onto the floor. With the boat rocking and rolling, I make my bed one handed; the other hand is holding on for dear life. The red night light doesn't light up my bed, so to add to the challenge, I do it in the dark!
My sleeping bag is big, warm, fluffy and flannel. It's like being in heaven, once I finally get in it. As I settle for the night, (one hour after getting off watch) the lee cloth cradles me, the sleeping bag cuddles and warms me, I start to relax and then start my next exercise program: Jello aerobics.
As I have mentioned before, this boat never stops moving. Laying in bed, my body starts moving in time with the boat: up, down, forward, backward, sideways, sideways, pauses, suspended in air, dropping, etc. It actually is quite relaxing. As my muscles let go, I turn into Jello and soon I am . . . zzzzzzzzz. . .

Arrival

2008-06-16T18:39:00.000-07:00

If everything works perfectly we will arrive at the Richmond Yacht Club in Point Richmond, CA sometime in the afternoon of Wednesday, 18 June 2008. The harbor master has already said that all the end ties are free. I'll probably go to the end of "C" dock. There will be a "beer can" race at the club that afternoon. That means there will be a lot of people around and the club kitchen will be open for "cook it yourself" hamburger dinners.

On the approach to the Golden Gate we'll be making a lot of cell phone calls to friends. On my list at the moment are:
Valerie
Judith and R.B. Ward
Dave and Lisa Littlejohn
Wladek and Uta Swiatecki
Kim and Lou Ickler

If you would like to be called send us your name and phone number as a comment to the blog or directly to our email address:

Monday, 16 June 2008

2008-06-16T09:16:00.001-07:00

0600 position 38N11 129W35 C060M S7.1, APP WND 284 S20.4, seas 4-6 feet, overcast.

We went 133 Nm in the last 24 hours and have 337 Nm to go. Noon (or later Wednesday looks good. Two more nights.

Let's hear it for the provisioning team. Tina with serious help from Donna and Lindsey and probably others has done a fantastic job of stocking the boat for this delivery trip.

And for the race, the next delivery, the race after that and for future adventures as yet undreamed of.

Many of you know that my provisioning style involves six tote boxes strapped down on the starboard bench in the main cabin. Then we put some water bottles behind the benches, some frozen stuff in the reefer and some perishables forward in picnic coolers. This time there were 3 coolers instead of 2 and an extra tote box just floating around. I'm still sleeping with a bag of Krustez Buttermilk Pancake Mix big enough to serve as the grand prize at a rodeo.

Well. We have managed to put a dent in the frozen stuff, but the reefer is still almost full to the top. When I was looking in the tote boxes for a place to put some crackers I found there wasn't any. I know we have been using things so there must be space somewhere. Actually, the tote boxes are still full because they were packed so densely and now they have been stirred up. The coolers forward are mostly empty except for tons of chips and crackers. There is a bucket half full of grapefruit and another of apples. All of which seem to be keeping well. I'm told there are a couple watermelons somewhere. My guess is that the race crew will do a better job of finishing off the supplies.

Because of the difficult conditions that have prevailed since the last tack a lot of the food prep has fallen to the skipper. This has resulted in several interesting - if not to say "unique" - presentations. Yesterday for example. Lunch was 2-3 cans of green beans cooked in 2-3 cans of clam chowder. Magnifique! Dinner a simple - yet elegant - roasted tri-tip steak with mashed potatoes (Powdered) prepared by simply by pouring the powder into a boiling pot of peas. There was general agreement that both meals served to maintain the standard that people have have come to expect.

Jan's Paint By Words - Sunday, June 15, 2008, 4:33 pm

2008-06-16T09:16:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, I haven't written for a few days because the change in tack has left me a little woozy. I've been carrying my zippy bag around, just in case. (but haven't used it) But I don't feel like typing much (or even doing paint by numbers, I'll have to check out page 28). Thanks for all your e-mails and best wishes. I'll get back to my sleep story eventually.

Sunday, 15 June 2008

2008-06-15T09:08:00.000-07:00

0600 position, 38N22 132W25 C085M S6.5, APP WND 300 S18.6

We have come 140 Nm in the last 24 hours and we have 470 Nm to go.

It is looking good for a Wednesday arrival.

Responding to Chris' comment to yesterdays blog. Right on. The weather prediction (even in some of it's finer details) seems to have been designed just to give us a nice ride into SF. Yesterday's GRIB for the next four day's run was a little intimidating at first. Starting at 20 knots where we were located but increasing steadily toward SF, 25-30-35......... But the next day's map shows the intensity starting down (but still 20 at our new location). Same thing for the day after and the day after that. Twenty knots all the way. Talk about "Intelligent Design" Somebody is looking out for us.

Ulli's program, Cirrugator, shows us home in 3 days. Problem is that the program doesn't know that there 6-8 foot seas, we have two reefs in the main and a half furled jib.

As I write this the wind is pushing back up to 23-24-... Something we are no longer happy to see. Twenty is plenty. Twenty three is half again as punishing, and 25 is twice as fierce (SINCE IT GOES LIKE THE CUBE).

Saturday,14 June 2008

2008-06-14T09:02:00.002-07:00

0600 position, 39N04 135W20 C097M S5.8, APP WND 300 S23

We went 141 Nm in the last 24 hours. 610 Nm to go. Pretty unlikely that we can do that in less than four days. So, it's looking like a Wednesday arrival at the moment.

Just as the sun was setting yesterday (gusting to 25 and over, 6-8 ft. seas and building)
I had the thought, "Wonder if we should put in another reef?" As most of you sailors know, that is one of those questions whose answer is "YES". So we did it. Lots of fun up there at the mast. After that it was motor sailing with two reefs in the main and a jib about 3 feet on a side.

As an aside; I was driving during the night and thought I was on autopilot but I wasn't. Good old Cirrus, just plugging along into all this weather by herself with no hand on the wheel.

Speaking of "Good old Cirrus" she sure punches her way through this chop nicely. We've got big bumpy waves close together and it is really tough on the crew. But a more modern boat with a thinner hull would be really scary in these conditions. Lots of "oil canning", hull flexing, and noise. That's not to say that we are having a good time. Hard sailing for the next couple days.

Jan's Paint By Words - Friday the13th, June 2008, 4:20 pm

2008-06-14T09:02:00.001-07:00

To blog or not to blog? Ah yes. . . that is the question.
Thank you Dawna and Julie for your e-mails. Julie, I'm glad you figured out how to send it. I'm so happy to hear from you; it made my day!
Sleep! I NEED SLEEP! You'd think that after numerous day naps, I wouldn't be so tired after my night shift. After all, it ends at only 9 pm.
When on watch, I give it my 110% attention and concentration. At the beginning, end, and every 10 minutes during my 3 hours, I scrutinize the horizon line for ships. That's 19 times! (I really, really, really don't want to run into one!) I concentrate on wind angle ( Which is ever changing by 10-20 degrees) and compass heading. In between all that is the really hard work of day (or night) dreaming, star gazing, and reflecting on moon reflections. I wrote a haiku for you Karen:
Night sky, mast head light.
Direction arrow waltzes with the Big Dipper.
Dancing with stars, over ocean.
Is that a haiku?
Oh! I forgot . . . I was going to talk about sleep!
The main salon has a bunk on each side, then a bench on each side. Tina has the starboard bunk. The starboard bench seat has 6 crates of provisions strapped to it. Chuck has the port side bunk and I have the port side bench seat. I like to call it the nauti-sofa. I keep my bed cleaned off during the day (toss stuff up on Chuck's bunk) so anyone can sit on it.
I'd better start talking about sleep now, or I may never get to it.
Every night, when I get off watch, I have to make my bed. Last night, we were heeled to starboard. Just getting down the companion way gave me a whole weeks workout of exercise!
Before I can make the bed, I have to get out of my life jacket and foul weather gear, then stow it. Then, of course, use the head. Remember before? I said to use your imagination in the head and multiply by 5 1/2? Well. . . change that to 25 1/2! I believe that I now qualify for the gymnast Olympics!
Back to making the bed. Well, sorry, I have get ready to go on watch now. I will continue this in my next blog.

Ode To Our Sixth Crew Member by Dan - Friday, June 13, 2008

2008-06-14T09:02:00.000-07:00

Ode To Our Sixth Crew Member

She set sail with six and only six,
but a mere five did stand the watch.

The sixth was free to say what he pleased,
as long as he stayed within his notch.

They all knew the sixth and depended on the sixth,
because he kept them straight and true.

But, on the tenth day the sixth mate did say,
without a word "he's through."

The five replied in one great plea,
"Auto I will lay my hammer upon YOU!"

With out a moan, just a series of beeps,
Auto pointed us to Honolulu.

On-shore crew: Bernard grosse Piening

2008-06-14T04:54:00.001-07:00

I am happy to announce a new addition to Cirrus' on-shore crew : As we all know, you can't let a Hi-Tec boat such as Cirrus go on the water without computer servers humming ashore, and without a proper, fully staffed IT department. Bernard will be that department; he is in the process of taking over from me. This will make sure that also during the race the blog stays clean and shiny, all blog posts -wherever they may go, sigh- will be faithfully restored to the main site, Cirrugator, Demo and tracking charts will be updated, and whatever requests may come up will be worked on. His Linux-savvyness will prove helpful for the more exotic tasks.

Since he does not have much experience in boating, let alone offshore racing, he is looking forward to his first experiences in a field so different from his regular job of engineering big scale industrial sites.

Please, welcome Bernard!
Ulli

Friday, 13 June 2008

2008-06-13T09:15:00.001-07:00

0600 position, 39N45 138W20 C090M S6.1, APP WND 310 S15-20

Finally moving again. 135 Nm in the last 24 hr. 751 to go. That's probably at least 5 days.

Yesterday started out drizzly but soon cleared to cloudless blue. Crisp cool bite to the air. Feels like fall.

Sorry about sending some notes to last years blog. Thought I had that fixed but it came back.

Party Time

2008-06-13T09:15:00.000-07:00

Jan's Paint By Words, Thursday, June 12, 2008 at 3:11 pm

2008-06-12T13:00:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! I decided not to write a blog today. I am too busy being lazy. I've been enjoying endless scenery of blue skis and bluer water (saw a huge cargo ship on the horizon today), reading (this month's Reader's Digest), snacking (fresh baked bread (thank you Tina!) for breakfast, quesadillas for lunch (thank you Chuck!), dried fruit, Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookies and sweet grapefruit), working on my Paint By Numbers, and last but not least, my favorite hobby. . . napping (every boat needs to have a bean bag in its cockpit!)
P.S. Hi Dawna, I appreciate all your e-mails and support. You are indeed a special sister. I Love you!
[recovered from 2007 blog :-\ , ulli]

Thursday, 12 June 2008

2008-06-12T09:23:00.000-07:00

0600 p0sition, 40N11 141W14 C003M S7.2, APP WND 029 S15

motor sailing with 1 reef in main and full jib.

We have 886 Nm to go. That is only 51 Nm closer than we were yesterday.
We're having a tough time getting across this HIGH. Wind right on the nose. Have to aim at Alaska or Mexico. Cirrugator says Alaska is the better pick so that is what we are doing.

A little squeak and a little stink when starting the engine. Shut it down and tightened the belt a bit. Constant vigilance.

Well, that wasn't so hard. We had just about given up on the autopilot when Chris sent a note that the factory service people suggested, "A temporary fix to the problem is to rap gently but solidly on the chrome ring that
surrounds the drive unit with a mallet." That is to say....... "Hit it a rap with a hammer." You guessed it. It started working again. None the less I'll probably try to get the drive serviced in SF since it still is a little erratic.

The weather maps and Ulli's routing program "Cirrugator" clearly indicate that we need to keep on plugging northeast for another day. That way, when we tack, it'll be a sled ride down into SF. Tacking sooner would probably result in our having to pinch up at some point to lay the Golden Gate.

I could use a little more shore support. We would like a schedule of tidal currents at the Golden Gate for Tuesday and Wednesday and maybe Thursday (at the rate we are going) June 17-19. Don't need tide, only current. Only a schedule of floods and ebbs.

Tina's Thoughts

2008-06-11T18:50:00.001-07:00

This morning, Weds, the cry went up, "FISH". Sure enough Jan's efforts paid off when Chuck flung aboard a 2 1/2 foot maui maui. Jan is a pro at cleaning fish and soon we were eating a delicious lunch of fresh baked fish, mashed potatoes, and fancy chocolate for dessert. LIFE IS GOOD!
We appreciate the responses to the blog but can not always reply due to the limitations of the sailmail system, or rather my ability to utilize it.
Currently we have returned to our ol' familiar starboard tack to head further North. The 4-6 hour on port tack was quite disorienting. Not just extremely bumpy, but everything was reversed. We have to brace ourselves on the head or slide off. Cooking dinner required the safety strap. Steering took a while to adjust, up wind is now down wind, etc. Worse of all, I reexperienced Mal de Mer due to the rough conditions. Theoretically one is suppose to get their sea legs by the third day out. Theories, ah! C'est la vie.
One of the great things about being aboard Cirrus is getting to hang out with Bill. He is amazing. Bill easily identified the lights of a passing ship as a tug with a tow. He later commented that after all he did have a 100 ton master captain's license and had to learn lights. Yes, but what is so amazing is that he can remember them. We are all benefiting from the daily mini celestial navigation lessons.
I'm really enjoying my responsibilities aboard. Bill expects me to drive the boat as I see fit, which includes making decisions. Of course big changes are always discussed. Gee, it's like he actually thinks I know what I'm doing. And after 6000 blue water miles, maybe I do. Last night on my 9-12 watch I was thrilled when a few stars came out to provide a sense of direction. Such simple things are a gift at sea. I promise to pay more attention to the night sky once we return to land, it is so wondrous.
Take care, love to you all, Tina

Jan's Paint By Words Wednesday, June 11, 2008 1:27 pm

2008-06-11T18:50:00.000-07:00

Something fishy is going on. . . or so we wished.
Bill's fishing pole consists of a flat paddle-like spool, about 8" x 12" with a handle sticking out the middle of one side. When you hold the handle, the paddle can spin around. This is the 'reel', so to speak. There is no rod.
The fish lure is a rubber squiddy thingy that dangles over a double hook attached to about 10-15 feet of very heavy (about 2 1/2 ton test?) mono-filament line. This is attached to about 147.32 feet of parachute cord which is attached to the reel. A few feet from the reel is a bungee cord loop tied onto the parachute cord. This bungee cord gets looped onto a cleat and acts as a shock absorber. Whew! I hope you got the picture.
We trailed this in the water all day Sunday and Monday with no luck. Tuesday was so rough, no one felt like putting it out.
This morning (Wednesday) Chuck put out the line about 6:30 am. About an hour later, Chuck saw a fish! . . . bungee jumping in our wake!!! I was at the helm (remember? My watch is 6 to 9, am & pm).
As Chuck started pulling the fish in, hand over hand method, Bill came up the companion way with gaffe hook in hand. Chuck got the fish to the boat and after a brief wrestling match, the fish found itself on the cockpit floor pinned down with one of Bill's boots on its head and the other boot on its body. The 2 1/2 foot long fish showed its extreme displeasure by thrashing its tail, to no avail.
What kind of fish was it? Well. . . I've never seen one in person before, but I thought it was a Rare Sparkling Yellow Bellied, Blue Parrot Headed, Spiky tailed Bungee Jumping Fish. Bill called it a Mahi-Mahi.
I cleaned it, filleted it, sliced some for sushi and put it in the oven for lunch. Delicious !!!!
If you ever have the inclination to go bungee jumping, I would advise you to think twice!

Guess who's comiing to dinner!

2008-06-11T13:59:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, 11 June 2008

2008-06-11T12:50:00.001-07:00

[Note from ulli: posts went to the wrong blog; just quickly corrected and now need to go back to the TV : Swiss is leading Turkey 1 to nothing in the European Championship!]

0600 position, 37N54 142W15 C346M S6.7, APP WND 067 S17

It was a SLOWWWWWWWWWWWW day. 58 Nm. Tacking back and forth into 20-28 knot winds 6-8 foot seas with one reef in the main and a half furled jib. Not a whole lot of fun. In addition the autopilot is getting cranky and we have to steer a lot.

If someone wants to do a little research they could call Raymarine and ask what the trouble might be when the unit begins to fail more and more often, with the message "DRIVESTOP". The manual says to check the position sensor. Looks OK. The control unit is a ST6001+, The course computer is their biggest and best, the drive is the biggest linear electric ram. I wonder if the drive unit is just getting old and tired.

The crew is doing well. What a bunch of troopers for a group of first time ocean crossers.

Yesterdays big adventure was pouring 8 jerry cans of fuel into the tank that we had been using. A lot of work in the bumpy conditions. We managed to do it without spilling a drop. Well, maybe one drop.

Jan's Paint By Words Tuesday, June 10, 2008, 4:46 pm

2008-06-11T12:47:00.000-07:00

You may be wondering. . . Isn't Jan scared? Trapesing across the big ocean in a little boat. She's never done that before.
Well, the answer is yes, I've had my moments. Anytime I do something that I've never done before, I have little twinges of fear. (ok, sometimes BIG twinges of fear!) Sometimes to learn, I have to step out of my comfort zone.
Part of overcoming fear is having confidence. First of all, I CAN DO IT!
I also have confidence in our crew, knowing that when they are on watch, they are giving it their all. Any one of us is willing to hop out of bed the moment we are needed.
Having trust in Cirrus is one of the most important confidences. Cirrus is strong and proven.
The most important, is to have confidence in our Skipper. Cirrus will not sail by herself. Bill is very knowledgeable, strong, experienced, a good problem solver, patient, and a good teacher and story teller. He is the greatest!

Tuesday, 10 June 2008

2008-06-10T09:30:00.001-07:00

0600 position, 36N35 143W27 C073M S4.4, APP WND 330 S20

Our slowest day yet at 104 Nm. A couple hours of motoring straight into the wind. We were aimed straight at SF and I couldn't decide what tack I wanted to be on. By the way, we just dropped a digit. It is now 999 Nm to go.

A (really rough estimate of our arrival time in SF is a week from today (Tuesday, 17 June) or sooner.

We had the reef out of the main for a little while but it is back in now. The jib is half furled.

We passed the halfway point yesterday (gone 1100 to go). Decided to celebrate by doing the one tack of the trip (stbd to port). Mistake. It started to get cold right away. I almost froze during the evening party. (68 deg)

Around midnight we found ourselves on an almost parallel (but converging) course with something REALLY BIG (a tug and tow). The radar and the good binoculars were helpful in identifying them. They never did respond to 16. So, finally, we cracked off and went behind.

Dan says Caroline cautioned him against using the bunk beside the engine because it is noisy. (The skipper often having nothing better to do than charge the batteries.) Dan, who spends a lot of time on submarines, says it sounds to him a lot like a lullaby.

Jan's Paint By Words Tuesday, June 10, 2008

2008-06-10T09:30:00.000-07:00

Everyone on board is required to do an exercise program. It is not elective. It is mandatory! We all must do it. We can't sluff off and only do a little. The exercises include, stretching, stair stepping, reaching, grabbing, steering, clambering about like a goat on a steep cliff, bumping legs, stubbing toes and even sleeping. This exercise program started Sunday, June 1st at 4 pm and goes 24/7 until we reach San Francisco.
When the boat is at a constant heel, day and night, even simple things like putting your pants on, becomes an exercise routine of balance, leaning, falling over and collecting more bruises.
I'm not going to talk about using the head, but if you use your imagination . . . and multiply it by 5 1/2 . . .
No one is complaining. I am actually enjoying it. Some times, I have to laugh at some of the positions I get in. I can feel my muscles and joints getting stronger. Yee Ha !!!
The 1st week was a constant heel to port side. The last couple of days have been calmer, because we are motoring through minimum wind. We will soon be into strong wind coming for the North, so will spend the rest of the trip heeled to starboard side.
I'm looking forward to a new set of exercises (including setting up the lee cloth on my bed). I'll probably collect more bruises so I can finish the Monet paint of yellows, purples, greens, blacks and blues on my legs!

Writings from Chuck:

I Was Here

I was here. That is the mark I left.
It's probably not here any more.
It either blew away or floated away.
Take a globe and find San Francisco (it's on th 38th latitude on the West coast of the United States). Draw a line from San Francisco, west along the 38 degree line until you reach Korea. Now start at Hawaii and draw a line 45 degrees NE. Where the 2 lines cross is where I left my mark.
This is where I was on June 8, 2008.
Out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean,
1000 miles from anywhere; with sunny skies, warm air,
calm seas and nothing to see but water and sky.

Jan's Paint By Words Sunday, June 8, 2008

2008-06-09T09:14:00.001-07:00

Hi Dawna, Thanks for the funny joke! and happy half-way birthdays to us (birthday music playing . . .) Hi Gary, thanks for the garden update. Sorry about your corn. Now I don't feel so bad that I didn't plant mine yet! I bet my peas are growing like weeds! Hi Todd & Sherry, thanks for the good wishes.
Today was shower day. Not much wind. I did manage to squeak 4 knots of speed from 4 knots of wind, but most of the morning we were doing 2-3 knots or less. The ocean was so calm, Tina suggested shower time! Bill and Dan hooked up a salt water hose up on the bow deck. We all donned our swim suits and took turns. A bottle of fresh water for a final rinse and we were all squeaky clean!
After the first couple of days, appetites picked up. (I no longer carry a zippy in my pocket.) Tina did a super job provisioning the boat. what an overwhelming task! Food, drink and snacks for five people for 21 days in limited space and refrigeration.
Dan make the most delicious French toast and scrambled eggs with fruit for breakfast, several mornings. I don't know how he managed because I was at the helm and the seas were rough and we were heeled way over. We also have fresh French Pressed coffee!
Lunches have been mostly sandwiches and salads.
Some of the dinners have been scrumptious pork chops, tastiest meat loaf and lasagna. We all gather in the cockpit for dinner and lively conversation. Bill always has interesting stories to tell as the sun goes down. Story example: (short version) The earth turns 1 degree every 4 minutes. The sun is 1/2 degree in diameter. Therefore when the sun touches the horizon, it takes 2 minutes for it to sizzle out of sight. 'The green flash' is the very tippy top of the sun, right before it blinks out of sight, it sometimes turns green. It's not really a 'flash'. We have seen it twice!!!

writing from Chuck:
All I can see from horizon to horizon is water.
The sky comes down from the heavens to meet the water.
Days from land and all that surrounds us is water.
On a little boat that is blown by the wind, across the water.

Monday morning (again), 9 June 2008

2008-06-09T09:14:00.000-07:00

0600, 9 June 2008, 36N15 145W34 C042M S6.0 APP WND 008 8.1

Motoring with furled jib and full main. Gone 1091, 1109 to go. Went 122 Nm in the last 24 hours.

I was pleased to see that my deliberately introduced error in the last blog elicited so many responses. Got to keep you guys on your toes.

What a great day. Since we were still worried about the cutlass bearing we sort of drifted to a stop yesterday morning at about 0830 when the wind died again. A cry went up for showers (we could have gone swimming). So we rigged the salt water system and had an hour long showering session (one at a time) on the fore deck. Fantastic. Lifted everyone's spirits.

Afterwards I decided to cautiously try putting the prop in gear while running the engine to charge the batteries. It seemed to work ok, so we motored for awhile until a little breeze picked up. Maybe the noise the other day was the folding prop jammed at a funny angle.

When we quit motoring Cirrus did her usual number in these light airs. At one point we were reaching at about 6 knots in an apparent wind of 5.3

Passed the 1000 Nm point at about 1400.

I had been doing my usual number on the crew about the "optimum" track from Hawaii to SF being marked with black balls about a foot in diameter. Sure enough, today we passed one after another (some close aboard) for the entire afternoon. More myths.
This morning the color of the balls changed from black to white. Probably because we are passing the halfway point.

Just before dinner we spotted a large number of dolphins about a quarter mile away. There were a dozen at a time leaping out of the water.

At 1600 yesterday we had been underway exactly one week. At 1017 Nm. that's a 6 knot, 145 Nm./day average.

As the sun came up this morning it revealed another freighter approaching from our port quarter. Big sign on the side said "Gearbulk". We picked this one up way off in the distance because of the morning sun and calm conditions. He agreed to change course to port in order to pass well ahead of us. (Freighter whisperer.) Otherwise he was pretty terse. It seems like the ships were a lot more chatty last year. (When Lindsey was making the calls.)

Tina's Two Cents

2008-06-08T14:56:00.000-07:00

I love this boat. Cirrus is as happy to be at sea as I am. Donna Austin's description that Cirrus just lays over and goes is PERFECT. This boat even does 5 knots in only 8 knots of wind, which I think is remarkable for such a heavy displacement boat. Cirrus goes to weather so ladylike, no pounding or fussing. It's a joy to be aboard.
Tonight in 10 knots of wind, making dinner was very comfortable down below. Again thanks to Donna and her amazing daughter Lindsey, we feasted on CostCo's finest - pot roast, noodles, & green beans. Their expertise on provisioning and galley management has been invaluable. We are all very grateful for Donna and Lindsey's four solid days of hard work spent shopping, hauling, packing, freezing, stowing so that we can eat this well. They are so generous with their time and energy.
Bill and I are already discussing how to reprovision the boat for the race. I suggested just flying Donna and Lindsey over San Francisco to help. I don't think he's going for it.(Let them eat Spam?)
We saw the fabled Green Flash tonight at sunset. This night's watch promises a starry sky with Cheshire cat smile of a moon. Love to all, Tina

Monday [Sunday, actually, ulli] morning, 8 June 2008

2008-06-08T09:15:00.000-07:00

0600, 8 June 2008, 35N08 147W53 C053M S5.3 APP WND 050 9.2

We have gone 129 Nm in the last 24 hours, which is not bad considering a lot of light (or no) air.
The GPS computer still says 9 days to SFO

Yesterday morning I thought we were punching into the long awaited HIGH that precedes the sled ride down into SFO. Nope. Not yet. The wind came back, then faded, then came back .........

So we decided to run the motor for a couple days and just push our way across. Noisy, but what the heck. Maybe we could get there in 13-14 days and impress everyone. After all, The boat is loaded down with a ton of fuel. (Enough for 6-7 days of continuous motoring.) Up until now we have hardly used any fuel. Even when charging the batteries, we were often going too fast to engage the prop.

Well, "push through" was not to be. After about 3-4 hours a bad vibration set in that I'm pretty sure is a shot cutlass bearing. (Last replaced 2 years ago at Swenson's.) So, it's back to sailing and hope for the best on getting across the high. It's so close. Wonder if we can go up and over?

Besides, it is after all an ocean racer. We don't need no stinking engine.

0600, Saturday, 7 June 2008

2008-06-07T08:59:00.001-07:00

33N47, 150W10, C039M, S6.3, motor sailing

San Francisco 1366 Nm, Kaneohe 840 Nm
136 Nm in the last 24 hours

More than 1/3 of the way.

Yesterday was absolutely glorious. All morning we charged along (as usual) with Cirrus feeling like the old work horse that knows it's headed for the barn at the end of the day. The wind still steady at 20 but clocking down more and more toward San Francisco. I happened to glance at the GPS "Time to Go" and "Oh my God!" we were in single digits. The computer was predicting that we would be in San Francisco in 9 days.

Then, around noon, the wind started to fall off and by 1400 we were down to about 15 knots. We cracked off a little. and Cirrus (true to form) was still doing 7.6 knots. (And the TTG is still 9 days.)

In the lighter wind the seas dropped to 1-2 ft, the clouds (what there were) all went away. What a glorious day.

This morning at 0400 the wind reversed direction a couple times (causing the auto pilot to have a fit) and then died. So now we are motoring with the apparent wind from ahead at the same speed as the boat speed. As I'm typing this the wind just kicked back in. That's probably going to be the story for the rest of the morning.

Jan' Paint by Words Friday, June 6, 2008

2008-06-07T08:59:00.000-07:00

Hello to all my friends, in laws, out laws, sister (Dawna), daughters with other halves (Christina & Desere and Julie & Josh), brother (Curtis), and everyone reading! It's very special for us on board to receive your messages. Thank you Steve, Dawna, (several times, especially the last one. You were in my thoughts during that first watch too), Todd & Sherry, Kris, and Karen. So everyone, please write! If you want to send something private and personal, go ahead - no one will read it . . . except any one who reads these blogs!
Monica (Chuck' niece), I thought about you last night during my watch. It was very dark; everyone was in their bunks. The ten hundred ka-trillion and one (seems like there are more every night) stars were out. The 2-day new moon was low on the horizon, sending a freeway wide river of moon reflection on the ocean from its self to the boat. I was standing on the bench behind the helm, just to starboard side, holding the back stay with my left hand, and my right hand was balancing in the wind. Cirrus was slicing thru the waves at 7.5 knots and heeled over just the same as we were when you were driving 'Wind Watcher' (Chuck's and my boat). Monica, you were in your element the and were really enjoying it. I felt like it wasn't the auto pilot steering, but your spirit was here steering. Master Of The High Seas!!!!
In case any one was wondering, I went my whole morning watch without getting splashed in the face. Yeah!

Pacific Cup website mirrors the Cirrus blog

2008-06-07T00:02:00.000-07:00

The Pacific Cup website mirrors the Cirrus blog in their "From our Racers" column. Cirrus is the only boat being shown there. Where are the others?

Does anyone know about other boats being en-route, and if they blog do you know their blog address?

Ulli

0600, 6 June 2008

2008-06-06T09:09:00.000-07:00

31N38, 152W05, C016M, S7.2, sailing with one reef still in and 115% jib. Apparent wind 20 kt at about 50 deg. apparent.

San Francisco 1502 Nm, Kaneohe 681 Nm

More than 1/4 of the way. By virtue of a 169 Nm day yesterday we have increased our average speed to 148 Nm per day for the first four days. Not bad for close reaching into 20 kt winds.

For people new to sailing it must seem strange to be reading all this bragging about going 7-8 knots. That's about 8-9 mph. You could go faster on a bicycle. Trust me. For us it is a big deal. For other sailors, like us, considering a similar trip it is interesting to note that we basically have not changed course or speed or point of sail or, for that matter, wind conditions, since we set out 5-6 days ago. Another point is that my original plan of going without a dodger was a really bad idea. I'm so glad we put the frame back on at the last minute. The protection we jury rigged out of a storm sail, on the way out the Sampan Channel, is not perfect, but it's a big help.

The health benefits might not be the first thing you think about when considering an ocean crossing in a small boat, but they are considerable. Just about everyone on the boat can probably expect to be more fit at the end of this voyage than they have ever been in their lives. Think about it. Six hours (watch) of aerobics a day, and the rest of the day spent in a small room lunging about at a 20 deg. angle. Even while sleeping. I'm a good example. At age 72 I've been (for the last year) waking up each morning with an ache in my lower back that goes away with some stretching exercises and a cup of coffee. On this trip the problem simply disappeared.

Jan's Painting By Words: 3

2008-06-05T22:56:00.001-07:00

During my watch last night, the sun sizzled out at 7:11 pm. The first stars twinkled on at 7:49 pm. By 8:20 pm, the stars were out in all their glory! When the sun sizzled into the ocean, it made such a huge hole that an hour and a half later the new moon fell right into it!
Not all of the waves are out to get me. Most of them just pass by, waving merrily. (I guess that's why they are called 'waves'). It is really interesting to watch how Cirrus handles each wave. Each one is different and Cirrus knows exactly what to do and she does it so smoothly! What a great boat!
This morning on my watch, one wave took its job seriously. It slammed the starboard hull and made a boom, loud enough to get Bill's attention. He came up the companion way and asked if the shrouds and the sails were ok, of which they were, because that wave was only after me. I did manage to duck, but I swear, that wave dumped a whole 5 gallon bucket of water on my head!
If you have a queasy stomach, you might want to stop reading here. I'm going to talk about sea-sick-ness. Are you still reading? Well . . . I warned you!
Bill and Dan don't seem to have any problems, but Tina, Chuck and I have had our spells. We aren't 'sick as dogs', but we have our moments.
Throwing up on a boat that is constantly moving and heeled to port at 20 to 40 degrees is indeed a challenge.
In my opinion, the hardest way is to throw up is over the boat side. For sure, not over the starboard side - the wind would blow it back and I'd much rather have a wave in my face, for sure, for sure.
Now, port side is a little easier. One practically has to lay down for it. With the body more or less straight, it gives more power for the previously consumed escapees and they get projected quite a ways out into the ocean. There is also quite an echo of all the accompanying belching music.
Cup-of-Soups are quite tasty and really hit the spot going down. When they don't stay down very long, they taste exactly the same coming up!
I was sitting in the cockpit one morning when Chuck came up the companion way carrying a whole serving of chicken noodle cup-of-soup in a Ziploc baggy. I asked him why he made his soup in a zippy? He just looked at me and proceeded to pour it overboard. It appears that the best way to throw up on a constantly moving boat is into a zippy!
I hope I didn't gross anyone out too much, but, after all, I warned you.

From Chuck number 1.

2008-06-05T22:56:00.000-07:00

I saw a gorgeous rainbow. I didn't have my camera and everyone was below deck, so you just have to take my word for it. I have the mid afternoon watch from 3 until 6. The rainbow started on the horizon and arced up about 30 degrees. A moment later it stretched from horizon to horizon, a full arc. It was very vivid and then became a double rainbow. Soon, the heavens opened up and I was drenched in seconds. I guess you just have to take the good with the bad.

Chuck

Another freighter photo.

2008-06-05T13:31:00.000-07:00

It was a little bumpy.

The Morning Team

2008-06-05T09:06:00.001-07:00

0600, 5 June 2008, 29N13, 153W19, C000M, S7.1, sailing with one reef still in and 115% jib. Apparent wind 20 kt.

San Francisco 1621 Nm, Kaneohe 522 Nm

More than 1/5 of the way. Average of 141 Nm per day for the first three days. Not bad for close reaching into 20 kt winds.

Bright sunny faces greet the dawn. (See photo above.) Chuck is on watch 0300-0600 and is relieved by Jan who stands the 0600-0900. The other watch standers are Dan at 0000-0300 and Tina at 0900-1200. PM is just a repeat of AM. The skipper is on 24/7.

The crew is finally starting to eat something and Kim Ickler's pork chops were a big hit last night. Later in the evening Chuck discovered a huge jar of jelly beans that he was willing to share. There are still some left.

Tonight it's probably Valerie's meatloaf and mashed potatoes for dinner and a big salad for lunch. I seem to be thinking a lot about food.

Yesterday after our freighter encounter there was mumbling among the crew along the lines of: "The skipper just spoke firmly to them and they changed course to avoid us." The story will improve with retelling. This is how myths are born.

Jan's Painting By Words:

2008-06-05T09:06:00.000-07:00

Thank you everyone for your blogs! I will respond to them within a few days, and also see if I can figure out how to post photos.

The second night's sunset was as wonderful as the first. Little poofs of clouds, one at a time, floated past the sun during its descent. One cloud, bigger than the rest and composed of (about) 78 fluffy cotton balls, paused in front of the sun. This created sun beams in all directions. Breathtaking! Then, it was back to the little poofs of clouds, when POOF! The sun was gone! (I guess that's what little poof of clouds do.)
At this time of night I seem to notice the horizon line changing. Somehow, it is more pronounced, a contrast between ocean and sky. Surprisingly, it doesn't look flat, like I've visualized it before. Sitting in the princess chair, it is a slight curve and my eyes can follow it all around the boat, back to the beginning. The seas have gotten darker. It feels like a huge watery circle with us in the middle. We aren't moving, but the HUGE water disk is transporting us to San Francisco.
By the way, there were millions of stars in the second night.
I'm getting better at avoiding these waves splashing in my face! This particularly aggressive wave sent a huge splash. I turned my face away just in time for it to land, wasted, on the backside of my hooded 'REI Arc'teryx Gortex' waterproof jacket. I shook my fist at the wave and shouted, "You tried your best! I'm in control now! Bring it on!" BIG MISTAKE!!! No sooner had I turned around, the next wave got me! Drenched my face, glasses and all down the inside front of my jacket. Now, waves do talk, because I surely heard it laugh as it rolled out of sight, "Ha Ha Ha . . . ha ha ha . . . ha-a-a-aaaa!"

Lunch time excitement.

2008-06-04T16:57:00.000-07:00

Just as I was sitting down to a four course lunch, and before I'd even had a chance to sample the elegantly simple chilled tomato-celery soup, a cry went up, "Freighter on the port beam collision course!"

Well, if it isn't one thing it's another. In the course of a chat with the watch officer on the freighter he suggested that he could change course and pass behind us. To which I readily agreed. They were, at the time, only about a mile away. It is really bumpy and even at that short distance the ship would sometimes disappear behind a wave. So, it was nice to know they were looking out for us.

On another subject. Comments to the blog come to us by email but we are not able to answer back with another comment. To reply we have to look up your email address and send a separate reply. Conditions being what they are, beating to weather in winds often over 20 kt., we do not always get around to replying. But, but, but.....We love to hear from you and encouragement is always welcome.

A routing dilemma - what to do now?

2008-06-04T11:03:00.000-07:00

Today offers some particularly nice insight into some of the problems they are facing on Cirrus: Where to go - above the High or below? You can see it laid out on the Cirrugator-Demo page.

Look at the weather faxes first: The Pacific Surface Analysis (left picture) shows a High (32N/142W) with the note 'STNRY' (stationary) next to it, and the 2 day forecast (right picture) confirms stationarity for even 2 days later! The High isn't moving any time soon. If they were sailing-only, with no option for motoring (as in a race), they could go either below the High and face 10+ days of close hauled misery, or go above the High, and go comfortably but almost 2 days longer. The many colored routes in the first, topmost graph represent all the options. The second graph shows that they can go fast (red diamonds, with speeds into 8 knots!) but in misery (blue filled circles for Apparent Windangle).

Now in delivery they can take advantage of the engine and go through the center of the High as a compromise, but that would require a lot of diesel fuel. And to decide on this in the early part of the trip is also no good option; they might regret this dearly later on.

This is a situation we would like to have during the race, going the other direction, but not now. So what to do now? Stay tuned to see how Bill will decide.

Ulli

04 JUN 08

2008-06-04T09:18:00.001-07:00

0600, 4 June 2008, 26N51, 154W33, C030M, S6.2, sailing with one reef still in and 115% jib. Apparent wind 19 kt.

San Francisco 1746 Nm, Kaneohe 367 Nm

Boy, talk about classic squall activity. Somewhere around midnight, with Tina on watch, the wind ramped up from it's background value of 20 kt to just over 30 with pounding rain. That will get your attention!

Then the wind dropped under 10 kt, almost tempting us to start the engine, before settling back to 20 kt. Cirrus, of course, took it all in stride.

That's about it. The crew was treated to another in the on going series of mini celestial navigation by the skipper. No one fell asleep this time.

Morning report - Tuesday June 3

2008-06-03T20:01:00.000-07:00

0600, 3 June 2008, 24N49, 156W13, C016M, S7.4, one reef still in and 115% jib.

Covered about 140 Nm in the last 24 hours. Moving along.

Yesterday was a typical Cirrus day. Close reaching into 18-20 kt wind. About noon the boom brake fell off. The pin had come out of the shackle. The shackle itself was still hanging from the boom, the brake was on the deck and the shackle pin was resting against the leeward toe rail. A quarter in from the ocean. So, we put it back together. We'll keep an eye on it.

As I write this, today's adventure is already behind us (I hope). When I started the engine this morning to charge the batteries (and computer and palm pilot and backup battery and ipod)the engine belt driving the alternator slipped and started to melt filling the cabin with smoke. (Practice fire drill.) Installed a new belt. Those of you out there thinking of replacing your wimpy alternator with something bigger take note.
------------------------------

-------------------

Jan's Painting By Words:

2008-06-03T19:57:00.001-07:00

Lucky me! I had the first full watch! It was Monday, departure day, and my watch was from 6 pm to 9 pm. Chuck stayed with me until after sunset, then he went below. I was all by myself!
Currus was clipping along at about 7 knots. The wind was 22-25 knots off starboard bow. The swells were, gee, it was hard to know, about 5-6 feet? A few were above the horizon line as seen from the princess seat (stern rail seat). We were heeled over so far, the port toe rail consistently dipped in the water. Every so often a wave would break over the bow, sending a splash of water directly at my face. SOME of these, I managed to avoid. Mmm, salty!
Our first sunset was beautiful. The sun slowly played peek-a-boo between the little puffy clouds as it lowered in the sky until it sizzled into the ocean, and then it was gone.
But, the sun's job wasn't done yet. Its colorful rays gave life to the little clouds and they became my friends, as they marched across the sky, morphing into animal and fish shapes. I took their pictures so I could always remember them. Too soon it was dark, and my new friends faded into the night.
Now I had new friends! The stars twinkled on, one by one, until there were thousands! The Big Dipper was right above us and the Southern Cross was (duh) on the Southern horizon.
My 3 hour watch came to an end. I was tired, but Cirrus was still going strong and steady at 6.5 to 7 knots, using the constant 20 to 22 knot wind.
It was a perfect first watch!

We are on our way

2008-06-02T10:54:00.000-07:00

0600, 2 June 2008, 22N35, 157W15, C024M, S6.6, motor sailing with one reef still in and 115% jib.

Started out yesterday, exactly on schedule, at 1600. Put a reef in and started motor sailing hard to weather in 20 knots of wind. Shut down the engine and unfurled the jib about an hour later and were making 6-7 knots close hauled into 18-20 knots of wind. Wind really erratic. Ran into a little zero wind hole around midnight.

Looks like we've covered about 76 KM so far.

Jan Saukko

2008-05-27T23:57:00.000-07:00

My husband, Chuck and I live in Everett, Washington, on our Catalina 42, 'Wind Watcher' which we purchased in May 2004. I lived with him on his 35 wooden sloop 'Entropy' for about 4 years. We had our honeymoon on a 3 masted sailing ship crusing the South Indies. We love to cruise the Puget Sound & San Juan Islands. We usually anchor out for New Year's Eve, and 2 years in a row came home thru a gale! I enjoy fishing, and crabbing. Chuck and I are certified SCUBA divers, have our ham licenses, have first aid cards, and have taken the 'primo' sail repair class from Carol Hasse in Port Townsend. In 2 to 3 years, we plan to retire, cut the dock lines and head south, see where the wind blows us. I am looking forward to crewing on the 'Cirrus'. It will be my first ocean crossing and I plan to be a sponge to soak up every bit of education and experience that I can.

Chuck Jensen

2008-05-27T23:53:00.000-07:00

I grew up on Coronado Island in San Diego but spent all my time surfing. I didn’t really get into sailing till I moved to the Pacific Northwest. I started sailing Flying Junior, Hobie Cats, Sol Cats, and Lasers. In the early 80,s I bought a 24 foot Cascade then moved up to a 35 ft wooden sloop which I lived on for 10 years. I met my wife, Jan, who moved on board with me. After 4 years, we moved ashore for 10 years. Realizing living on land was not for me, we bought and moved aboard a Catalina 42. We are currently outfitting this boat for extended cruising.

Dan Langford

2008-05-24T10:22:00.001-07:00

My name is Daniel Langford from Indianapolis Indiana. I never grew up with the ocean just outside my front door. It has always seemed to be this mythical place people talk about seeing or visiting but, never really do. Well, since I joined the Navy 8 years ago Uncle Sam has saw fit to put me in the middle of the Pacific. As ironic as it seems I have been making up for lost time. I have been sailing the coastal waters of Oahu for the last 6 years. I am a member of Pearl Harbor Yacht Club. I am a crew member for Mr Blackburn on "Addiction", a J-105 out of Ala Wai harbor, and for Mr. Reed on "Bloodhound" out of Kaneohe Marine Core base. At one time I even owned an Islander 37 named "Via Army" out of Keehi Lagoon. I spend most of my free time racing around on Lasers and 420s in Pearl Harbor and am learning all I can from the younglings that have grown up here. This trip to San Fransisco will be my first ocean crossing and am hoping to take in all that I can. I don't expect an easy ride but, I know it will be an experience I won't soon forget.

To Do List

2008-05-18T06:21:00.000-07:00

as of May 18, 2008:

Description	Order	Status	Cost	Sign off
dry ice	1		100
propane	1		20
fill fuel tanks	1		600
flush and fill water tanks	1
Insurance	1	sent email	2500
provision	1
Put galley equipment aboard	1	Good start
Schedule inspection and do dry run	1
tighten shrouds - trim rig	1	done but not finished
Clean galley, under stove, etc.	2	started
new spring for oven door	2	Seaward 562-699-7997
Put printer on board / paper	2
check out auto emergency start unit	3
Clean up spare water pumps	3	in progress
Spare fuel pump	3
Winch - Check main halyard	3.5
Check spare alternator	4	progress
Check spare regulator	4
	done			1-Jul-08
	done			1-Jul-08
New chafing gear for spinnaker guys	done		110	16-May-08
paint over "Mortage Group"	done		5	16-May-08
trim alternator bushing	done			15-May-08
10" hack saw with blades	done		30	14-May-08
Longer dock line	done		40	14-May-08
new bungee cords for running backs	done		10	14-May-08
Repair stickey stove gimbals	done	put keeper across slot		14-May-08
service knotmeter sensors	done		3	14-May-08
reinforce bench for tie down	done			13-May-08
3 more engine fuel filters	done		20	12-May-08
another oil filter	done	have two	10	12-May-08
Spinnaker fence repair	done			12-May-08
masthead and bow lights (and spares)	done	some new wiring / 4 spare bulbs		11-May-08
more primary fuel filters	done	have four	20	10-May-08
Purchase 8 diesel jerry cans	done		160	1-May-08
Put celestial navigation aboard	done	decided NOT to take it		1-May-08
Re-certify Liferaft	done		950	25-Apr-08
Re-certify Man overboard Module	done			25-Apr-08
Satellite 406 EPIRB	done	Reg.Exp.Date 09/10/08 vsl:Cirrus ADCE0209B900C01 Serial#8814 Date:9609 Battery must be replaced by 3/2008		25-Apr-08
New sock bags	done	1 new one with Pineapple 1.5		20-Apr-08
Mount knife in cockpit	done	Folding knife?		15-Apr-08
New 1.5 oz. from Pineaapple	done	Ordered Oct 07	7000	15-Apr-08
Repair sock bag?	done		100	15-Apr-08
Winch - Service BIG stbd and port	done		200	10-Apr-08
Fire extinguishers	done	New last year		2-Apr-08
Reset Link 10s	done			2-Apr-08
Gasket for switches	done	Use foam tape?		20-Mar-08
winch plate and cutting board	done		100	20-Mar-08
New sun protection on jib.	done		1021	12-Mar-08
Clean cockpit	done			8-Mar-08
Lube main sail slides	done			8-Mar-08
Valve in holding tank breather	done		???	8-Mar-08
furling line is in two pieces on the drum	done			5-Mar-08
Winch - Service stbd topping lift	done			5-Mar-08
Gasket for instruments	done			1-Mar-08
RADAR - New reflector	done		85	1-Mar-08
FCC License renew	done		160	1-Jan-08
Yacht Registration	done		155	1-Jan-08
Remove wind vane ring from wheel	done			15-Nov-07
Send instruments for repair 11-sep-07 Ken 954-229-2460, 5-oct-07 Jake 954-229-0208 ? Tried to call 7-nov-07	done	Hornet 4 Sailing Monitor Plus 3 displays: 1. wind speed, 2. wind direction, 3. magnified wind direction	208	13-Nov-07
New propane solenoid	done	Complete new duplicate unit. Old unit retained as spare.	187	9-Nov-07
Replace engine ignition and start switch	done	New single unit with key.	38	9-Nov-07
Heat gun for boat	done			8-Nov-07
New starter switch	done	All in one key switch	15	8-Nov-07
New foam filter for Yanmar	done		44	7-Nov-07
0.75 oz. spinnaker	done	North Sails - repair	1256	25-Oct-07
Toilet seat hinge repair	done		30	24-Oct-07
New fenders	done	POP	100	9-Oct-07
Repair autopilot remote (wireless?)	done	Raymarine 800-539-5539 ST6001+ Control unit Course Computer 400G AST 11/07/01 -278 Added new wired - $250 & wireless - $500 remotes	750	8-Oct-07
Hinge on cooler	done	new screws, epoxy	5	1-Oct-07
0.5 oz. spinnaker	done	dumpster		14-Sep-07
Renew shackle inventory	done	Some	150	10-Sep-07
Bring printer home	done			1-Sep-07
floor board insert	done		3	1-Sep-07
New tools	done	needle nose vice grip, side cutters	30	1-Sep-07
Nut driver set	done	Where is it???	20	1-Sep-07
Plastic cover for removed fittings	done	Plastic class	5	1-Sep-07
Pull knot sensors	done			1-Sep-07
Remains of old 1.5 oz. spinnaker	done	Gave it to Valerie		1-Sep-07
Remove doger parts from fwd	done			1-Sep-07
Remove fwd bench & hot water tank	done			1-Sep-07
Remove water jerry cans from boat	done			1-Sep-07
Shackle for boom brake	done		30	1-Sep-07
Traveler - bent blocks	done	ok for now		1-Sep-07
New spinnaker guy + repairs	done	Art Nelson	685	24-Aug-07
New spinnaker halyard - port	done	Art Nelson	236	2-Aug-07
purchase cookie sheet for oven drips	done		10
Paint topside and bottom	later
RADAR - New mount?	later	Current mount is in front of stay and dome is behind stay. Dome is 24". Could be in front of stay.
Spare jib halyard wire to rope joint	later	watch
Worn spinnaker halyard U bolts	later	At top of mast - ok for now
Hinge on propane locker	skip
New final block on furling line ?	skip
New jib sheet fairleads	skip	for now
Service stbd spinnaker halyard winch	w-done	New mounting bolts	20	20-Oct-07
Service port jib sheet winch	w-done	Lewmar 50 - Self tailing - stiff powels	20	10-Oct-07

		Sum of listed expenses	17121

Howard Green

2008-04-30T15:19:00.000-07:00

Began race sailing, Northern Lake George Yacht Club, Hague on Lake George, New York 1951; Moved to Hawaii to practice law, 1969, and has been active in ocean racing in Hawaii since 1971. Boats owned and raced include Ranger 23, Cal 3-30, Farr 38, Elliott 5.9, and Beneteau 40.7. Member, Kaneohe Yacht Club, Hawaii Yacht Club.

Final Crew ----- Around Oahu

2008-04-30T14:35:00.000-07:00

I think we have settled in the final race crew after some recent changes. Besides me and Ulli as skipper and navigator there are George Neill, Larry Wright, Howard Green and Chris Doutre as crew.

On another subject; Dan and I changed the engine oil and filter, and the primary fuel filter a week or so ago and decided to sail around last weekend as a sort of "shakedown cruise". (Good thing, because the little fuel filter on the engine, that I had inspected but not changed, plugged up and had to be replaced to get the engine running again.)

We had a great time. Started out at 10:00 am, Saturday in light air and voggy conditions. (That's "volcano fog" for you non Hawaiians.) We motor sailed down to the Molokai channel, where we were able to put up a 3/4 oz. chute for a six hour run, all the way to Ko Olina. Because of the vog we were barely able to see Diamond Head as we went by, and soon after disappeared until almost sunset. We had to moter sail again to get to Ka'ena Point. Then it was a windy starboard tack past Turtle Point and a port tack to home. Finished in 24 hours almost exactly. Great sail. Starting to get ichy for the delivery to start.

Chris Doutre - Sailing Resume

2008-04-11T09:20:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Bill, 2008 will be my third Pacific crossing, after delivering Cirrus for the 2007 TransPac and the 2006 PacCup. When I'm not sailing with Bill, I spend a lot of time sailing the waters of Monterey Bay aboard my Beneteau 33, True North, out of Santa Cruz California. I also race regularly aboard the Catalina 32, Pacific Spirit.

Since 2003, I've been a fairly active coastal delivery sailor, having crewed aboard various boats sailing up and down the coast between Santa Catalina and Richmond. Recently, I was privileged to crew aboard the Derek M Bayliss on her transit to San Francisco from her home port of Monterey. I have also been invited for the return trip, after Strictly Sail. They have an interesting mission: http://sealifeconservation.org

In June of 2006, I took the two-week Captain's License school at the Maritime Institute in San Rafael, passed the test, and by April of 2007, I had racked up enough sea time to get my Master's License. So now, in theory, I can get paid to be a sailor. In reality, while I have had a few paid gigs, I mostly continue as a volunteer, which is fine by me.

One of the coolest things about taking my Captain's training in San Rafael was that I could sail my own boat up there, tie up at the San Rafael Yacht Club, and live on my boat for the two weeks I was there. The SRYC people were wonderful; they gave me a smoking deal on a slip (yacht club reciprocity with Santa Cruz Yacht Club), access to their shower facilities, and, whenever they were open, they let me spread out my charts and books in the club and plied me with extremely low cost Heinekens.

Another sailing highlight: Way back in February 2004, I spent three weeks sailing as crew from La Paz to Zihuatanejo aboard s/v Neptune, a custom Lagier 50 cutter. Aside from enjoying the wonderful hospitality of the locals in such ports as La Cruz, PV and Zihua, I really enjoyed sailing at night with the warm Mexican breeze blowing and the moonlight shining down. No foulies!

Ulli Steiner - Sailing Resume

2008-03-22T09:50:00.001-07:00

I am looking forward to my 5th Pacific Cup this summer!

While living in the beautiful Bay Area for a good many years I took advantage of all the opportunities for sailing, doing races and chartering boats on and around the bay as often as time permitted. But nothing beats the long-distance offshore experience. Over time I sailed the Pacific Coast up and down from Canada to Mexico, sailed the Atlantic, as well as North Sea and Baltic Sea. Mostly on fully crewed vessels, but also doublehanded.

The Pacific Cup races were always the highlights: I did the first one in 1998 on the 66' three mast schooner Millennium Falcon, the next ones in 2000, 2004, 2006 all on Cirrus. So this one in 2008 will be my 4th on Cirrus; I am beginning to feel like being part of the rigging...

In 2000 we made 3rd place in our division, securing it literally in the last minutes of the race, and only because my computer told me that we will be in deep trouble if we didn't hurry up. It almost worked again in 2004. Not satisfied with "almost", and having had to go back to my home country Germany, where the opportunities for real sailing were much reduced, I spent much time in "cyber-sailing", improving the program Cirrugator to a point, where it led Cirrus to 1st place in the Transpac 2007 race. (Unfortunately I couldn't participate due to a birth defect, which was acting up really badly that year - I have the wrong gender!). The program is internet based, you can study it here: www.cirrugator.com and also use it during the race to watch us and the competition.

If I had a wish free, I would ask for a really weird weather situation, which nobody could understand except my program Cirrugator. It could happen!

Aloha, Ulli

Tina Crabtree Sailing Information

2008-03-14T17:49:00.000-07:00

I love being at sea. There is just something magical about a long passage despite the hard work. Life is so simple and focused. When I turned 50, I decided to get sailing back into my life. I grew up sailing to Catalina on a wooden Folkboat. I took a bunch of ASA courses, joined a SF Bay sailing club and began seeking out opportunities for passage making. In May 2006, I went on the Mahina from Acapulco to Panama. In March 2007, I helped deliver Barking Spider from Puerto Vallarta to San Diego. In July 2007, I joined the all women crew of the Alaska Eagle for the Oahu to Tahiti Leg. Altogether, I’ve stood watches for 5000 blue water miles in the last 2 years.

My dear husband of 30 years does not share my interest in sailing. He did give it an honest try and was aboard the Barking Spider for the Baja Bash. But he just doesn’t get-it. Neither do our two adult children. So I’m kind alone with this dream of cruising the world and must find ways to sail on other people’s boats.

I do not have a specific area of expertise. I am a fast learner and capable crewmember. I am confident that I can get along with anyone and handle the challenges of a delivery from Hawaii to San Francisco. My heavy weather experience is limited to tropical squalls. Every boat is different and I respect the skipper’s decisions and follow orders to the best of my ability. Ideally, I do best when I know the why of something, not just the what. After all, life is one grand learning experience.

Sailing Resume - Larry Wright

2008-03-14T11:21:00.001-07:00

He was introduced to sailing by his grandfather at the age of 2. He has owned 5 sailboats starting with a 19’ Lightning at the age of 14. He has continually owned and raced these boats since that time.

His current boat is an Express 37 which is a well known racer/cruiser with an active One Design Fleet in the San Francisco Bay area. The Express 37 has a PHRF rating of 72 and sails well to that rating in both Bay and Ocean Handicap Racing. He purchased a 3.5 year old Express 37 in December of 1988 and named it Spindrift V (Spindrift being the name of his Grandfather’s sailboat).

Dates and Events:

1989-1999
EX 37 One Design racing on SF Bay. 12 to 15 races per year in winds usually up to 30+ knots. Occasional spectacular spinnaker wipeouts the penalty for a moments inattention. The class addition of the new elliptical rudder design in 2000 has improved this situation. Runner up to the season champion in 3 of these years.
Moved to Tahoe in 2000 which made participation in the One Design racing schedule impractical except for special events.

1989-1995
At the same time as racing one design series on SF Bay also participated in the ocean series (OYRA) 6-9 Ocean races per year. To make room for other activities in our life limited Ocean Series after 1995 to selected races to allow time to participate and support the One Design Bay races.

1989-2007
Annual Vallejo Race with the Express 37 fleet

2004
Clipper cup race SF to Monterey – Double handed with George N.

2006
Clipper cup SF to Monterey - Crewed

1989-2007
Labor day weekend race to Santa Cruz – “Windjammer” – Only missed one year due to daughter’s wedding.

2000-2007
Double handed Farallones races with George Neill – weather permitting

2000-2007
Double handed Lightship races with George Neill – weather permitting

1996 -2007
3 Delta Ditch runs to Stockton in this time - the last one in 2007.

1995
Stockton South Tower race (200 miles within the bay)

1990-2007
St Francis Big boat Series in September. Since 1990 the Express 37 fleet has been invited to participate in this 4 day high profile series. Best finish – 2nd. Participated in all races except one.

1989 - 2007
Either sail the Golden Gate or Corinthian Mid Winter series.
Additional 2005 Cruised from Zihuatanejo to Puerta Vallarta on a 40’ ketch

Sailing Strengths
1. Experienced downwind spinnaker helmsman in light air to maximize velocity made good to the mark during day or night. I have the ability to concentrate for long periods of time. (For reference I just completed a 7,500 mile solo auto trip to the East Coast and back to visit my children and in one 2,000 mile stretch I completed it in 3 days)
2. Experienced downwind spinnaker helmsman in heavy air keeping the boat under the spinnaker while keeping the boat headed for the mark day or night. My helmsmanship has been described by those below trying to eat or sleep in these conditions as “smooth”. My miles at sea and finishing all San Francisco Ocean races under spinnaker through the Golden Gate wind funnel has sharpened these skills. Even double handed George Neill and I have developed the double handed spinnaker jibing technique for successful jibes in 30 knots of wind often experienced at the South Tower.
3. Judgment – In some conditions of high winds and confused seas it is more prudent to wing out a jib than to try and control an uncontrollable spinnaker. I have used this technique to put miles on my competition. The decision as to when to put the spinnaker back up is also important
4. Experienced up wind helmsman in all wind ranges
5. Sail trim
6. Tactical experience in steady as well as changing conditions.
7. Back up navigation if required or desired.

George Neill Sailing Experience Summary

2008-03-14T11:10:00.001-07:00

He has raced sailboats aggressively about 3 weekends a month since 1970 on the East Coast, Great Lakes, and West Coast; mostly as skipper on an Albacore 15, Cal 29, and Express 37 (BLITZ). In 7 years racing BLITZ, his Express 37, on the ocean in Northern California, never finished worse than second place for the season. Season Champion in 1988 and 1990.

• As a distance race skipper:
First in class several times, San Francisco to Catalina Island or Santa Barbara, 1988-96,
First in class in the Newport to Ensenada International Race, Mexico (1983),
First to finish, first in class, and first overall in Channel Islands to King Harbor Race (1981, Class F),
Second in class in the 14th Annual Marina del Rey to San Diego Race (1981),
Season champion several times in Scripps Ocean Series in the Channel Islands (1976-1984),
Several trophies in the San Francisco to Santa Cruz Windjammer Races (1985-1996).

• As distance race helmsman (sometimes as watch captain):
San Francisco to Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, Pacific Cup Race (1998 3rd, 2000, 2004, 2006 1st, 2008 1st)
Long Beach to Honolulu, Hawaii, TransPac Race (1997 3rd, 1999)
Long Beach to Cabo San Lucas International Race, Mexico (1991).
Port Huron to Mackinac Race, Michigan (1972-1976).

• Has won hundreds of sailing trophies in one design, handicap, lake, bay, ocean, and coastal races.

• Spends many non-race weekend days in his Reinell 2200 RXL stern drive on the Delta.
-------
• Commodore of Anacapa Yacht Club in the Channel Islands Harbor in 1980.

• Commodore of the Association of Santa Barbara Channel Yachts Clubs in 1981.

• Served on the Board of Directors of the Southern California Yachting Association from 1981 to 1983. Secretary in 1983.

• Served on the Board of Directors of Recreational Boaters of California as a Southern delegate from 1981 to 1983 when moved to Northern California.
-------
• Commodore of Richmond Yacht Club on the San Francisco Bay in 1989.

• Commodore of Pacific Handicap Racing on the Ocean in 1992 and 1993.

• Vice President of the Ocean Yacht Racing Association in 1993.

• Served on San Francisco Sailing Foundation Board of Directors, 1995 to 1997.

• Served on Pacific Inter-Club Yachting Association Board of Directors, 1992 to 1997, 2001-2002.
Commodore in 1996 (the centennial year), & 2001, unprecedented non-contiguous second term.

• Pacific Inter-Club Yachting Association “Yachtsman of the Year” in 1996, previously unprecedented for a sitting Commodore.

• Served as Advisor on the California Coastal Commission Boating Clean & Green Campaign, 1997

• Served on the Recreational Boaters Of California Board of Directors as a Northern delegate, 1992 to 1998, and is the only person to have represented both the South and North on RBOC.
Vice President North in 1995 and 1996, President in 1997.

• National Boating Advisory Council in 1997.

Great to be back

2008-03-05T09:31:00.000-08:00

Hi Bill,

Thanks again for the opportunity to sail with you and Cirrus and the gang. I've been honing my rigging skills by replacing the furling mainsail on my boat. We went sailing in 22 knots on Sunday and the 7-year-old sail exploded when we got hit by a gust while gybing. Fortunately, I had a brand new main at home and, with some help from our local rigger, got it squared away yesterday. Unfortunately, our celebratory shakedown was significantly less windy, so I'm looking forward to more wind this weekend. See you soon.

Fair winds,
Chris Doutre

OWNER/SKIPPER PROFILE

2008-01-28T10:01:00.000-08:00

Bill Myers

Retired nuclear scientist living in Hawaii
Owner of Cirrus since 1996
Fourteen Pacific Ocean crossings to date including two Transpacs and six PacCup races
Detailed resume at nav.org
Email: navigator.bill @gmail.com

CIRRUS DESIGN SPECS

2008-01-28T09:59:00.000-08:00

Cirrus Data

Class: Standfast 40
Designer: Frans Maas / Breskens, Holland
Builder: Palmer-Johnson, Sturgen Bay, WI, 1973

Hull: Monocoque construction, fixed keel
Design displacement: 22,839
Length: 40
Waterline: 32.12
Beam: 13.11
Draft: 7.46

Rig: Sloop, Symmetrical Spinnaker
I=55.93
J=17.23
P=48.33
E=13.54

Mainsail area: 378.1
Jib area: 567.4
Spinnaker area: 1456.6

Diesel inboard: Yanmar, 3HM35F
Other features: Propane stove, Refrigeration, Water maker, GPS, Radar, SSB, VHF, Autopilot, Monitor windvane, Anchor windlass
Some history: Paccup '98, '00, '04,
'06,
Transpac '07
See: Photos
And: www.nav.org

WHITE SAILS

2008-01-28T09:58:00.000-08:00

SAFETY SHEET

2008-01-28T09:57:00.000-08:00

Cirrus Logo

2008-01-28T09:49:00.000-08:00