ALICE MARTIN
This morning, after having really good winds overnight we did our daily inspection. We could not believe what we saw - the neww spinnaker halyard had chafed in exactly the same place - in less than 24 hours!
So the exercise had to be repeated, except this time we kept the halyard external (outside the mast) - we had cut the original halyard and re-whipped the end - so if if blows tonight we will hear the halyard against the mast as we try to sleep. At least it shouldn't chafe and we shoulkdn't need to send Stan or Bert back up the mast. However, they are getting good at this, and how often do you replace a spinnaker halyard while the kite is actually flying!
Talking of the kite - we realised this morning that the new kits has spent more time flying than in the bag. It has been up since the morning of Day 3 - and hasn't stopped pulling us along since then. In fact, the genoa is in the sail bag - we won't need it as we expect to finish under spinnaker. The spinnaker net has proved itself worthwhile - I can't think how many times we would have wrapped the spinnaker around the forestay without it.
Today I am Chef Matthew - and so far I have conjured up Eggs Benedict (sort of) for Breakfast, tapas for lunch and tonight will be crabcakes. We eat well on this boat!
We'll soon be there - the wind is picking up.
The Hooligans
Yes there was another incident yesterday. Late in the afternoon we discovered that the Spinnaker halyard has chafed completely through the cover, at the point where the halyard exits the mast to go around the block at the top. We had been religiously adjusting the spinnaker every day to move the chafing point on the block. So now the discussion was what to do. "Lets hoist the Genoa, lower the spinnaker, shorten the halyard, retie the shackle and rehoist the spinnaker "- sounds simple! "What if the cover is stuck in the mast and the halyard won't come down?" "MMMMM"
The only way to be certain was to fix it at the top of the mast. Bert and Stan have been the mast boys and Bert was sent up to fix it. We used the spare jib halyard to attach to the spinnake while we loosened the spinnaker halyard - and NO - the halyard would not come out the mast. The solution - cut the halyard and fasten a new one to the end of the old one, attach the shackle and its done - and it was in 20 minutes!
Good job by Stan and Bert
We're the Energizer Bunny.........
Jim Quanci on Green Buffalo told me - "10-11 days - I've never taken more than 11 days on this race" - He should know, he's been doing this race for many years - won it in 1992 - so why wouldn't I believe him. Well Jim - you owe me a few drinks!!! Day 11 and at least 4 more to go!
At 2:00pm we were at N25 08' 05" W147 31' 47" That is 1487 miles done and 605 to go. In the last 24 hours we did a whopping 150 miles!!! However, last night the wind did pick up for some time. Alice and Irwin got to knock up some good 12+ knot highs in what the trades should be (minus the big waves) while wallowing Ian got to drive in all the light stuff. (Bert currently has the record high with a 14 knot peak, while I have the low - a massive 3.33 knots!) I have the dawn and sunset drives so I get all light stuff.
Yesterday was eventful. A terrible tragedy for me!!! Not only did I hear that Syd Barret of the Pink Floyd died - I listened to Dark Side of the Moon on my MP3 player last night - but that my favorite hat - my Tilley Hat of all hats - took a dive - or rather was snatched from my head by the playfull spinnaker sheet and is now enjoying a warm refreshing swim at approx N25 42' 09" W145 44' 22" So if any boat behind is reading this blog - would you mind.....
To be continued.....
The Hooligans
No, not really fasting here - entirely the opposite, but Hooligna was going fast in the last day.
We were back to some fun numbers on the fun meter, and pointing towards Hawaii yesterday. Not all of us got much sleep as the boat rocked and rolled down the waves and through the gusts. This is more fun. Glad to see some better mileage from Hooligan in today's position report, but dang those guys are going fast down south.
Bacon and Eggs for breakfast this morning, mmm yum.
Stan
It is hard to know if our last 2 blogs got posted. Things are going awry at this end and it looks like our Day 8 (the water) and Day 9 entries might not have got posted. Would someone please post a reply to let us know if they did. I hope they did because I am not sure if I can remember all that was said, and we don't have 'save' on this system.
The last 24 hours have been painful. The weather has continued to be great (if all you want is a good sun tan!) but distinctly lacking in wind. We have just finished analyzing the 9:00am roll call and it is not good. The Buffalo is now closer to Hawaii than we are (although) we are still ahead on corrected time. But the two Cal 40's are further south, doing 160+ miles per day as opposed to our 130 so unless we can get some wind, tomorrows report won't be good.
AT 11:00am today we were at N25 56' 26" W144 30' 32" - 1327 miles sailed so far with 776 to go. That's only 128 miles covered in the last 24 hours. It's now apparent that there is more wind further south, even though our weather data didn't seem to show that - bummer! All we can do realistically, now, is head for Hawaii and hope we get better wind. Donations to the wind gods greatly appreciated!
So why the "Bang, Bang, Bang..." - no nothing broke! It's the relentless sound of the boom as it snaps back to the fully out position as we wallow in these light airs and constant waves. Sailing in these conditions is both technical and difficult. The finish is a dead run. It is impossible to hold that course in these waves, so we have to head up (one way or another) but we can't go too far - we lose out too much on the VMG - so we point down as low as we can - it is hard work! Cali Girl and Buffalo are having an easier ride we think.
Looks like we won't be there until Monday (Pac Cup says Tuesday - but we expect wind and our numbers to increase starting today)
We are all well - still plenty of water - and we still have fresh fruit and vegetables. In fact we are eating VERY well - perhaps that's the problem!
Love to all
The Hooligans
 Wednesday July 12, 2006 @ 01:57 AM GMT-08:00
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| Day 8 - Halfway there |
Lat:90.0000° Lon:0.0000°
Wind: ENE 7.5 kt | Temp:32° | 
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This message may be a repeat - if so apologies.
Also - I don't know how the formatting is when you read it - I try to make paragraphs, but I am told that this all comes out as a simple text string - please let me know.
This morning (at 6:57am) we reached the half way point. We could certainly wish for more wind but we are all still doing well. I hope you are following us on our Weblog (I am the nominated writer for that) and on pacificcup.org. We're holding on to 2nd in our division - I doubt we can do better, but we'll see.
This is proving to be a very enjoyable cruise. I am so glad I got this opportunity to do this. Every morning we listen to the morning roll call. I then put all the positions into a computer program and in half an hour I get reports of where everyone is, how we are all fairing on handicap, and the routes the other boats have taken. All this then causes us to review our strategies, guess how the wind was as opposed to how it was forecast, and then determine how we should steer for the next day. Currently we are sailing almost on a run, heading a little North of Hawaii. We don't want to gybe to head south of the islands, because that could lose us 1 or 2 places - not good.
Today the weather was frustrating - very light airs and almost due east. This means we are creeping along at only 6 knots - the trade winds have to pick up soon!!!!
Here on the boat we continue to eat well. The vegetables are lasting longer than we expected. We still have all the fruit - although we have had to discard some bad oranges and melons. We still some lettuce left - baby gems - they will go this evening with our salad and chilli.
Water has become a problem - not serious - but something to watch out. Yesterday we discovered that the engine compartment had lots of water in it. Not affecting the engine, but more than there should be. We baled out 25 gallons of water and then started the hunt to locate the source. Water coming into a boat and not knowing from where could become a serious problem!!! We ascertained that the water tasted salty - so it had to be coming from a through-hull fitting - we looked and could find no leak. We sailed and no water came into the engine compartment - so no leak through the hull. So where did the water come from?
Every morning at 7:30am we turn on the engine to charge up the batteries, so we have lots of battery power for the radio when we make the roll call. This morning we decided we would check to see if the water could be coming from the water tanks. We had been turning the electric pump off because it seemed to be running longer than it should. Well - that is what was providing the water! The hot water line had been too close to the engine and the flywheel had worn it away enough to leak. So after the radio call - we fixed the leak by by-passing the hot water tank - we aren't using hot water anyway.
Fortunately we have almost 60 gallons of water left in gallon jars and we still have water in the tanks - we just don't know how much. We are consuming about 5 gallons per day. So.... if the tank is almost empty we still have 12 days of water left - we should be finished in 6.
So much for today's story - life is good - we are all well and still getting on. We are going to have fun in Hawaii
Hooligan
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Wednesday July 12, 2006 @ 01:57 AM GMT-08:00
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| Day 9 - Thank you for the posted replies |
| Lat:90.0000° Lon:0.0000°
Wind: ENE 7.5 kt | Temp:32° |
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Greetings Holigan Followers,
First I want to apologise for not appearing to respond to your comments - I have just discovered how to read them - so expect responses from now on!
So - Geoff - Half of us are flying back (Stan, Bert and Ian) - the rest (Alice, Irwin and Rudy plus Jaye) are going to cruise Hawaii for a little while before sailing her back to San Francisco.
Ali - thank you for the world cup update - I, of course, am an England supporter, but I'll take Italy over Germany and definitely France! My brother Andrew tells me it was a hell of a game and a bit of a bad way for the French captain to end his career.
Thank you all for your support and for rooting for us against the Buffalo - for me its a poersonal race - I am a good friend (and fan) of Jim and Mary Quanci - and he was my mentor in preparing for this race. It amazing they are doing so well with 3 adults and 3 children.
We are in good spirits here in the middle of the pacific.
By the way - we sometimes have e-mail hiccups, so some get lost and some never get to their destination. If you have e-mailed us please allow a little extra time. But if you don't get a response by the end of the next day - please try again.
ALSO - when replying to e-mail sent from Hooligan, please strip off the original message - replies are restricted to a max of 1000 characters (includin the original message if it is left in)
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Tuesday July 11, 2006 @ 10:28 PM GMT-08:00
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| Day 9 - a different kind of racing |
| Lat:26.5764° Lon:-142.9204°
Wind: NE 11.0 kt | Temp:72° |
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Greetings Fans!,
This morning I was awoken to start my watch at a civilized hour - 8am. For the first time I saw not oine boat within sight but 2. After the roll call we determined that the boat in front of us was Auspice and the boat coming up fast behind us was Sweet Okole - both are division C boats - nice to have faster boats with us. Sweet Okole was gybing across our stern and in a couple of hours was gone. We appeared to be catching Auspice, but then we gybed and haven't seen her since she disappeared over the horizon.
Last night we started to get rain clouds. We have started to work the clouds by gybing in and out of the wind they generate. The cloud action has continued today and we are having plenty of fun with all this gybing. Thank goodness we have twin spinnaker poles - it makes the bow-man's job (that me and Rudy - although only one of us at a time) much easier and makes for a fast gybe. So we are getting lot's of practice - ready for the night squals we can except soon - they should be a lot of fun and in LOTS of wind!
By the way - we were at N26 44' 36" W142 17' 37" at 11:00am today. 905 miles still to go! Yesterday was only a 131 mile day over the last 24 hours. The Buffalo and Cali Girl are averaging 160+ so we need to get out of third gear and into 4th! However, we are still in 2nd behind the Cali Girl and ahead of the Buffalo. According to my reckoning we are pulling away from the Quanci's but losing out on Cali Girl (on handicap).
No new dolphin sightings - shame really - since I would love to see them ride our bow wave again. But the flying fish are amazing!
Water situation is fine - no leaks and plenty left.
From the guys (and gal) on Hooligan
By the way - the tanning factor is improving! Sun screen needed - but today we are getting rain for the first time.
We just can't seem to shake the high! Last night we started off going at 8-9.5 knots. When I came up to start my shift at 6am - it was down to 5-6.5 knots.
But sea is beautiful. It's a deep clear blue - witha few puffy clouds. Every now and then a flying fish skims across the waves. Boy they can fly!! I thought they gave themselves a big run-up under the water and then leap out and skim the waves - but no - they turn in the air - like a glider - fascinating. We haven't caught any more fish, nor been visited by more dolphins - that would be a real treat.
2 big things happened today - 1 we passed the half way mark - and 2 - we fixed a problem which could have been very serious.
First - half way - Stan was at the helm at 6:57am when we crossed the half way point. I think we doing all of 5 knots at the time. We celebrated with sparkling cider for breakfast. We also awarded the fastest driver prize - went to Bert for getting up to 14 knots - witnessed! I would love to see that number again - SOON. We continue to be troubled by this big HIGH - just can't seem to escape it - fortunately for us - it appears that no-one else can either.
Second - the more serious. Yesterday, when we did our daily inspection - we decided we needed to track down a water leak problem. Alice's shoes were getting wet but why? A look in the engine compartment yielded the clue. There was LOTS of water in there. ALmost 20 gallons after we had bailed it dry - and it was salty - so where did that come from? We checked all the through hulls and the hoses attached - but no leak. This morning it was still dry - so where had the water come from. Bert decided to test a theory - we had been turning off the water pressure pumpos because they were running too long - but we had not found any problem - we should have checked under the engine! It appears that the hot water hose passes close to the flywheel and it must have moved enough to make contact during our battery charging engine runs. The good news is that the problem is now fixed - Bert gets a gold star - and we are not losing any more water. The other good news is that we had been switching the pump off except foir when we needed water - and the other good news is that we left with over 60 gallons of fresh water in 1 gallon jugs. We are consuming about 5 gallons per day - so we still have plenty of water for 12 days and we should arrive in Hawaii in 6
So we continue to press on - Cali Girl is going gangbusters - we are holding onto 2nd, but our friend Jim Quanci in Green Buffalo is on a charge. He made a left turn 2 days ago to head south - we tacked off of our South tack yesterday - probably too soon - so we'll see how the 2nd half of the race goes.
At 11:15am today we were at N27 59' 25.8" W139 15' 38.2" - covering only 143 in the last 24 hours. We are 1072 miles from SF with only 1031 to go! By my projection we will get there on Sunday morning - lets see how that pan's out.
Best wishes to all our fans and loved ones on dry land from Alice, Stan, Bert, Irwin, Rudy and me (Ian)
Going a little slow; enjoying some breeze, beautiful warm water, pretty clouds and even a rainbow.
All is well!
Although the wind is a bit better than it has been, it's still light. Progress is steady but slow. At 11:00am today we our position was N28 31' 31" W137 37' 12" 177 miles in the last 24 hours, now 943 miles from SF and 1174 miles still to go. If things continue the same over the next 24 hours we should be half-way tomorrow morning - hurray!!!!
We heard in today's roll-call that one of the boats in our division - Cirrus - broke their boom during the night. They are continuing under spinnaker alone. It is fortunate that this course allows a boat to be able to make it all the way to Hawaii in that fashion. On Hooligan, things have been very quiet. We do an inspection every day looking for weak spots. So far everything has been fine. We find shackles working their way loose - tighten them up and put a wire-tie in to slow it down. Chafing doesn't seem to be a problem, we are experiencing some wear in the spinnaker and main halyards and in the spinnaker sheets, but all is OK.
It is 3pm now and we have been relaxing. The bunks are filled with off-duty crew relaxing, napping, reading or (in my case) lying back and listening to music. All is shipshape and we are settled down into our new sleep routines. Yesterday Bert took care of our menu - we are eating well on this trip. Today Rudy treated us to French Toast with fresh fruit for breakfast. Dinner is still come.
On the Race front, we are still 2nd behind Cali Girl. The Buffalo made a strong turn south and lost out overnight - now 5th, but we still have a long way to go. Our plan is to continue on the current track - heading almost directly to the finish. We are still looking for the trade winds - we see the clouds so maybe we are close!
Well that is it for today. We hadn't had any e-mail for the last 24 hours so we don't know if we are being sent any or if there is a communication problem. So let us know if these are coming through by posting some short replies to the posting.
Pray for more wind for us for tomorrow
Today is Saturday (or so we are told - but it's just another day to us) - day 6 of this adventure. At 11:00am we were at N29 13' 36", W134 21' 13" - 785 miles from SF and 1350 miles still to go. Yesterday we sailed only 148 miles in the 24 hr period - and that was a hard-fought 148 miles! Find wind - but where? So we decided that we needed to head south - we took a sharp left turn and rolled the dice! We have weather information available to us - so it's a matter of looking at what the maps show - straight on didn't look too good. The 9:00am roll-call will let us know. By the way I have now got our positioning software installed and running and so I now load the boat positions as they are called in the roll-call and then the s/w will tell us how we are doing.
Today's picture was interesting. We went south while everyone else drifted west. California Girl's southern route now looks like it is paying off. She did 161 miles yesterday while our other main competitor (of course they are all competitors!) - Green Buffalo headed west for only 123 miles. Cali Girl is now leading our division with Hooligan 2nd. the Buffalo has dropped to 4th - but it's still a long way to the finish!
Today the wind is better and steadier. We are less frustrated and getting on with the serious attitude of making Hooligan go as afst as we can. She is responding well - still in great shape and today we are making a steady 7-9.5 knots. Hopefully the weather forecast will deliver tomorrow and we can start riding the trade winds.
Yesterday's main item of note occurred during dinner time. We aim to have dinner at 5pm (Pacific Time - we run Hooligan on Pacific Time and will do so all the way across). We had just finished our wonderful lasagne - thank you Jaye - and demolishing some wonderful bittersweet chocolate pots de creme (thank you Rene') when we had some action on the fishing line. We had hooked a beautiful 15" yellow tail tuna. Nothing like finishing off dinner with fresh sashimi!! This mornings breakfast was a wonderful scrambled egg mix with fresh tuna and vegetables. Well done Bert for cleaning the Tuna and fixing meals today.
Well so much for today. Hopefully tomorrow will bring us the wind and Hooligan can make her rendezvous with family members in Kaneohe on Saturday 15th.
From Ian (on behalf of Alice, Stan, Bert, Irwin and Rudy)
A special message to all our followers - we are trying to get out of this HIGH but the wind gods aren't helping, but looking at the positions of everyone else today at 9:00am - we are all in the same mess.
Last night we decided to make a strategic change - instead of following Green Buffulao (and catching her) we decided we need to go further south, so we did our first gybe of the trip - gybed over to port - first time we sailed off the wind on port on this trip. This took us nicely south and so far it might be a good decision, but time will tell. After the roll call it looks like we are 2nd behind Green Buffalo but California Girl looks to be in a good position right now.
At 11:00am today we were at N30 48' 50" W132 11' 14", 640 miles from SF and 1485 miles still to go. In the last 24 hours we only covered 126 miles, but that was not bad considering the very trying sailing conditions - broad reaching in only 6-8 knots of wind and averaging about 5 knots.
Conditions on the boat are great. We are eating well - Thank you Jaye for putting together a great menu - we are sort of following it and haven't had to throw too many vegetables away yet! The oranges suffered a little - almost half had to be discarded, because the got wet on the first day and the mold really liked that! We are all smelling better - having had our boat showers! The foulies are hanging up drying off and we are in shorts and t-shirts during the day and in fleeces at night. It is still cold at 2-4am! Still got the big kite up as we run down SW looking for the trades. It is still light airs - making for very trying sailing sailing conditions.
Yesterday we had visitors - a school of dolphins jumped around us - but they didn't stay long as we weren't going fast enough. We have a fishing line hanging out the back - hopefully some Tuna Sashimi will be on the menu soon. We have the wasabi and soy sauce!!
The ocean around us is completely empty - since we lost Green Buffalo last night we haven't seen another boat.
Today is 'tidy' day. We're taking advantage of the light airs to clean up the boat and our clothes. I have put my 'cold weather' clothes away - it's warm weather stuff from now on.
Looking at the forecast and trhe positions, its two wishes for us. One - get some wind soon, and Two - get in front of the 'Buffalo'. Lets see how it turns out.
We have no idea who is in the World Cup final - perhaps someone can reply with the final result!
Thinking of you all - the 'Hooligan' team (authored by Ian)
Today we hit the high we were trying to get south of. At 11am we were at:
N31 58' 19" W 130 07' 51" - so we crossed the 130 line at 32 degrees (about where we thought we would when we talked about it last Saturday. The weather currently is a beautiful sunny day - no clouds - and a very light breeze. We are moving at about 5 knots. Over the last 24 hour period we did 150 miles with 1606 to go. The 0.75oz spinnaker is up (still) as we hunt down Green Buffallo.
On the boat we are all in great spirits. Last night we had Green Pea Soup with Spinach salad and bread rolls followed by Cream Dream desserts. Everyopne on board says "Thank You Rene'" for the great dinner.
Stan has been checking the weather diligently - we would have liked to have gone further south - we just couldn't make it fast enough - so now we drive through this bottom edge of the High and then hopefully the wiund will pick up within the next 12 hours and we'll be off to Oahu.
Messages seem to be coming through OK - if you want to post a reply toi the blog - feel free - we can read them from the boat.
So far we haven't seen much in the way of aquatic life. The sea is nice and blue but empty. But as we go further south and west we'll see something.
That's all for the moment - till tomorrow
Ian
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Wednesday July 05, 2006 @ 01:51 PM GMT-08:00
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| Day 3 - Breaking Out of the cold stuff |
| Lat:33.2992° Lon:-128.1695°
Wind: N 11.0 kt | Temp:63° |
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It looks like the weather is turning nice. We are all now feeling good - the seasickness has about run its course for everyone.
At 2:30pm we are at N33 18.73' W128 9.7' Still heading south to go around the high and look for the favorable winds.
This morning we woke up with a boat about 2 miles directly astern - it turned out to be 'Tutte Bene' - a Division B boat. We both hoisted spinnakers at about the same time. Later we went from the small one to the new 0.5oz spinnaker and we are cruising along at about 7 knots. At 11:00am we had travelled 366m with 1742m still to go.
We are all settled into our routines and starting new fair weather ones - reading, writing, sun-bathing.... (well not sun-bathing!)
Everything is still working well on Hooligan. She is giving us a nice comfortable ride right now. Food has been good and will now get much better as we can appreciate it better. Tonight homemade Pea Soup! - Thanks Rene'
Greetings from all of us to all of you
Ian
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