ALICE MARTIN
At 12:00 noon (PDT) we are 110 miles from the finish. Green Buffalo did their 100 check in at 11:05am (PDT) so by our estimation we are 2 hrs 30 mins behind them. They give us 4 hrs and 36 mins - so this is a very tight race between us to the finish.
Last night was exciting! We had wind then almost nothing, then wind.... Rudy and Irwin had a heck of a ride after midnight - I slept through it!
At this morning's roll call - California Girl had already finished - congratulations on a great race - well thought out strategy and well executed. - Green Buffalo had sailed 153 miles and was 111 miles from the finish. Hooligan sailed 159 miles in the same period and was 131 miles from the finish. That moved Hooligan up from 3rd in Division A to 2nd - somthing that I am sure was not unnoticed by the Buffalo.
So now we are set for the final drag - we believe we have a better angle to the finish line - we will know in about 16 hours time! Our ETA at the finish is approx 2:00am HST. If we finish within 4 1/2 hours of the Buffalo, then we got it - otherwise it is theirs - still lots to race for
The Hooligans
At 9:00am we were 290 miles from the finish. At 7:00pm we are 225 miles from the finish. Yes another light day. We could with the wind again as that is when we give Green Buffalo a run for his money.
All is well here - no major problems - still all talking to each other - noone wants to jump ship yet.
We are all looking forward to getting to the finish. This light airs stuff is OK for a (short) while but we enjoy the windy stuff better.
The Mai Tai's are getting closer!
The Hooligans
The repair looks good in the dark.
The wind has been backing off bit since about noon. At 2AM just before a crew swap we decided it was time to go back to the framiliar chute. It will be easy to keep an eye on our repair since Bert likes to fly the kite inside-out.
Not quite the zipping pace of 24hours ago, but still a bit of surfing to be had.
Once again we're anxious about the mornings position reports, the day was a busy one and hopefully a fast one too.
Stan
Today started with the roll call and some housekeeping and maintenance tasks and ended up with a lot more.
We had noticed that the starboard guy and becomed really badly chafed where is goes through the spinnaker pole. We needed to fix that - now! Simple really - gybe over to the port gybe - release the guy, cut it - retie the shackle and then set it again and gybe back onto starboard. We did all this like clockwork - oh and we decided to take down the spinnaker net - it stops the spinnaker from wrapping around the forestay - not good! - put up the 80 jib and furl it ready for Hawaii. (We have been sailing for the last 10 days witout a jib up - not even furled). We did that, gybed back to starbord and at that moment, ahhhhhhh - the nice new spinnaker decided it had done enough. The top 50 feet of the luff tape came away.
We doused the big kite, hoisted the smaller one and set to repairing our main spinnaker. The good news is that we are going as fast with the smaller 1.5oz spinnaker as we were with the big 0.75oz so we aren't loosing out.
It took 3 hours - Alice, Stan and Rudy to repair the luff tape. And during that it continued tgo blow hard.
As I write this at 10:48pm (PDT) we still have the smaller kite up and are still trucking at 8-9knots. All is good now, the repaired kite is on deck ready for use and we are preparing our last stege into Kaneohe Bay. We are 358 miles away - 2 days at current speed.
Looking forward to those hot showers and Mai Tai's
The Hooligans
Sorry today's update is late - we have been a bit busy!
Last night the wind arrived - and we started to have fun. Bert Stan and Ian were on watch when the wind really came up and we started to get the wind - we all averaged 8.2 knots (on the GPS) and then Irwin showed us how to do it with his 8.4 average. We were rocketing along with the big kite up - that kite had now been up for 8 days without being doused at all.
Hooligan is showing wear now. we are having to do running reapirs - nothing serious, but things that must be done in order to keep racing.
All through the night, we kept up the pace and by the 9:00am roll call we had recorded the fastest 24 hour run in Division A. Green Buffalo is still in front of us - but he must be looking out - we are really close on corrected time - let's see what tomorrow brings.
We are all in good spirits - looking forward to getting to Hawaii and relaxing. No battles going on on Hooligan - it's amazing how well we are still getting on is such a smal space!
More to come...
the Hooligans
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!
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