ALICE MARTIN
 Saturday August 05, 2006 @ 02:25 PM GMT-08:00
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| We're on our way home !(slowly) |
Wind: SE 11.0 kt | Temp:32° | 
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Hi All
We finally left Nawilliwilli Harbor on Thursday morning in clear weather. It took us awhile to get the right sails set in the sloppy seas near the island channel. We needed a smaller jib and two reefs in the main for comfortable sailing in the 20-25 knot winds and 3-8 foot seas- We have been sailing close hauled as possible in east north east winds ever since. Lots of squalls last night. We are all fine, though everyone is a bit seasick- we are all doing our watches and jobs (right now mine is simple as no one wants to eat)and trying to settle in to the rough motion on board. Our boat speeds have been varying between 5 and 8 knots, but the wave action seems to be slowing down our overall speed to around 5. then take into condieration that we are heading basically north for now until we get out of the trades. Rudy got our wind vane working the first night and she is steering us well with no power usage- so that has made life extremely better!
We have been checking in on the pac cup radio scheds at midnight PST on 8 alpha or bravo every night, and noting the weather encoutered by the boats ahead. California Girl reported last night that they found "the slot" to make it back to SF...
That's about all to report from the bouncy seas-oh except Happy Birthday to my mom- Julie!!!
more tomorrow
love to all
jaye and the rest ot the crew
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Tuesday July 18, 2006 @ 08:55 PM GMT-08:00
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| The Epilog |
| Wind: WNN 5.0 kt | Temp:33° |
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This has been a great experience.
I write this at the dock at Kaneohe Yacht Club. Rene picked me up and took me to the Wilsons for Breakfast and that long awaited shower.
My experience....
We all got along in a 39 foot boat, sharing bunks, working to a rigid watch system, eating, drinking, sailing for 2 whole weeks. No-one lost their temper! No-one publicly criticized another, no-one refused to help another or take their turn - it was truly a great experience.
Will I do this again? Well now it is more that 24 hours since we finished, and the parties at KYC are in full swing - yes I would like to. I feel more confident about my abilities to handle sailing problems in difficult conditions - so yes.
Would I sail with this crew? - MOST DEFINITELY. I can't believe how we all got along.
Would I sail on Hooligan? - YES if Alice asked me again. She is a fine boat - well behaved and comfortable. Well equipped and a joy to sail.
So I look forward to another Pacific Cup race.
Signing off
Ian (one of the Hooligans)
Sorry to make you wait - we finished and of course we were not going to be deprived of our Mai Tai's, showers, sleep (lots to catch up on) and generally socializing at KYC with those boats that had already finished.
So enough of the preamble - what happened you all ask?
The last 100 miles was nervy! At the 100 mile check in we were 17 miles behind Green Buffalo. We had good wind and things were looking good.
Then the wind died....
So what - well think about this - Green Buffalo gives us 4 hrs 36 minutes time. So we must finish not more than 4 hours and 36 minutes after she finishes if we are to beat her! 17 miles is 2 hours at 8.5 knots - Green buffalo checked in at the 100 mile circle 2 hours ahead of us. If the wind dies so that we can only average 4 knots - 17 miles is more than 4 hours - see why we were nervous!
As we approached 50 miles to the finish we turned on the radio to listen in for Green Buffalo's 25 mile check in. She did so as we were 46 miles to go - she had pulled out 4 more miles - getting tense! We checked in 3 hrs 15 minutes after Green Buffalo. The Buffalo had given her eta as 11:00pm - we gave our eta as 3:00am - close. The wind started to freshen - would it hold?
With 22 miles to go we heard Green Buffalo give her 5 mile check-in and then we estimated her finish at 11:10pm. We MUST finish by 3:46am. The wind was holding!
At 2:01am Hooligan crossed the finish line. 2 hours and 51 minutes after the Green Buffalo - WE DID IT!
Division A (unofficial results):
1 - California Girl
2 - Hooligan
3 - Green Buffalo
The crew of Green Buffalo was at the dock to greet us and congratulate us - the Mai Tai's were there too - job done!
The Hooligans
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
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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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