ALICE MARTIN
We motored under the Golden Gate at 0143 PDT this morning. It was wonderful watching the lights, spotting the buoys and recognizing places as we came in along the Marin shore.
Jon greeted us at the dock and guided us in with his flashlight. By 0242 we were tied up and hitting the shower.
Thank you so much to the Hooligan crew and all of you who followed and supported us in this 2 month adventure.
I've wanted to do this for years and it was more exciting, meaningful, educational and fun than I ever imagined.
Alice, Hooligan
 Thursday August 24, 2006 @ 06:09 PM GMT-08:00
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| Getting Close |
Wind: W 13.5 kt | Temp:61° | 
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8/24 1853 PDT 37 59:298N 123 13:305W
We're through the gale, doing 6 knots with a nice breeze behind us.
Just had another great meal, followed by a dolphin performance and two ships passing us.
No land in view, but we're just a few miles off Pt. Reyes. Given the time of day and wind direction we decided to come in North of the shipping channel and follow a similar course to the one we took back so successsfully on the Drakes Bay race.
We should be happily docked and showered by morning. Looking forward to seeing friends and family.
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Wednesday August 23, 2006 @ 05:45 PM GMT-08:00
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| South of the Gale |
| Wind: N 21.5 kt | Temp:62° |
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We've gone from the no wind to plenty. It came up yesterday and built to a high of 31 knots today.
We put in the third reef at lunch time. Some of you know that was an interesting challenge, since the hardware and third line for jiffy reefing was never installed. We took the sail down and rigged a line to the boom and outhaul. Third time was the charm! The helm is nicely balanced even in the puffs. However the seas make driving a bit of a challenge. Only two of the waves jumped in the cockpit--but they went everywhere.
The sailomat vane isn't up to steering these waves so we're getting some practice steering. We've switched to two up and two down every 6 hours and the two up are alternating driver every hour.
Its still sunny and not too cold. We are all well and enjoyed Jaye's famous crab cakes for lunch.
Prediction is that we'll have good wind the rest of the way home.
8/23 1842 PDT Position: 38 18:387N 126 33.789W heading 084 or so.
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Tuesday August 22, 2006 @ 03:54 PM GMT-08:00
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| 2 causes to celebrate |
| Wind: N 14.5 kt | Temp:64° |
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The engine started today without needing to be bled. Irwin did a diagram; Alice asked questions; Irwin and Rudy discussed possibilities. Irwin read Nigel Calder and then blocked the part of the return line that what going back to the fine filter. Seems like that did it. Keeping our fingers crossed for the next time.
Even better, we've had good wind 9-16 from N - NW for 18 hours. Seas are a bit larger too, but boat speed is great. We are under 400 miles from home and the GPS is finally putting out an ETA. We went under 60 hours during my noon to 3 watch. Hope this holds.
We celebrated with some of the last chocolate. Pretty soon we'll be down to just healthy food.
Hope all is well and we'll be in SF soon.
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Monday August 21, 2006 @ 05:31 PM GMT-08:00
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| Another Gentle Day |
Wind: N 13.0 kt | Temp:65° | 
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Sunny Warm, wind 4-9 knots mostly from the north.
Rudy and Jaye both took advantage of the sunshine to take a bucket, salt water shower in the cockpit.
Rudy and Alice transferred 15 gallons of fuel from the jerry jugs to the big tank.
Irwin did more reading and work on the engine, hoping to get it to start without needing to be bled.
Jaye of course, provided another wonderful meal. Today we had enchiladas and spanish rice.
Slowly moving your way.
Position at 8/21 1823 PDT: 38 00:462N 133 02:248W.
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Sunday August 20, 2006 @ 09:42 PM GMT-08:00
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| 08/20 2200 PDT |
| Wind: NE 8.5 kt | Temp:66° |
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Position 37 56:040N 134 46:271W
A slow day. Gentle breezes from the east. We got a little further south and less east than we would have liked. Oh well.
Right now we are charging batteries and heading 072 with some help from the wind.
Today's big accomplishment was getting the diesel out of the small tank, into a Jerry Jug and then into the big tank. Yeah, Rudy. There was only 2.5 gallon to be transferred as we used ran using the small tank one of those light air days early in the trip.
Irwin spent more time tightening various hoses in the fuel system--still mystified by the air bubbles that accumulate while the engine is sitting unused.
Found a small hole in the foot of the main and patched it. The 80 jib, still looks good, but the 155 and main are getting tired.
Hope you had a good weekend.
I am cooking up the last of the rudy's 4th tuna in fajitas for lunch today. Seems that i spend a good part of my watch thinking about what i will cook next- at least it keeps my mind off the topic that seems to be consuming everyone else-"when will we get there?" We have had pretty good weather so far and if we make it back on friday or saturday- that is only a few days longer than the anticipated 3 week trip. (It will be 3 weeks on thursday). GIven the wierd high movements and our lack of ample fuel to just power on through- i think that Hooligan is doing fine and the crew is still getting along well!
Happy Sunday!
lots of love Jaye
We celebrated our 2000 miles logged yesterday and today we are about 600 miles out from SF. We are still battling the highs- great winds from northerly directions for part of the day- but no wind and easterlies other times. Consistent winds have evaded us for the betterpart of our easterly leg. The seas have built some swell to them now- Alice thinks it is the gales occurring north of us. We sailed part of the night- and motored for 5 hours- then had 6 hours of 5-6knot sailing toward our destination again. Rudy found a small fuel leak last night- we were hoping it was the cause of the engine needing to be bled to start- but after repairing it- the same old not starting happened. We will be transferring some more of the jerry cans to the tank today too as it is fairly calm - thus good weather for such activity.
Position 38 26.896N 136 55.971W
Making good progress under sail 11-12 knots from the North. We are even going the right direction. Seas 2-3 ft, but building. Warm, partially cloudy.
Jaye out did herself at lunch for our 2000 mile celebration. Fried tuna, squash, cole slaw and even dessert. Oven still not working, so she turned the lemon cake into pancakes with blueberry and apple sauce. Yummy.
Rudy earned his keep today. He noticed that two of the upper slugs that keep the mainsail attached at the mast had come off the sail. Shortly after, we turned on the engine, took the sail down and he tied them back on with the spectra string Stan left behind. Thank you, Rudy and Stan.
Weather forecasts continue to change, but except for the wind moving north, our weather has changed very little. Not sure how long we get to enjoy this, but so far so good.
Hope all is well at home! See you in about a week.
Alice
Ian,
I got Ian's reply to a previous blog. Thanks for the bungee tip from Green Buffalo.
Rudy spent his "free time" doing maintenance today. Most importantly, he re-did the connections to the solenoid in the propane system and that fixed the problem with the propane sensor system shutting down the stove.
He also got to add a new fastener to the board head is mounted on. All our vigorous pumping pulled it right off its mounting box. At least, it is still flowing!!
We had winds from 9 - 12 knots today that were more northerly than we've seen, so we have been making good headway in the right direction.
Rudy got another small tuna last night--just as we were finishing the last of the other one, so lunch was an artistically arranged sashimi and miso soup.
I'm trying to get through the weather books that are on board in a way that I will still remember the contents when I've put them down. Slow going, but relevant!
nuf for now
Rebooted and heard from skymate. Seems I need to upgrade software to "fix" my GPS readings, so...don't be too concerned if skymate position isn't accurate. Software upgrades will not happen out here!
Current postion: 39 15.310N 141 49.710W
Today has been gray and cloudy with some light rain. Still not very cold, wearing foulies on top of shorts and a long sleeve shirt. We motored most of the night in flat seas and 3 knots of breeze. Jaye found the wind on her watch (6-9AM). Unfortunately, it was from due east. It has moved a bit south and we are moving nicely with a COG of 045.
We've been relying heavily on the Raymarine Autohelm ever since the first few days of really windy weather, when Sally Sailomat was steering. Rudy has just finished some adjustments and Sally is back on duty. Hope she can do as well as "Auto", it will save us quite a bit of power.
We voted on 3:00 PM PDT as our main meal time and just finished chili and cornbread. The oven worked for brownies, but hasn't lit again, so the cornbread was baked in a skillet--good stuff!
Hope all is well back home. Hope to be there in about a week.
alice
Great day of sailing mostly in the right direction.
We're at 38 54.834N 143 21.946W. Skymate seems to be making up its own positions. So don't be worried by them.
KYC is planning to keep in touch with us until we arrive, so our positions on Pacificcup.org should continue and be correct.
Contessa was still out there last night, but we may be the last ones reporting in this evening.
The point forecasts and KYC both say we should be seeing NW winds, but so far we are seeing NE. Going south faster than Irwin wants, but we're still North of SF, so its fine with me.
I'm going to reboot skymate this evening, hoping to get the position thing fixed. If you don't get a blog tomorrow, call skymate, cause we're still here.
Thanks for following along. More tomorrow.
Alice
Today has been rainy and cloudy with 12-16 knots of wind from the NE. We are still sailing with speeds varying from about 4-6 knots.. The sun just appeared and many of the clouds are rolling away now- enough warmth that Rudy and i are thinking of boat showers.
Last night Irwin finally made ham radio contact with some good friends of ours in the Sierras. It was great to hear their voices loud and clear way out here!
Irwin spent more time this afternoon working on the fuel pump and bleeding the engine, Rudy is doing some repairs and troubleshooting of the propane system. Alice wants everyone to know not to send any email tonight between 11-12 midnight as she will be rebooting the system in the hopes of cleaning out the "bugs" we are having with skymate.
Our GPS will be showing that we are a thousand miles from SF today- so we are making progress. Thanks for your emails and news (what we get of it anyway) as it is great getting mail!
be well and appreciate life
love jaye
Yeah- today we have lots of wind - even out of the north so we were actually heading right for SF a few hours, but then it clocked around to easterly again- started out grey, rainy, but sunny now...We had to reduce sail this am after Rudy arose at 11. Took down the big jenny and our speed went from a sloggy 5 knots up to almost 7 with reefed main and 80% jib.
Since early this am we have been sailing on our ears- a port tack- the stove keeps getting stuck against the wall as it swings too high and jams there. To accomplish the mex tuna soup for lunch-i had to hold the stove from swinging w/my knee while chopping and preping the contents- what acrobatics! So much for the biscuits i had envisioned during my 6am-9am watch!!!
Alice wins the prize for the wettest watch today- and a small wave managed to make it's way past the hatch onto her bunk as well...the perils of the quarterberth, but as for other leaks: looks like our caulking paid off.
that's all folks!
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Monday August 14, 2006 @ 06:24 PM GMT-08:00
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| day 12 w/1200 miles to go- Cont.pt 2 |
| Lat:41.1432° Lon:-149.6640°
Wind: ENE 10.5 kt | Temp:64° |
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Thus, we've basically been sailing toward SF for the last two days-this makes us feel like we are actully making progress (though our rip roaring speed is usually 4-6 knots -sometimes less. These days are so pleasant- comfortable and relaxing even. We are all reading and getting enough rest- especially now w/ Rudy's new watch system!
Sounds like there are only 2 paccup boats still out now.
Rudy just caught our third fish as i was typing this blog- another blue fin tuna- about 7-8 lbs. We are getting the killing routine down now- no more blood all over the cockpit! Of course, murphy's law of fishing is that you will always catch something good when the cook has already prepared dinner- and sure enough i prepared the sweet potato curry, raita, sambal and all the other condiments this afternoon so i would be ready to go on watch. Oh well- Yum!Tuna tomorrow will taste just as good and still fresher than we could buy!!
we love you all
jaye
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