7/18 finished!

 Hi all, we completed the race Monday morning around 0650 Hawaii time, just after the sun came up. This  continues my streak of races finishing in daylight. We completed the 2,070  nautical mile course in 12 days, 22 hours, 45 minutes, holding our lead in the fleet from the Golden Gate bridge to the finish.  However, given the slow first half of the race, on corrected time we just didn’t have enough race course to build a lead to finish on top.  We feel good that we were first to finish in our fleet and arrived before all but 3 other Monday and Tuesday starters.  We were welcomed into Kaneohe Bay by several heavy showers that completely soaked ourselves and the boat (we probably both needed it).  The welcoming party was great and for my first time we got a spot on the KYC bulkhead - which was mostly empty as we arrived before so many other boats.  Looking forward to the awards dinner Friday night.

7/17 update

Good afternoon everyone. Last night was nasty until the moon came up. We had winds in the 20's, completely dark, and crazy seas thanks to Darby. That lasted about 3 long hours. At this stage the crew is pretty tired so to make life a bit easier and to take it easy on the rudder bearing, we went blast reaching with white sails pretty much directly towards the finish at good speed. Today has been more of the same, gusty winds and big seas from a variety of directions. We've been power reaching and having some amazing surfing runs. Killer VMG. Looks like we'll be hitting 100 miles to go around sunset and finishing early tomorrow morning. Can't wait to get to KYC. To give an indication how loopy we're getting, John has been enjoying listening to Mark and me quoting lines from our favorite movies. Probably best kept on the boat…

7/16 update

Hi all, we continue to drive hard. Maybe too hard? Our lower rudder bearing is not happy. Not much we can do about it other that to be less aggressive in our driving and make sure it lasts to Kaneohe. We hit a top speed of 15.4 knots last night in the midst of out running a squall. The boat was lit up! Fuel for the engine is starting to run low and I'd like to rely mainly on solar to keep our batteries charged up. So, goodbye refrigerator - biggest energy hog on board. We finished our last prepared meal last night so the only things in there were luxuries at this point. We can last a couple of days without them being cold. Makes the arrival that much better. Looking like something on Monday at this point. See you soon! Tracy & crew

7/15 update

Yesterday afternoon at 5:30 we made our long anticipated move and jibed south looking for the trades. We sailed just west of south and then we're able to run directly at the finish line (granted, at the time over 600nm away). Since then we've made good speed going almost directly where we want to go. All the models say decent easterly breeze for the next few days, getting us in there late Sunday or early Monday. We'll see what we can do to shorten that! Aloha, Tracy & crew

7/13-14 update

Sorry folks, yesterday was a busy day. We've been pushing the boat as hard as we can in the conditions we have. One of our spinnakers has been up 24/7 the last 5 days. Each day brings a new speed record. Yesterday we hit 14 knots. That record will likely fall before we reach Hawaii. We had a bit of a scare yesterday when the bottom rudder bearing started making unusual noises. We dropped the spinnaker temporarily in order to check it out. We weren't able to definitively determine what was going on, but literally three phone calls got me in touch with the NA distributor, who I originally purchased the bearing from. We diagnosed it to a dry bearing from spending so much time on one tack. We broke into the medical kit and used a syringe to inject soapy water into the bearing. This appears to have cleared up the problem. Phil, at PYI, was also kind enough to follow up with several text messages this morning to confirm everything was okay. In the middle of the Pacific, that's customer service! Yesterday we got passed by two of the late week starters, waved our hellos and they were on their way. We keep jamming along, hoping to make our jibe towards the finish later today, early tomorrow. Aloha, Tracy & crew

7/12/22 update

Good morning! We have spent the last 72+ hours under spinnaker, usually the A2 during the day and the A4 at night. As the winds have allowed we've been trying to point at Hawaii. Sometimes successfully, sometimes not. If conditions continue as forecast for the rest of the day, we will be having our halfway party at dinner tonight. We are all excited to see what Stacy has packed for us! Last night to improve wind speed we went squall chasing and got some good rides, sticking with some squalls for over an hour. The downside? We got pretty wet. We're hoping for good sunshine today to help dry things out. Aloha, Tracy & crew

7/11/22 update

Hi all, we've been moving pretty well yesterday and last night. Pretty slow going today. Our excitement in the last 24 hours was the lashing failing on the low friction ring that holds our tack line for the spinnaker. When did this happen you might ask? At 0230 last night of course. The good news is that I had the insight to add a safety strop around the bow sprit and the tack line. This way the load gets transferred to the strop rather than the bow pulpit (like in 2018). Disaster averted. We got the kite down, replaced the block and got the kite back up in relatively short order and off we went. Things are definitely getting hotter weather wise. Foulies, boots, etc are a thing of the past. Sunscreen, hats, shorts are now the clothing of choice. Half way should be Wednesday (less than 1,035 nm to go) and we hope our pace will pick up from there. Aloha, Tracy & crew

7/10/22 update

Good afternoon everyone,

What to say about yesterday? Let's see, we worked our way through the sail inventory - we went all night with the Code 0, changed to the A2 at 0800, then to the A3 in the early afternoon, followed by the A4 at 0330 last night. We've been running with the A4 since. All smooth changes even in the night with very tired crew. On the wild life side, we haven't seen much lately, not even the ever present flying fish we've seen on previous races. We were contacted via email by the USCG SAR folks asking us o see if we could reach SV Perplexity on our VHF. Unfortunately, while we were probably within hailing distance early in the day, our courses had diverged since and we could no longer raise them. Glad to read in this mornings race news that there is no serious trouble. Looks like Pyewacket will blast by us sometime today but probably too far away for us to see them. We transferred the contents of our dry ice cooler to the refrigerator today and had the still cold, but a bit soft serve, ice cream after lunch. A nice treat on a warm day. That's it for today. Aloha, Tracy & crew.

7/9/22 update

Good morning! Excellent news - we finally have a spinnaker up and are pointing directly at the finish! We spent yesterday still close reaching with either the jib or the Code 0. We ran the Code 0 all night and the wind finally backed enough this morning to put up the A2. Props to the crew that dropped the Code 0 and put up the A2 while I slept through the whole thing! My penalty was to pack the Code 0 when I got up. On the nature side, we were visiting by a pod of dolphins a couple of times yesterday and last night. Sure looked like they had fun swimming around the boat and along the bow wake. We got some good video of that. Winds should continue to build and send us towards Kaneohe. Aloha, Tracy & crew.

7/8/22 update

Good morning! Yesterday was a frustrating day wind wise, especially through mid day. We were never not moving but we were going pretty slow. There are a remarkable number of commercial ships out here just idling before they head to port. All have been very polite to move if need be to let us pass. Always fun to talk to them on the radio. We had completely clear skies and used that to take full advantage of our solar power generation - didn't even need to run the engine to charge batteries last night. The clear sky gave us a knife edge horizon with and outstanding sunset. Mark and I saw our first green flash - it was amazing! Today we'll continue to position ourselves to be in the right place when the northerly wind fills in. Southwest casserole was a hit last night. Love to all. Aloha, Tracy & crew.

7/7/22 update

Hi all,

We had a very nice day and night yesterday. Sunny skies for the most past, although we did have one short rain squall pass overhead. We put the Code 0 up at 0800 and ran with that until 1800. Winds 8-13kts, AWA between 55-75 degrees, making about 7-8 knots. The wind shifted and we had to drop the Code 0 and go with a headsail, but had good breeze in the low double digits, occasionally up to 16 knots and made good speed all night. We were able to put the Code 0 back up this morning around 0730 and ran with that until the wind pretty much shut off around 1000. We bobbed around for a few hours dodging commercial traffic until a light westerly filled in. We've chosen to take that in a just NW direction hoping to avoid a big wind hole in the south and be early to the anticipated northerly breeze when it fills in over the next day or two. The ocean is a beautiful deep blue and we've got perfect conditions for the solar panel to fully charge up our batteries. The food has been great - thanks Cindy! Everyone's doing great and trying to stay up on their sleep (yes, me too!). Love to all. Aloha, Tracy & crew.

7/6/22 update

Hi all,

Just about 24 hours under the keel. We had nice wind for the start and our fleet was well behaved crossing the line. We quickly tacked on to port and headed right out under the Golden Gate Bridge. From there it was pretty slow. We got to about 4nm from the Farallones before we started heading south in the late afternoon. Tons of whales, porpoises, sea lions, etc. Although it was light we kept the boat moving all night and were greeted by nice winds at sunrise. By 1000 this morning though we're back down to low single digit winds again. Everyone is getting used to the watch schedule and we truck along waiting for better wind! Love to all. Tracy & crew