Morpheus was designed by Carl Schumacher, built by Davie Norris Boatbuilders in New Zealand and launched in 2002. She spent her first 18 months cruising the South Pacific before reaching her home port of San Francisco. Since that time, Morpheus has been raced and cruised extensively. This blog will document her ongoing adventures.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Pacific Cup '08 - One Day Later...
Morpheus crossed the finish line yesterday at 3:00am just ahead of a group of boats and another set of squall clouds! The adventure was over, but our day was just beginning.
At the 25 mile checkin, the race committee asks you how many people you have onboard. To many this seems a strange question, but we knew the code. They need the number to figure out how many Mai Tai's to meet you with at the dock. We answered that there were 32 onboard expecting, a laugh and a request for a correction. Instead, the radio operator confirmed 32 onboard, and our hopes soared!!
One of the boats behind us was "Pegasus". When they crossed the finish line, they found that their spinnaker halyard (which had probably been up for 7 days) was stuck at the top of the mast. With a reef aprox. one mile beyond the line, that's not really a good thing. In the confusion that followed our escort boat wandered off to help them, and we were left with the choice of waiting or finding our own way through the channel. The KYC Bar and perhaps 32 Mai Tai's were waiting, we found our own way in!!
The rest of the day becomes a bit of a blur, we made it to the dock without hitting anything, drank 16 Mai Tai's, and then found that the KYC bar was CLOSED!! How does that happen?? Nuff said.
We established our pole position just outside the bar door, and took full advantage of that position from the time the doors open until we left the club for our new "home" in the afternoon.
Little can be said about the hours that followed. Several supply runs to the store down the street followed between swims in the ocean, lots of online catch up, and some well deserved naps!!
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Pacific Cup '08 - Almost There
This will probably be the last update for the 2008 Pacific Cup.
If last night was nice, this is twice as good! Perfect sailing conditions of about 20 knots, spinnaker up, pole back and heading right for the mark.
Looks like we'll be somewhere about 2-3 hours too late to catch the Hula Girl and her crew. Congratulations to them, they did what they needed to, and a bit more, to win the race between our two boats. Now, both of us will spend some time after our finishes watching Recidivist and Sabrina behind us. Both of those boats have a good chance to correct our in front of us, and perhaps even Hula Girl. Time will tell.
Onboard Morpheus it really has been a great trip. Most of the regulars agree this is the most talented and compatible crew yet. No issues or complaints onboard, and perhaps some of us are just a little bit sad to see the finish line so close.
In any case, I need to get up on deck and enjoy what little is left of this great trip.
Thanks for checking in on us!
-Jim
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If last night was nice, this is twice as good! Perfect sailing conditions of about 20 knots, spinnaker up, pole back and heading right for the mark.
Looks like we'll be somewhere about 2-3 hours too late to catch the Hula Girl and her crew. Congratulations to them, they did what they needed to, and a bit more, to win the race between our two boats. Now, both of us will spend some time after our finishes watching Recidivist and Sabrina behind us. Both of those boats have a good chance to correct our in front of us, and perhaps even Hula Girl. Time will tell.
Onboard Morpheus it really has been a great trip. Most of the regulars agree this is the most talented and compatible crew yet. No issues or complaints onboard, and perhaps some of us are just a little bit sad to see the finish line so close.
In any case, I need to get up on deck and enjoy what little is left of this great trip.
Thanks for checking in on us!
-Jim
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Saturday, July 26, 2008
Pacific Cup '08 - Don't tell Debbie!
3:00am PDT
267 Miles to Hawaii
Five years ago, I convinced Debbie that we should get a boat to do some cruising with the kids, and an occasional ocean race.
I may not have understood it at the time, but while the cruising is and has been nice, I found tonight that the real reason we have this boat is so that I can drive it downwind in 20+ knots of breeze in big waves towards Hawaii surrounded by thousands of stars, and a few big squall clouds. Avg. speed well over 10 knots, top speed somewhere north of 18 knots.
What a fantastic watch I just finished!
Here is another huge thank you to Carl Schumacher for designing Morpheus!! She is just what we hoped she'd be. One of these days we'll get her the victory she deserves.
We had to sail more than 3/4's of the race, but have finally gotten what we came for. The next 24 hours of sailing will be the best of the trip.
-Jim
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267 Miles to Hawaii
Five years ago, I convinced Debbie that we should get a boat to do some cruising with the kids, and an occasional ocean race.
I may not have understood it at the time, but while the cruising is and has been nice, I found tonight that the real reason we have this boat is so that I can drive it downwind in 20+ knots of breeze in big waves towards Hawaii surrounded by thousands of stars, and a few big squall clouds. Avg. speed well over 10 knots, top speed somewhere north of 18 knots.
What a fantastic watch I just finished!
Here is another huge thank you to Carl Schumacher for designing Morpheus!! She is just what we hoped she'd be. One of these days we'll get her the victory she deserves.
We had to sail more than 3/4's of the race, but have finally gotten what we came for. The next 24 hours of sailing will be the best of the trip.
-Jim
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Friday, July 25, 2008
Pacific Cup '08 - Great Squall Sailing...a wrap...and one less kite!!
Sorry for the very short update this AM. It's been a busy day for us. Great sailing right now. REALLY great sailing!
So...we'll save the details for the bar, but the bottom line is that last night at about 3am, as we prepared to gybe in front of yet another squall we ended up wrapping the kite around the headstay. Once, twice, three....five times!! Couldn't get it to unwrap regardless of our best ideas until about 30 min later when we went ahead with the gybe. (Not many have gybed a "reefed spinnaker" like we did last night!) At that point, the same wind dynamics that wrapped the thing worked backwards and out came the wrap!!
We dropped the spinnaker to fix a small tear, hoisted another, and then re-hoisted the 2A ASAP.
Hurray!! All was well and much to our relief, we had dodged the biggest bullet of the trip.
Turns out it was not a bullet after all. In fact, it was a slow burning fuse...
An hour later as we rolled into another gybe, the spinnaker split along a couple of seams that were obviously stressed and damaged during our wrap adventure.
In any case, we have our backup spinnaker in the air, and are enjoying some fantastic downwind sailing today. Great combination of wind and waves, making for some high speed runs and reminding us why we do this race!!
As for the race, our screw up cost us about 10 miles last night, and that was reflected in the position reports and standings at 9am. It's going to be difficult to move up from our current 4th in class, but we'll keep her moving and see what happens!!
See you all soon,
'
-Jim
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So...we'll save the details for the bar, but the bottom line is that last night at about 3am, as we prepared to gybe in front of yet another squall we ended up wrapping the kite around the headstay. Once, twice, three....five times!! Couldn't get it to unwrap regardless of our best ideas until about 30 min later when we went ahead with the gybe. (Not many have gybed a "reefed spinnaker" like we did last night!) At that point, the same wind dynamics that wrapped the thing worked backwards and out came the wrap!!
We dropped the spinnaker to fix a small tear, hoisted another, and then re-hoisted the 2A ASAP.
Hurray!! All was well and much to our relief, we had dodged the biggest bullet of the trip.
Turns out it was not a bullet after all. In fact, it was a slow burning fuse...
An hour later as we rolled into another gybe, the spinnaker split along a couple of seams that were obviously stressed and damaged during our wrap adventure.
In any case, we have our backup spinnaker in the air, and are enjoying some fantastic downwind sailing today. Great combination of wind and waves, making for some high speed runs and reminding us why we do this race!!
As for the race, our screw up cost us about 10 miles last night, and that was reflected in the position reports and standings at 9am. It's going to be difficult to move up from our current 4th in class, but we'll keep her moving and see what happens!!
See you all soon,
'
-Jim
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Pacific Cup '08 - Squalls 1, Morpheus 1
Very interesting night. Lost another chute after dealing with a wrap for a long time. Still lots of wind and plenty of tired people. All well. More later.
-Jim
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-Jim
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Pacific Cup '08 - Midnight - No Moon - Plenty of Squalls!
The sailing keeps getting better and better out here with each passing day. Such is the way with the Pacific Cup, and I am sure the Transpac. By the time we finish, we'll almost be ready to do it again!!
Had some fun this afternoon at Drake and JC's expense. Tim was driving and took us down a wave fast. Ended up planting the bow in the wave in front and flooding the foredeck with a few inches of water. This had not happened for a couple of days, so the guys below off watch were sleeping with the ports open. Water started to pour down on JC on the stbd side, and Drake thought that was really funny. Right up to the moment that a couple of buckets of water came in the other side and landed on him!!
This evening as we enjoyed our second night of freeze dried food, we could see a building collection of squalls off to leeward and behind. We knew we were in for a fun night and that's what it's been.
Gybe to get in front of one, gybe to stay in front, gybe back and start looking for the next one. All that while managing we hope to keep pointing the boat at or near the finish line.
It's warm now even at night, no jacket required!! Occasionally rain comes along with the squalls, but nobody seems to mind. Showers are tough to come by out here. Fresh water is welcome. Even the boat appreciates that!!
We are all beginning to look forward to the finish and KYC. But...we have a bit more work to take care of soon!!
- Jim
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Had some fun this afternoon at Drake and JC's expense. Tim was driving and took us down a wave fast. Ended up planting the bow in the wave in front and flooding the foredeck with a few inches of water. This had not happened for a couple of days, so the guys below off watch were sleeping with the ports open. Water started to pour down on JC on the stbd side, and Drake thought that was really funny. Right up to the moment that a couple of buckets of water came in the other side and landed on him!!
This evening as we enjoyed our second night of freeze dried food, we could see a building collection of squalls off to leeward and behind. We knew we were in for a fun night and that's what it's been.
Gybe to get in front of one, gybe to stay in front, gybe back and start looking for the next one. All that while managing we hope to keep pointing the boat at or near the finish line.
It's warm now even at night, no jacket required!! Occasionally rain comes along with the squalls, but nobody seems to mind. Showers are tough to come by out here. Fresh water is welcome. Even the boat appreciates that!!
We are all beginning to look forward to the finish and KYC. But...we have a bit more work to take care of soon!!
- Jim
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Thursday, July 24, 2008
Pacific Cup '08 - One Week and Counting - Best Day Yet!
Difficult for most of us to realize that we've been out here doing this for an entire week now. Without the typical shoreside daily routine everything seems to blend together out here into an extended series of sleeping, eating, and standing watches. One day vs. another is only important because once each day at 9am we get a report card for the previous day.
The story for us this morning was good news/bad news. The good news was that we've had our best 24 hour period vs. our division competitors sailing in our general area. Hula Girl gained only a mile, and Roxanne and XL seem to remain in striking distance.
The bad news is that the leaders in front continue to extend, and the inevitable has finally happened and the boats in our division behind us (we think they've been sailing in a bit more wind) have finally caught up to us in terms of corrected time. It will be very difficult to extend our lead enough to change that by the finish.
Things are close enough with Hula Girl that we've enjoyed the challenge of trying to minimize the miles lost via sailing on the favored gybe as much as possible while at the same time working towards the side of the course that we think will be most favored during the next two days.
Life onboard is now routine. We did try our first freeze dried meal last night and all seem to have survived. I think most were surprised by how reasonable it tasted!!
A bit less than 600 miles to go. Working hard to do what we can. Perhaps we will finally have a daylight finish??
That would be nice!!
-Jim
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The story for us this morning was good news/bad news. The good news was that we've had our best 24 hour period vs. our division competitors sailing in our general area. Hula Girl gained only a mile, and Roxanne and XL seem to remain in striking distance.
The bad news is that the leaders in front continue to extend, and the inevitable has finally happened and the boats in our division behind us (we think they've been sailing in a bit more wind) have finally caught up to us in terms of corrected time. It will be very difficult to extend our lead enough to change that by the finish.
Things are close enough with Hula Girl that we've enjoyed the challenge of trying to minimize the miles lost via sailing on the favored gybe as much as possible while at the same time working towards the side of the course that we think will be most favored during the next two days.
Life onboard is now routine. We did try our first freeze dried meal last night and all seem to have survived. I think most were surprised by how reasonable it tasted!!
A bit less than 600 miles to go. Working hard to do what we can. Perhaps we will finally have a daylight finish??
That would be nice!!
-Jim
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Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Pacific Cup '08 - Business As Usual
Not really much to report today. It HAS been a really fantastic day on the water. Sunny, warm, a few tropical clouds floating by. Pretty perfect actually.
It would be a bit more fun with some higher winds, but I suspect all of our competitors agree with that and that more wind probably benefits them, rather than us. So, we'll just settle for what we have and keep working hard to get down the course.
Our forecasts continue to show more wind both ahead and astern, so it's difficult to see how we'll be able to catch the leaders up front, and at the same time we are faced with the challenge of holding off boats like Recidivist and Sabrina behind.
The sun has set and the squall lords are beginning their evening work. Looks like it will be a busy night of connecting the dots, using the squalls to our advantage, and trying to avoid any light winds that they leave behind.
All are well. Even after our first night of freeze dried dinner!!
More tomorrow after roll call!
-Jim
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It would be a bit more fun with some higher winds, but I suspect all of our competitors agree with that and that more wind probably benefits them, rather than us. So, we'll just settle for what we have and keep working hard to get down the course.
Our forecasts continue to show more wind both ahead and astern, so it's difficult to see how we'll be able to catch the leaders up front, and at the same time we are faced with the challenge of holding off boats like Recidivist and Sabrina behind.
The sun has set and the squall lords are beginning their evening work. Looks like it will be a busy night of connecting the dots, using the squalls to our advantage, and trying to avoid any light winds that they leave behind.
All are well. Even after our first night of freeze dried dinner!!
More tomorrow after roll call!
-Jim
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Pacific Cup '08 - Sour Grapes?? A loser's perspective....
Notes from the other side of the judges table.
Jim Gregory turns into Simon Cowel offshore.
The introduction of alternative scoring categories at the 11.9th hour added additional degrees of difficulty that the competitors did not appreciate. Music has a major impact on the scoring and the lack of prep time here made for poor scores. On the other hand, middle aged men, shamelessly shaking the junk in their trunk for points took this competition to a neighborhood this blogger refused to visit.
JDG called this an "ugly Hawaiian shirt competition" and not an "ugly pajama set competition". His decision to enter an "ensemble" that looks as if he went to the "nightwear section" of Hilo Hatties and "and matched the tags" (aka Geranimals) in order to score an entry so putrid that he gathers huge points on pure shock and awe value is a complete and utter disregard for the rules of fair competition.
Protests pending.
Bird wins the sustainability award.
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Jim Gregory turns into Simon Cowel offshore.
The introduction of alternative scoring categories at the 11.9th hour added additional degrees of difficulty that the competitors did not appreciate. Music has a major impact on the scoring and the lack of prep time here made for poor scores. On the other hand, middle aged men, shamelessly shaking the junk in their trunk for points took this competition to a neighborhood this blogger refused to visit.
JDG called this an "ugly Hawaiian shirt competition" and not an "ugly pajama set competition". His decision to enter an "ensemble" that looks as if he went to the "nightwear section" of Hilo Hatties and "and matched the tags" (aka Geranimals) in order to score an entry so putrid that he gathers huge points on pure shock and awe value is a complete and utter disregard for the rules of fair competition.
Protests pending.
Bird wins the sustainability award.
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Pacific Cup '08 - We took our foot off the throttle for an hour yesterday
Yesterday's halfway party and Ugly Hawaiian Shirt Contest was a bit different this year. After the 2006 version, people understood that this was not an event to take casually and the competition was fierce!
There were initially a couple of sad stories told by our "new guys". One said something about his girlfriend giving his shirt away to a friend because she found it in the closet and it was "too ugly" for him to wear. (sure!) Another told a sad story of normally dependable FedEx suddenly unable to find his home. (right!) Both came to understand the importance of this contest during the first half of the race. One created his own using an old T-shirt and a variety of food and galley supplies. The other borrowed what he could.
We added a couple of new "scoring categories" this year that included "presentation" and "music". Things got a bit interesting!!
How else do you describe moments like Jonathan with his face covered in war paint and fruit dangling from his ears rocking out to Eminem? Or, Drake prancing around the cabin top showing off his very excellent ugly shirt to the sounds of MC Hammer's, You Can't Touch This!! Or Rob, dressed like a background singer at a Jimmy Buffet concert??
Others will remember the wonderful sunsets, the fantastic sailing, etc. These are the moments that we will be stuck with!! (And if they fade...I've got pictures and video!!!)
So...I'm sure you want to know the results.
1st Place Jonathan Livingston 117 points
2nd Place Jim Gregory 116 points
3rd Place Drake Sparkman 104 points
4th Place Rob Moore 98 points
Now it's back to sailing!! If we lost ground yesterday, we'll make it up today!!
-Jim
PS. I messed around with the transponder using the magnet provided when I picked it up. With any luck I managed to turn it off, and then back on. In any case, the second time I passed the magnet past the box, the green light came on for the first time in days. Let us know if it's working.
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There were initially a couple of sad stories told by our "new guys". One said something about his girlfriend giving his shirt away to a friend because she found it in the closet and it was "too ugly" for him to wear. (sure!) Another told a sad story of normally dependable FedEx suddenly unable to find his home. (right!) Both came to understand the importance of this contest during the first half of the race. One created his own using an old T-shirt and a variety of food and galley supplies. The other borrowed what he could.
We added a couple of new "scoring categories" this year that included "presentation" and "music". Things got a bit interesting!!
How else do you describe moments like Jonathan with his face covered in war paint and fruit dangling from his ears rocking out to Eminem? Or, Drake prancing around the cabin top showing off his very excellent ugly shirt to the sounds of MC Hammer's, You Can't Touch This!! Or Rob, dressed like a background singer at a Jimmy Buffet concert??
Others will remember the wonderful sunsets, the fantastic sailing, etc. These are the moments that we will be stuck with!! (And if they fade...I've got pictures and video!!!)
So...I'm sure you want to know the results.
1st Place Jonathan Livingston 117 points
2nd Place Jim Gregory 116 points
3rd Place Drake Sparkman 104 points
4th Place Rob Moore 98 points
Now it's back to sailing!! If we lost ground yesterday, we'll make it up today!!
-Jim
PS. I messed around with the transponder using the magnet provided when I picked it up. With any luck I managed to turn it off, and then back on. In any case, the second time I passed the magnet past the box, the green light came on for the first time in days. Let us know if it's working.
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Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Pacific Cup '08 - Squalls to the left of us, Thunderclouds to the right...here we are, stuck in the squall zone again!!
Great sailing between midnight and 8am this morning. Plenty of wind as squalls passed by one at a time giving us the opportunity to take advantage of the increased windspeeds and the shifts that allow us to gybe (many gybes this time!) and work our way towards Hawaii!!
No problems, all going well. All that is other than the fact that we don't seem to be able to make any consistent gains on a certain SC50!!
Halfway party and the always popular "Ugly Hawaiian Shirt Contest" today at noon!! Standby for a list of the winners!!
Lot's of blue skies, good winds, and some scenic clouds to enjoy along the way. Great to be back out here!
-Jim
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No problems, all going well. All that is other than the fact that we don't seem to be able to make any consistent gains on a certain SC50!!
Halfway party and the always popular "Ugly Hawaiian Shirt Contest" today at noon!! Standby for a list of the winners!!
Lot's of blue skies, good winds, and some scenic clouds to enjoy along the way. Great to be back out here!
-Jim
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Pacific Cup '08 - Midnight Monday
Well, its been an interesting day out here today.Probably the most stressful to date as we were pretty much locked into our strategy and where we were going. We just had to sit back, work hard, and see how things worked out.
The first three quarters of the day were similar to the past few with almost 100% cloud cover. There was much celebration onboard when we finally sailed under blue skies for the first time this race.
This was the day that we tried to work our way around the most southerly part of the high pressure area's light airs. How did we do?? Once again, you all are probably in a better spot to know than us. Is our transponder working again?? Only you know what our competition was doing today. Here's what we think/hope. Time will tell if we are right.
1) We saw XL gybe South this morning in relatively light air. She did this while we were pointing right at Hawaii on Stbd. So, unless she found much better winds just a bit to our South, she spend some time going away from Hawaii while we continuted to make progress. We expect to like what we see relative to her at tomorrows position report.
2) Roxanne/Hula Girl - First, we are happy it's no longer blowing 25+ as those two boats seem to have a gear that we've never seen on Morpheus. Based on what we've seen the past two days, they both like sailing higher angles than we do. If that continued today, then they both had to take a more Northerly course than we did. Our hope is that they either sailed into less air than we had, or had to gybe away when we did not and thus (like XL) sailed on an unfavorable course while we continued on towards Hawaii.
Are we right? Wrong? We'll find out tomorrow at 9am.
-Jim
PS> Our fans have been quiet lately. That is usually not a great sign. Hope to hear more tomorrow....
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The first three quarters of the day were similar to the past few with almost 100% cloud cover. There was much celebration onboard when we finally sailed under blue skies for the first time this race.
This was the day that we tried to work our way around the most southerly part of the high pressure area's light airs. How did we do?? Once again, you all are probably in a better spot to know than us. Is our transponder working again?? Only you know what our competition was doing today. Here's what we think/hope. Time will tell if we are right.
1) We saw XL gybe South this morning in relatively light air. She did this while we were pointing right at Hawaii on Stbd. So, unless she found much better winds just a bit to our South, she spend some time going away from Hawaii while we continuted to make progress. We expect to like what we see relative to her at tomorrows position report.
2) Roxanne/Hula Girl - First, we are happy it's no longer blowing 25+ as those two boats seem to have a gear that we've never seen on Morpheus. Based on what we've seen the past two days, they both like sailing higher angles than we do. If that continued today, then they both had to take a more Northerly course than we did. Our hope is that they either sailed into less air than we had, or had to gybe away when we did not and thus (like XL) sailed on an unfavorable course while we continued on towards Hawaii.
Are we right? Wrong? We'll find out tomorrow at 9am.
-Jim
PS> Our fans have been quiet lately. That is usually not a great sign. Hope to hear more tomorrow....
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Monday, July 21, 2008
Pacific Cup '08 - Transponder broken? Radio issues fixed. Doing what we came here for...
Sorry for the lack of posting yesterday. Working hard to sail fast and go the right way. Seem to be doing a relatively decent job of doing that, but can not seem to hold onto Hula Girl. Lost 60 miles two days ago, and 30 yesterday?? Their rating says they will be faster than us, but there's something else at work here. They are sailing very well.
(While you can't send suggestions our way, if you think you know what we should be doing better, please post comments to the blog. We'll enjoy reading your ideas once we reach Hawaii!)
Sounds like our transponder is not sending updates. Sorry about that. Can't explain why that would be. It's in the same place we've always attached them, and we are not aware of any damage issues. You can probably find a page on www.pacificcup.org that gives our daily 0900 position.
Had some issues with the radio yesterday. Crawled into the aft locker to find that the ground connector on the tuner was loose to the point where it was almost disconnected. Fixed that and all seems well today.
All onboard were sad to learn yesterday of Mark Rudiger's passing. I'm sure that there are lots of other sailors out here feeling the same way. Makes you think a bit and perhaps focus on appreciating what we are doing all the more.
Will spend today trying to come up with a strategy to get us in a position for possible gain on Hula Girl. All agree that waiting for them to screw up is probably not the way to go. Not willing to swing for the fences at the expense of possibly opening the door for others to pass us.
Always interesting...
-Jim
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(While you can't send suggestions our way, if you think you know what we should be doing better, please post comments to the blog. We'll enjoy reading your ideas once we reach Hawaii!)
Sounds like our transponder is not sending updates. Sorry about that. Can't explain why that would be. It's in the same place we've always attached them, and we are not aware of any damage issues. You can probably find a page on www.pacificcup.org that gives our daily 0900 position.
Had some issues with the radio yesterday. Crawled into the aft locker to find that the ground connector on the tuner was loose to the point where it was almost disconnected. Fixed that and all seems well today.
All onboard were sad to learn yesterday of Mark Rudiger's passing. I'm sure that there are lots of other sailors out here feeling the same way. Makes you think a bit and perhaps focus on appreciating what we are doing all the more.
Will spend today trying to come up with a strategy to get us in a position for possible gain on Hula Girl. All agree that waiting for them to screw up is probably not the way to go. Not willing to swing for the fences at the expense of possibly opening the door for others to pass us.
Always interesting...
-Jim
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Saturday, July 19, 2008
Pacific Cup '08 - 3 Day Old Pizza
10:45 AM, 7/19/2008
470 miles out from San Francisco
Our second day was marginally more comfortable and a bit faster than day #1. All and all a good trade. Still 100% cloud cover, but the spinnaker is up, we continue in more than 22 knots of wind, and we are flying fast exactly where we want to go.
Hope it's the right place!!
Life on board is wet!! (Leslie - Rob thinks a new set of foul weather gear would make a nice birthday present.) Above decks, there is a constant spray of water to deal with, below the heater has kept us warm, but condensation is everywhere. We hope to be able to dry things out during the day!
We all miss Bob's explosive personality, and wish he was here to keep us motivated and entertained. He's always ready for any sacrifice, so long as it helps the boat!!
Pizza remains the food of choice. Does anyone know when it goes bad?? Three days out, we must be pushing our luck.
All playing well together and happy.
Jim
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470 miles out from San Francisco
Our second day was marginally more comfortable and a bit faster than day #1. All and all a good trade. Still 100% cloud cover, but the spinnaker is up, we continue in more than 22 knots of wind, and we are flying fast exactly where we want to go.
Hope it's the right place!!
Life on board is wet!! (Leslie - Rob thinks a new set of foul weather gear would make a nice birthday present.) Above decks, there is a constant spray of water to deal with, below the heater has kept us warm, but condensation is everywhere. We hope to be able to dry things out during the day!
We all miss Bob's explosive personality, and wish he was here to keep us motivated and entertained. He's always ready for any sacrifice, so long as it helps the boat!!
Pizza remains the food of choice. Does anyone know when it goes bad?? Three days out, we must be pushing our luck.
All playing well together and happy.
Jim
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Friday, July 18, 2008
Pacific Cup '08 - Johnny Ryan is actually with us!!
Position reports just showed up and we are very pleased with our results to date. It's early days and all of us are really just out here setting up for where we think we should be for the last 2 thirds of the race. The lighter boats as expected are sailing lower, gaining speed but sailing more distance. We don't gain as much by playing that game and are staying a bit higher hoping for good wind and a shorter test.
Doing 15.5 right now!!!
And that brings me to our second subject. Johnny Ryan. Johnny did the last two races with us and we are missing him this time out. But...apparently he is here in spirit as I am constantly hearing guys on deck yell out "Hey Johnny!" at the helmsman whenever they chase a wave south rather than staying on course. It's tempting, but it's not quite time for that yet!! Johnny seems to set the speed record on every distance race he does, but can often be found sailing 10-20 degrees low to do it!!
Anyway, all good here. 20+ knots of wind. "Johnny's" top speed so far is 17.3...not bad, but that will fall soon.
-Jim
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Doing 15.5 right now!!!
And that brings me to our second subject. Johnny Ryan. Johnny did the last two races with us and we are missing him this time out. But...apparently he is here in spirit as I am constantly hearing guys on deck yell out "Hey Johnny!" at the helmsman whenever they chase a wave south rather than staying on course. It's tempting, but it's not quite time for that yet!! Johnny seems to set the speed record on every distance race he does, but can often be found sailing 10-20 degrees low to do it!!
Anyway, all good here. 20+ knots of wind. "Johnny's" top speed so far is 17.3...not bad, but that will fall soon.
-Jim
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Thursday, July 17, 2008
Pacific Cup '08 - Fast out of the Gate!
So...let's leave it at that for now.
-Jim
PS. Our East Coast friend thinks he's been sold a bill of goods! Perhaps we didn't stress the conditions during the first two days during our sales pitch???
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Saturday, July 12, 2008
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