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.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
PV to San Francisco - Goodbye Cabo
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
PV to San Francisco -
1/3
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most amazing whale experience ever.
Past some northbound whales. Turned off engine to enter stealth mode. Found ourselves among
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most amazing whale experience ever.
Past some northbound whales. Turned off engine to enter stealth mode. Found ourselves among
PV to San Francisco -
2/3 a pod of three. Two swam away. Another, a really huge one, submerged and swam under the stern. It went on forever. No lie was easily thr
PV to San Francisco -
2/3 three. Two swam away. Another, a really huge one, submerged and swam under the stern. It went on forever. No lie was easily three times t
PV to San Francisco - Cabo on the Bow
a whale breached reight in front of the bow as we were dropping the jib an hour ago. I missed it, but it got Dan and David's attention.
Monday, March 10, 2008
March 10: Sunset enroute to Cabo
Well, the perfect sailing conditions that we enjoyed in PV have extended to our trip to Cabo. The reacher went up this morning at about 6am and we've had 10 knots on the beam ever since. Nothing but sunshine!! Not bad. Why couldn't we have had this during the race.
David and Dan are settling in well. I think we are all in a bit of recovery mode after the last week and off watches are dominated by lots of sleep and not much conversation!
Sunset was spectacular, and we are looking forward to sailing through the night!!
Hope all that sailed with us over the past couple of weeks have enjoyed safe and easy trips home.
Thank you!!
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PV to San Francisco - SAILING from PV to Cabo
Beautiful night and morning. 10 knots on the beam. Blast Reacher up, and sailing at 8 knots.
My new crew has passed their initial test...they get up when it's their turn for watch!!
All is well. Cabo next!!!
-Jim
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My new crew has passed their initial test...they get up when it's their turn for watch!!
All is well. Cabo next!!!
-Jim
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Sunday, March 09, 2008
PV to San Francisco - Last few minutes in PV
Saturday, March 08, 2008
MEXORC 08 - Last night at Casa Paraiso
We won our class and came second overall!
Will transform moorpheus tomorrow and get her back into cruising shape. Hope to be on the way north by 3pm.
Will stay in touch.
Friday, March 07, 2008
MEXORC 08 - Panga ride to boat in am
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Friday, February 29, 2008
San Diego to PV '08: Day # too many
Well tonight we will dine on "too slow" stew. Thanks Deb!!
Today's roll call not so impressive. Did fine with almost everyone but Valkyrie really pulled off an impressive run yesterday. Congrats to them on that. Yesterday, was not an easy day.
So, now we find ourselves in the apparently ridiculous position of praying for continued frustration and light air through the afternoon. Our only hope for first now is to see the boats in front slowed by the evening shutoff with us pulling up into their neighborhood for a restart in the AM.
As it is, we are set up for the ultimate dissapointment of seeing the first three (maybe four) boats make it to the finish line prior to the wind shutting down and then spending another evening drifting in light air in order to end up 4th. Ugh.
What will it be?? Who knows. I'm willing to bet though that our families and friends are having a great time on shore!!
-Jim
1:35pm PST....4 knots of wind from 307M. 4 knots of speed. And...this is a highlight of the last few hours!!
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Today's roll call not so impressive. Did fine with almost everyone but Valkyrie really pulled off an impressive run yesterday. Congrats to them on that. Yesterday, was not an easy day.
So, now we find ourselves in the apparently ridiculous position of praying for continued frustration and light air through the afternoon. Our only hope for first now is to see the boats in front slowed by the evening shutoff with us pulling up into their neighborhood for a restart in the AM.
As it is, we are set up for the ultimate dissapointment of seeing the first three (maybe four) boats make it to the finish line prior to the wind shutting down and then spending another evening drifting in light air in order to end up 4th. Ugh.
What will it be?? Who knows. I'm willing to bet though that our families and friends are having a great time on shore!!
-Jim
1:35pm PST....4 knots of wind from 307M. 4 knots of speed. And...this is a highlight of the last few hours!!
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San Diego to PV '08: Day #1 too many!!
Ok, sorry for the delay sending any updates today.
We spent most of the day going nowhere talking onboard about all the fun our friends and relatives were probably having in PV without us!! Hope the Margaritas are good, and the rooms are nice!!
Went to sleep last night at about 3am with the boat basically sitting in no wind. I guess that continued for an hour or so before the wind filled in at about 7-9 knots and we were able to sail directly for the finish with the code zero up. What a sail that is. Whatever the windspeed we seem to be able to sail at least that fast with that sail in the air.
We felt we'd done a good job and were very happy with roll call at 8:30.
Suddenly, everyone "believed" again, and with the wind continuing at about 7 knots we emptied the ends of the boat of all personal gear, etc. and made a giant pile of sails, gear, and personal bags in the middle of the boat. It's about 3 feet tall, and an interesting "climb" in order to get forward or aft.
The good sailing under Code Zero lasted until about noon, when the wind dropped to 1-2 knots and we started what continues to this moment. Sailing in VERY light air, and watching the wind direction move slowly from the Southwest, to East, and now to the NE. Most of this is once again not reflected in local weather forecasts, so its an ongoing mission to keep the boat moving (currently 2.8 knots), and on the tack or gybe closest to the finish.
130 miles to go. We've traveled about 70 since rollcall. Now we are on a mission to somehow get to the finish line tomorrow prior to sunset and the daily wind shutdown that would commit us to yet another night at sea!!
BTW - it's not all bad out here. The sea is mirror flat, no moon yet, so it's very dark and there are 10 gazillion stars in the sky. Just finished a two hour stint at the wheel, listening to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon album. Perfect!!
We'll see what happened to the others today. It looks likely that this is a generic situation shared by all, but perhaps someone was lucky and broke away???
My suspicion is that the timing of boats finishes and the daily wind shutdown will determine the winners in our division.
More later,
-Jim
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We spent most of the day going nowhere talking onboard about all the fun our friends and relatives were probably having in PV without us!! Hope the Margaritas are good, and the rooms are nice!!
Went to sleep last night at about 3am with the boat basically sitting in no wind. I guess that continued for an hour or so before the wind filled in at about 7-9 knots and we were able to sail directly for the finish with the code zero up. What a sail that is. Whatever the windspeed we seem to be able to sail at least that fast with that sail in the air.
We felt we'd done a good job and were very happy with roll call at 8:30.
Suddenly, everyone "believed" again, and with the wind continuing at about 7 knots we emptied the ends of the boat of all personal gear, etc. and made a giant pile of sails, gear, and personal bags in the middle of the boat. It's about 3 feet tall, and an interesting "climb" in order to get forward or aft.
The good sailing under Code Zero lasted until about noon, when the wind dropped to 1-2 knots and we started what continues to this moment. Sailing in VERY light air, and watching the wind direction move slowly from the Southwest, to East, and now to the NE. Most of this is once again not reflected in local weather forecasts, so its an ongoing mission to keep the boat moving (currently 2.8 knots), and on the tack or gybe closest to the finish.
130 miles to go. We've traveled about 70 since rollcall. Now we are on a mission to somehow get to the finish line tomorrow prior to sunset and the daily wind shutdown that would commit us to yet another night at sea!!
BTW - it's not all bad out here. The sea is mirror flat, no moon yet, so it's very dark and there are 10 gazillion stars in the sky. Just finished a two hour stint at the wheel, listening to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon album. Perfect!!
We'll see what happened to the others today. It looks likely that this is a generic situation shared by all, but perhaps someone was lucky and broke away???
My suspicion is that the timing of boats finishes and the daily wind shutdown will determine the winners in our division.
More later,
-Jim
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Thursday, February 28, 2008
San Diego to PV '08: Day 6 - Early AM
Nice Roll Call!
Looks like everyone is tied at this point!!
Fun....!
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Looks like everyone is tied at this point!!
Fun....!
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Wednesday, February 27, 2008
San Diego to PV '08: Day 5 - What are we thinking???
Well, this day turned out to be much nicer than expected!!
It basically started with the 8am check-in as our wind died to nothing.
The check-in was good and bad.
- We are pleased that for two days good boats like Valkyrie and Blue Blazes have not extended much on us.
- The problems are that Velos has really put some good days together and we had really expected to gain on the other two
when they had to gybe out to us. The expected gains were mostly going to be the result of winds getting light on the lower third of baja forcing all of us to sail higher angles on Port. We were out far enough that we'd clear Cabo easily, but we thought they would have to gybe out to near our line to do the same. Looks like something else happened, so we've sailed some extra miles and are paying for it.
By the way, the sailing has really been excellent. It's warm now, shorts and T-shirts day and night. Clear skies tonight and millions of stars, etc. etc. The Southern Cross is up btw. You don't get to see that too often!!
So...our day. Initially forecast to be a day of no winds exceeding 7 knots and most in the sub-five area turned into a very nice day of sailing in aprox. 9 knots of breeze. All the forecast info that I've been able to track down has consistently been telling us that what wind we had would be from the NW. But, we've sailed all day in a breeze of about 278M. We are almost exactly dead upwind from the finish line.
So, why did we go the way we did today?? Well, when your forecasts are totally off in both wind velocity and direction, and you have no other strong data suggesting what to do, you fall back on history and....you stay on the gybe closest to the mark.
We wanted to be far away from Cabo since the prevailing NW breezes always leave a giant hole to the south of Cabo. Was it there today?? Who knows. Oh...I forgot you guys know. Anyway, all other things being equal, we stuck with the option that would take us away from Cabo, so lots of stbd gybe until we were pretty close to past the cape. Then we've spent the rest of the day from 4pm until now at 9pm playing the shifts...wind varies between 270 and 290 out here.
Now, I have new forecast info that actually agrees with what I see. Our routing tells us to spend some time getting NE and our breeze is pretty steady 10 knots in the 285 range so that's the favored gybe and our forecast agrees. Nice!! Maybe things will make sense.
Latest ETA is 6pm on the 29th. We are sailing faster than current predictions so perhaps an early afternoon finish on the 29th?? Probably way too much to hope for. But, that's what we do around here. Hopefully, we'll close the gap a bit with some of our competition, and perhaps get some help from the evening shutdowns that the wind experiences in PV?? Here's hoping that BB and Velos miss the wind window in front of us and have to spend some time waiting!!
That's all. Tell me what we did wrong someday.
Morpheus out!!
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It basically started with the 8am check-in as our wind died to nothing.
The check-in was good and bad.
- We are pleased that for two days good boats like Valkyrie and Blue Blazes have not extended much on us.
- The problems are that Velos has really put some good days together and we had really expected to gain on the other two
when they had to gybe out to us. The expected gains were mostly going to be the result of winds getting light on the lower third of baja forcing all of us to sail higher angles on Port. We were out far enough that we'd clear Cabo easily, but we thought they would have to gybe out to near our line to do the same. Looks like something else happened, so we've sailed some extra miles and are paying for it.
By the way, the sailing has really been excellent. It's warm now, shorts and T-shirts day and night. Clear skies tonight and millions of stars, etc. etc. The Southern Cross is up btw. You don't get to see that too often!!
So...our day. Initially forecast to be a day of no winds exceeding 7 knots and most in the sub-five area turned into a very nice day of sailing in aprox. 9 knots of breeze. All the forecast info that I've been able to track down has consistently been telling us that what wind we had would be from the NW. But, we've sailed all day in a breeze of about 278M. We are almost exactly dead upwind from the finish line.
So, why did we go the way we did today?? Well, when your forecasts are totally off in both wind velocity and direction, and you have no other strong data suggesting what to do, you fall back on history and....you stay on the gybe closest to the mark.
We wanted to be far away from Cabo since the prevailing NW breezes always leave a giant hole to the south of Cabo. Was it there today?? Who knows. Oh...I forgot you guys know. Anyway, all other things being equal, we stuck with the option that would take us away from Cabo, so lots of stbd gybe until we were pretty close to past the cape. Then we've spent the rest of the day from 4pm until now at 9pm playing the shifts...wind varies between 270 and 290 out here.
Now, I have new forecast info that actually agrees with what I see. Our routing tells us to spend some time getting NE and our breeze is pretty steady 10 knots in the 285 range so that's the favored gybe and our forecast agrees. Nice!! Maybe things will make sense.
Latest ETA is 6pm on the 29th. We are sailing faster than current predictions so perhaps an early afternoon finish on the 29th?? Probably way too much to hope for. But, that's what we do around here. Hopefully, we'll close the gap a bit with some of our competition, and perhaps get some help from the evening shutdowns that the wind experiences in PV?? Here's hoping that BB and Velos miss the wind window in front of us and have to spend some time waiting!!
That's all. Tell me what we did wrong someday.
Morpheus out!!
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PV Race '08 - Day 5: Post Roll Call
Well best we can figure is that at roll call today
Blue Blazes owes us 7hrs and she was 73 miles ahead. Ouch, the wind has died out here. Hope we get it back before them and they arrive at night allowing us to catch up. Otherwise....
Valkyrie owed us 3 hours and was 18 miles ahead. That might be close, all depends.
Velos owed us 4hrs 45min and was 94 miles ahead. Wow, they are crushing everyone. But....they are not so flash in light air and that's today.
Bad Pack owed us 3.5hrs and was 32 miles ahead, we have some work to do.
Rain Cloud and Innocent Merriment owe us time and were behind us. No problem at this point.
Have not really paid attention to the big boats, but looks to me like the race weather favors the little guys that started first, or the big guys that past Cabo yesterday without much delay.
Today they all have 15 knots while we have 5 knots of wind at present.
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Blue Blazes owes us 7hrs and she was 73 miles ahead. Ouch, the wind has died out here. Hope we get it back before them and they arrive at night allowing us to catch up. Otherwise....
Valkyrie owed us 3 hours and was 18 miles ahead. That might be close, all depends.
Velos owed us 4hrs 45min and was 94 miles ahead. Wow, they are crushing everyone. But....they are not so flash in light air and that's today.
Bad Pack owed us 3.5hrs and was 32 miles ahead, we have some work to do.
Rain Cloud and Innocent Merriment owe us time and were behind us. No problem at this point.
Have not really paid attention to the big boats, but looks to me like the race weather favors the little guys that started first, or the big guys that past Cabo yesterday without much delay.
Today they all have 15 knots while we have 5 knots of wind at present.
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San Diego to PV '08: Day 5 - Message to Mike
All onboard are looking forward to your analysis of our performance in this race and suggestions for future strategies.
Hope you are taking notes.
-Jim
PS> 6:44AM - 10 Knots from 340. Heading for the finish line now and plan to pass about 40 miles south of Cabo. Expect the breeze to die and to have a long frustrating day. Beginning to worry about the timelimit as the forecast is VERY light between here and the finish.
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Hope you are taking notes.
-Jim
PS> 6:44AM - 10 Knots from 340. Heading for the finish line now and plan to pass about 40 miles south of Cabo. Expect the breeze to die and to have a long frustrating day. Beginning to worry about the timelimit as the forecast is VERY light between here and the finish.
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Tuesday, February 26, 2008
San Diego to PV '08: Day Four - Why I don't want trackers in the PacCup
The fact that we are not sure how we are doing against our competition, and YOU DO is why I think we need to try to keep this information out of the hands of racing sailors!!
The game would be entirely different for us right now if I knew that boats to the NE had more wind than us, or a better angle. And if we all had the tracking info, we'd all probably be following each other around like a pack of first grade soccer players.
As it is tonight, we are debating how we want to pass Cabo and whether our race long strategy of being well South will end up paying off.
The latest weather information and routing is suggesting passing close by and then staying North across the Sea of Cortez. Based on history that is a high risk alternative.
Either way, it looks like a couple of very slow days. We have 9-10 knots of wind right now and are back on stbd gybe heading "south east". Our alternative would be port gybe and a course of 75 degrees. Doesn't make sense to sail a course with any North in it to us!!
Pretty sure we're going to hold out for the southerly route that we've been planning on. If we change our plans now due to two forecasts we are definitely in trouble. If we stick with what's worked in the past, there's a good chance the forecast will change 3-4 times between now and the time we finish.
Maybe it will change our way!!
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The game would be entirely different for us right now if I knew that boats to the NE had more wind than us, or a better angle. And if we all had the tracking info, we'd all probably be following each other around like a pack of first grade soccer players.
As it is tonight, we are debating how we want to pass Cabo and whether our race long strategy of being well South will end up paying off.
The latest weather information and routing is suggesting passing close by and then staying North across the Sea of Cortez. Based on history that is a high risk alternative.
Either way, it looks like a couple of very slow days. We have 9-10 knots of wind right now and are back on stbd gybe heading "south east". Our alternative would be port gybe and a course of 75 degrees. Doesn't make sense to sail a course with any North in it to us!!
Pretty sure we're going to hold out for the southerly route that we've been planning on. If we change our plans now due to two forecasts we are definitely in trouble. If we stick with what's worked in the past, there's a good chance the forecast will change 3-4 times between now and the time we finish.
Maybe it will change our way!!
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San Diego to PV '08: Day 4 - Early AM - Perfect!!
3AM
Just got off one of the best watches ever. If I could paint, this would be a good one!!
Big bright moon right in front of me. 20-24 knots of breeze, big spinnaker up, and swells that have finally spaced out and become fairly regular. The "crazy ivan" waves coming from unique directions are finally gone.
Driving was simply a matter of pointing the boat down the "yellow brick road" made by the reflection of the moon, and picking my angles to jump on the waves. Beautiful!!
Patrick might learn to like this some day if he ever gives it a try. He could apply all that he has learned surfing to the problems of catching the perfect wave!!
Earlier this evening between sunset and 8pm was an entirely different matter. The sun went down, but there was no moon. So we are talking about a black night. Very dim horizon for reference and only the dim lights of my instruments to drive by.
We had winds up to 27 knots at that point, and twice I ended up exceeding 20 knots during a very extended ride on a wave. Hard to explain to those that have never done it, but it's one of those things that seem great now, but at the time, "not so fun"!!
After the second time hitting 20 knots, I called for the spinnaker to come down in order to "protect my record" and ensure that we'd have a spinnaker to finish with!!
We sailed for 4 hours under main/jib and still our speeds were 10+ all the time.
Should be a big day. Roll Call will tell us who did a better job at sailing "full on" all day, and who also had minor/major issues like ours.
Winds starting to drop now. Our info shows that its already lightened up inside. Our theory is that we have more wind and will continue to have more for many hours to come. As the wind gets lighter we'll need to sail higher angles. If it all works out, what looks like extra distance sailed to get outside up near Point Cedros will look smarter at roll call this morning.
If not, then perhaps we blew it!!
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Just got off one of the best watches ever. If I could paint, this would be a good one!!
Big bright moon right in front of me. 20-24 knots of breeze, big spinnaker up, and swells that have finally spaced out and become fairly regular. The "crazy ivan" waves coming from unique directions are finally gone.
Driving was simply a matter of pointing the boat down the "yellow brick road" made by the reflection of the moon, and picking my angles to jump on the waves. Beautiful!!
Patrick might learn to like this some day if he ever gives it a try. He could apply all that he has learned surfing to the problems of catching the perfect wave!!
Earlier this evening between sunset and 8pm was an entirely different matter. The sun went down, but there was no moon. So we are talking about a black night. Very dim horizon for reference and only the dim lights of my instruments to drive by.
We had winds up to 27 knots at that point, and twice I ended up exceeding 20 knots during a very extended ride on a wave. Hard to explain to those that have never done it, but it's one of those things that seem great now, but at the time, "not so fun"!!
After the second time hitting 20 knots, I called for the spinnaker to come down in order to "protect my record" and ensure that we'd have a spinnaker to finish with!!
We sailed for 4 hours under main/jib and still our speeds were 10+ all the time.
Should be a big day. Roll Call will tell us who did a better job at sailing "full on" all day, and who also had minor/major issues like ours.
Winds starting to drop now. Our info shows that its already lightened up inside. Our theory is that we have more wind and will continue to have more for many hours to come. As the wind gets lighter we'll need to sail higher angles. If it all works out, what looks like extra distance sailed to get outside up near Point Cedros will look smarter at roll call this morning.
If not, then perhaps we blew it!!
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Monday, February 25, 2008
San Diego to PV '08: Day 3 - Speed Racer!!
Yes!! Big waves and wind.
Top speeds constantly in the 14, 155, 16 and sometimes 18+ range.
We are flying!!! We have the wind we came looking for.
So...do the others inside have less?? Are they coming out to join us at all??
Hope so!!
-Jim
PS. This is fun!
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Top speeds constantly in the 14, 155, 16 and sometimes 18+ range.
We are flying!!! We have the wind we came looking for.
So...do the others inside have less?? Are they coming out to join us at all??
Hope so!!
-Jim
PS. This is fun!
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San Diego to PV '08: Day 2 - WIPEOUT!!
Delayed our gybe a bit this morning after passing Pt. Cedros in order to find some stronger winds that were predicted offshore.
We found them!! Also found some really big waves, and occasionally we'd get one from the side.
Fortunately, I was driving. Unfortunately, as I was chasing down a wave at about 14-15 knots, one of those "other waves" came along and slammed the back of our boat, turning me dead down wind plus some. Classic Chinese gybe!! Morpheus rotated nicely around the end of her spinnaker pole which was planted firmly in the wave. The main came slamming over and right as the pole or the mast was about to break Rob threw off the foreguy and the pole quickly came up to the surface. Thanks Rob!! However, all the news is not great, as just as Rob threw off the foreguy, the tack of the spinnaker (also under water) decided to let go. So, I'm now short one spinnaker that is probably repairable for Mexorc, but will need to be replaced soon. (Sorry Deb)
All are well. We still have 24-27 knots of wind and a "jib on a stick" set up for now to be conservative, see how things look at rollcall and then figure out how much we want to risk the rest of our Spinnaker inventory.
Still blasting down waves fast!! Perhaps .75 of a knot slower, but sailing lower, so all is definitely not lost!!!
More later.
-Jim
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We found them!! Also found some really big waves, and occasionally we'd get one from the side.
Fortunately, I was driving. Unfortunately, as I was chasing down a wave at about 14-15 knots, one of those "other waves" came along and slammed the back of our boat, turning me dead down wind plus some. Classic Chinese gybe!! Morpheus rotated nicely around the end of her spinnaker pole which was planted firmly in the wave. The main came slamming over and right as the pole or the mast was about to break Rob threw off the foreguy and the pole quickly came up to the surface. Thanks Rob!! However, all the news is not great, as just as Rob threw off the foreguy, the tack of the spinnaker (also under water) decided to let go. So, I'm now short one spinnaker that is probably repairable for Mexorc, but will need to be replaced soon. (Sorry Deb)
All are well. We still have 24-27 knots of wind and a "jib on a stick" set up for now to be conservative, see how things look at rollcall and then figure out how much we want to risk the rest of our Spinnaker inventory.
Still blasting down waves fast!! Perhaps .75 of a knot slower, but sailing lower, so all is definitely not lost!!!
More later.
-Jim
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Sunday, February 24, 2008
San Diego to PV '08: Day 2 AFternoon
Well the day has gone as we expected. The shift allowing us to tack to Stbd this Am has continued, so we've worked our way through the Light One, the Code 0, the 1A, and now the big 2A spinnaker. A big band of fog has rolled in and brought some real wind with it finally!! We sailed all day in 7 knots, now we have 14!!
The big paranoia today is wondering if those onshore had a bit more wind, or if they have a better angle now.
Only you know....we will wait for 8am tomorrow!!
-Jim
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The big paranoia today is wondering if those onshore had a bit more wind, or if they have a better angle now.
Only you know....we will wait for 8am tomorrow!!
-Jim
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San Diego to PV '08: Day 2, Morning
A VERY difficult night. Winds from all points, but rarely above 5 knots. Lots of sail changes, but it's all good when you listen to roll call and see that you are doing well!!
It's always an interesting 3 hours prior to roll call. It's your daily report card, and when you have not seen another boat for over 10 hours you can invent all sorts of imaginary ways that you screwed up.
So, we are outside of everyone, and apparently in more breeze. The shift that we were hoping for came through over the past 4 hours and we are now on stbd tack and heading just about for Pt. Cedros. Perfect planning or blind luck??? Who knows??
The shift should continue, we just put up the code zero in 7 knots of breeze and practically doubled our speed. Spinnakers soon!!
More later!
-Jim
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It's always an interesting 3 hours prior to roll call. It's your daily report card, and when you have not seen another boat for over 10 hours you can invent all sorts of imaginary ways that you screwed up.
So, we are outside of everyone, and apparently in more breeze. The shift that we were hoping for came through over the past 4 hours and we are now on stbd tack and heading just about for Pt. Cedros. Perfect planning or blind luck??? Who knows??
The shift should continue, we just put up the code zero in 7 knots of breeze and practically doubled our speed. Spinnakers soon!!
More later!
-Jim
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Saturday, February 23, 2008
San Diego to PV '08: Day 1
What a perfect afternoon of sailing we had leaving San Diego today.
Very happy with our start, we were able to keep our air clear and the boat really seemed to do well in the early sailing out the channel. 8-11 knots of breeze on the wind and sometime slightly cracked off we seemed to do just fine, until the wind came aft for a bit too much for the small headsails and not far enough aft to get us into our code0. We could do nothing but watch Valkyrie sail off head.
As the day ended, the wind grew progressively lighter which is not good for us, but we were well positioned with half the fleet to either side. We think we held our own until about 6:30 when we had to tack away from land, and now the wind is down to 3.3 knots and we're not having much fun trying to keep the boat moving towards the finish while working offshore where we expect to find some more wind.
Wish we had the benefit of the tracking system. We could see who has wind and who does not. As we see it, nobody around us has much more than us, so we'll just have to see where the new wind comes from. Someone will probably sneak away. Forecast says its going to be light all night. Ugh...
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Very happy with our start, we were able to keep our air clear and the boat really seemed to do well in the early sailing out the channel. 8-11 knots of breeze on the wind and sometime slightly cracked off we seemed to do just fine, until the wind came aft for a bit too much for the small headsails and not far enough aft to get us into our code0. We could do nothing but watch Valkyrie sail off head.
As the day ended, the wind grew progressively lighter which is not good for us, but we were well positioned with half the fleet to either side. We think we held our own until about 6:30 when we had to tack away from land, and now the wind is down to 3.3 knots and we're not having much fun trying to keep the boat moving towards the finish while working offshore where we expect to find some more wind.
Wish we had the benefit of the tracking system. We could see who has wind and who does not. As we see it, nobody around us has much more than us, so we'll just have to see where the new wind comes from. Someone will probably sneak away. Forecast says its going to be light all night. Ugh...
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Sunday, February 10, 2008
PV Race '08 - Sunday AM = Absolutely no wind
Just past Santa Cruz island. No wind at all. Well...2.1 knots of wind from a variety of directions.
We've done our calculations and see that if we continue (without running out of fuel) that we will get to San Diego just after last call tonight. That doesn't seem like fun.
So, we've decided to stop in Catalina, should arrive about 3pm. We'll fuel up and enjoy some local food and beverages before pushing off with a plan to arrive in San Diego very early tomorrow AM.
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We've done our calculations and see that if we continue (without running out of fuel) that we will get to San Diego just after last call tonight. That doesn't seem like fun.
So, we've decided to stop in Catalina, should arrive about 3pm. We'll fuel up and enjoy some local food and beverages before pushing off with a plan to arrive in San Diego very early tomorrow AM.
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Saturday, February 09, 2008
PV Race '08 - Sat AM - 1045 - No Wind!
Not much to report. Spent aprox. 25% of last night sailing in some strange offshore breeze. Had as much as 27 knots for a while. Then the wind shifted back to the NW and died. TWS now 8 knots. We are making good time, and using lots of fuel!! 50 miles south of Monterey and about 90 miles North of Conception.
Pizza and breakfast sandwiches are good!! Guys learning how to make coffee etc. Don't put three scoops of instant coffee in your coffee mug!!! Yuck!
-Jim
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Pizza and breakfast sandwiches are good!! Guys learning how to make coffee etc. Don't put three scoops of instant coffee in your coffee mug!!! Yuck!
-Jim
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Friday, February 08, 2008
PV Race '08 - Friday Evening
Not much wind out here. Huge swells that made leaving the Golden Gate behind a bit of an adventure. Thought we were sailing through Mavericks there for a while. All normal now. About 8 miles south of Half Moon Bay. 8 Knots of wind. We are motoring. Did I bring enough fuel?? We will see....
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Saturday, January 26, 2008
Friday, January 25, 2008
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Key West Race Week '08 - Another day with no racing
Key West Race Week '08 - Waiting
Key West Race Week '08 - Departure
Not pretty!
Key West Race Week '08 - A new day
Yesterdays results were ultimately not impressive. But...from my point of view we sailed better than I expected and am pleased that we may do better.
All finishes were close and we sailed around in the middle of the B fleet. We just finished in the back of that crowd. Race 3 was a great finish with 90 percent of the boats finishing in about 30 seconds.
Sunny, very light today. We will see....
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
Key West Race Week '08 - No race today!
Key West Race Week '08 -
1/2 I am surprised. They are sending us out. Stand by for the stories in a few hours. One race only.
Www.sailinganarchy.com will be covering o
Www.sailinganarchy.com will be covering o
Key West Race Week '08 - Nap Time
How will I fill the time??
Key West Race Week '08 - Day #1: Postponed until at least 11am
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Key West Race Week '08 - NO SAILING TODAY SO A STORY...
Big night two nights ago, I didn't realize how big until I heard this story.
One of our crew who shall remain nameless figures he'll do dome laundry before he heads to the boat. He hasn't done laundry for many years, but how hard can it be??? So he goes to do his laundry. Buys soap, get quarters, thinks he's all set. throws the clothes in the machine, dumps in the powdered soap and presses "go".
All seems good.
Later, proud that he did it himself he goes back to change his laundry to dryer. He opens the door and can't quite figure out why he clothes are super warm, still smell bad, and covered in powdered soap!!
He'd put them in the dryer!!!!
Key West Race Week '08 - Davie's Latest Creation
Key West Race Week '08 - Practice #2 on hold
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Key West Race Week '08 - At the dock
Friday, January 18, 2008
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Friday, December 07, 2007
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Washington 37 - Cal 23: Final Thoughts
The 2007 Bears are just plain not a good football team. It's not just the defense that can't stop the run, it's not the quarterback that can't throw more than 15 yards (to his own players), it's not the coaches that don't seem to coach at critical moments, and it's not just the fact that everytime we are inside the 5 yard line we keep trying to run it up the middle. It's all of the above.
This team has lost it's mojo, and I have spent entirely too much time watching.
Cal vs. Washington: Did I mention that its raining
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