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Shorthanded Racing in San Francisco Bay

2002 TRANSPAC News and Position Reports

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Tuesday June 18

0900 hours radio check in

via SailMail from Steve Wilson on board Westerly

YachtLatitudeLongitudeNotes
Rusalka32.02129.55
Alchera31.47130.43
Tease31.53 (?)129.30
Endangered Species32.54129.57
Seabird31.55129.51
Zapped30.37129.03
Westerly31.34128.32
Haulback31.59128.44

2100 hours radio check in

from Rob listening in on SSB
YachtLatitudeLongitudeNotes
Rusalka31.30131.35bouncy earlier, seas calming down now
Alchera31.08132.33
Tease30.45130.38
Endangered Species32.26131.31
Seabird31.00131.12Great day of sailing. Had a spinnaker wrap and tangled with the sock lines, got it off the furler and now it's down below all straightened out and ready to go.
Zapped29.30130.21appears to have a problem with the ssb, is relaying through to Seabird for check in.
Westerly30.50129.57Steve has become the hi-seas ICOM SSB expert. Great weather, moderate winds, things are going really well. 15 knots breeze, not kite up yet.
Haulback31.20130.09Jim's birthday today, no cake but things are great. he's had his code 0 sail up the last 36 hours and has had great runs of 151, 163 and 164 miles. At this time he's planning to point the bow at Hanalei and hope the High moves north.

Alchera Log 6/18/02 0515 Hours Position N31 57 W130 15

Why is it that when things go wrong it's always at 4 in the morning? Well, 3:30 anyway. Woke up and 'felt' that the boat seemed to be expending a lot of effort and not going very fast for the trouble. Always a bad sign. Put on harness and tether, go out on deck. Hmm, where did my sprit pole go? Seems to have retracted by itself, and the spinnaker is looking very distressed. Pull on the string to extend the pole. Nothing, no resistance. Another bad sign. Go below into the forward berth to see what's going on. Aha! The stopper knot on the end of the line to extend the pole has pulled through the anchor locker bulkhead. This line was just replaced before the trip with a smaller diameter spectra line, and unfortunately the stopper knot pulled right through the hole designed to stop a much larger diameter line.

Rummage around in the spare parts box - there's a large washer that ought to do the trick. Drill out the hole in the bulkhead again (it's full of caulk), thread the line through. Take off harness and tether, put on foulies, put on harness and tether. Go forward, climb into anchor locker, fish around for the end of the line, attach washer and tie new stopper knot. Take a few waves over the head. Back to cockpit and pull on line - seems to be holding, but there's no way I can extend the pole with the spinnaker still up. Go forward, sock the spinnaker. Back to the cockpit, extend the pole - good, it's working. Back to the foredeck to unsock the spinnaker. Back to the cockpit to put the boat back in trim.

All the while I've been aware of the fact that the stars are out in their full glory. There are no clouds and the Milky Way is ablaze with light. I take 10 minutes just staring up at the sky, this is one of the reasons I came out here.

Yesterday was another beautiful weather day. TransPacs aren't supposed to be like this, we have lucked out. The high pressure system has been problematic, most of the night before was spent heading south around the eastern edge. Yesterday afternoon and tonight I've been able to cut around the bottom a bit, so we're heading southwest again. I've been letting the boat 'feel' it's way around the edges of the high by sailing a constant 88 degree angle to the wind which allows me to use my reaching spinnaker. (Since the code zero isn't working.) The weatherfax confirms that the edge ought to be right about where we are.

The rest of the fleet is enjoying the weather. Westerly took the time to work on his windvane. Rusalka set her spinnaker around 4pm yesterday. Tease was having problems communicating on SSB, apparently the transmit frequency programmed into his unit was different than the receive, which doesn't work too well on a simplex channel. Endangered Species never could get his SSB to work on the channels we were originally using, so the entire fleet started using 4A so that he could participate. Everyone loves their Icom SSB's, but the operation is always a mystery. Someone at ICOM ought to learn a few things about simple user interface design. Audacious started fishing, but no luck yet.

- Alchera

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