Photographs from NorCal Sailing

Find here “a big fat photo gallery” from NorCal Sailing. Christine Weaver and Jonathan Gutoff, professional journalist and photographer, respectively, spent two weeks in Hanalei Bay in order to provide coverage of the 2018 Singlehanded Transpacific Yacht Race.

http://www.norcalsailing.com/galleries/201807-shtpfinishes/201807-shtpfinishes.html#.W1YHYNVKhrQ

Looking for older Race posts?

click on “News” at the left of this page, scroll down. Then scroll back through earlier posts. Yep, like that! Remember to refresh your screen with the little circular arrow up top next to the subject box.

Thank you to our Web Kahuna, David Nabors for enlightenment. Let’s hope he doesn’t lose his new job in Silicon Valley for peeking at this site during work hours.

In the meantime, here is Don Martin s/v Crinan II:

 

 

 

 

Recap 2 (sundry photos)

July 10, 2018

Below are Beccie ( Kynntana’s doublehanded crew), Shawn (Carliane’s baby boy) and Carliane, satisfied with the house pancakes

Below: Kitchen help

John Woodworth waiting for his daughter

After the Sea Squirrel Crew met Kynntana, they waited in the rain for Owl to arrive. And they waited. And waited. And waited. They were not sad because they were on a sailboat and they were together. But they did wait. And wait. In the rain. On the sailboat

Christine, Synthia, Dave and the photographer.

 

Recap I

July 10, 2018 It has been a whirlwind couple of days at Command Central, with many a luau in the yard. Here is a photo of the Tree in the backyard of the Yellow House.

This Tree is the New Tree for the Singlehanders of the 2018 Transpacific Yacht Race. As Commodore Dave says, “circumstances dictate that some changes are required”. In other words, the Hanalei Rowing club, displaced from its place at the mouth of the River, has claimed the Tree with a sign. The picnic tables have been removed to make room for their outrigger canoes, and so Tree Time has been relocated to the yard of the Little Yellow House. The advantage of the tree in the Pavilion Park was public restrooms and tradition. The advantage of the Tree in the Yard is many: two bathrooms, fluffy towels, a kitchen and covered patio with chairs and a table, etc etc. Further elaboration of the lovely abode we call the Little Yellow House will be provided in the future. For now, here are some photos from the past two days. More photos to follow, after Synthia’s pancake breakfast. Remember to check Latitude 38 and http://www.norcalsailing.com/

Below find Greg Ashby on the patio

and Carliane s/v Kynntana, arriving in a squall

Day 14,15, 16 Summary – Playing Catch Up

So the summary posts have been delayed by finishes!!  Nine of them between the two days.  Clearly the bell curve bunch.  Saturday saw the winds fill back in for the back end of the fleet and the middle of the pack approached the island.   First were Rainbow, during the day, and Fugu and Riff Rider, during the night.  All the while the comfort clump is sneaking up.  Thankfully, daylight greeted the first of the next six finishers roughly each an hour or two apart.  Dark Horse lead the pack, with JouJou, Jacqueline, Dolfin, Iris, and finally Crazy Rhythm finishing off the day just before Tree Time.

The next due in would be the following morning.  Sleep for RC.  Kyntanna followed a couple of hours by the Owl.  All are well and in safe.  We are now only awaiting our dear keeper of the east Morning Star.  We expect him possibly tomorrow afternoon.  Remnant rain of a tropical depression is moving through the area to day with light winds forecast offshore.  They may slow Morning Star somewhat, but we look forward to his finish.

Mike Preps for Arrival

OK, the SSS transpac keeps on giving. Was squirming around on the bow getting the anchor rode sorted. Squirmed right through a 5 day old squid (guess i didn’t save em all) so now, after taking a shower with great difficulty earlier, i now smell like 5 day old squid. I don’t want to hear any snarky comments about any odors you may encounter.

And with that, I intend to finish this race and see if boschma bought more beer. cold beer.

Mike’s Lists

Last night at sea, knock on wood. Easy to find aboard Jacqueline because every last piece is squeaking.

Beautiful evening with Dolfin’s lights in sight. Hard to believe we can see each other after 2144 nm at sea.

Now I have turned my attention to obsessing about finish to do’s. I often wonder if I am some sort of to do list obsessive/compulsive. No to do list? Get that on a to do list pronto. I have little scraps of paper all over the boat with cryptic tasks which i cant even remember what they are. My handwriting doesn’t help. “go get the tractor fabricated” what the hell was that?  probably important.

New to do…Improve handwriting.

Update from Dark Horse 7.7 9:15 PM PST

Tonight is my last night at sea. The trades have been very steady, around 20 knots with some squalls up to 30 knots. I have just the mainsail up and trucking along, the boat and autopilot have been dealing with it pretty good. It has given me some time to recover and fix some things. I got my solar charging at a sufficient rate after I lost one panel. I had to rewire a controller back to the battery. I have also had time to read “Not a yacht club”, which is a great book and I am very proud to be part of the SSS.  I also found time to read “Experiment in Survival”, an interesting book. Seems like a lot of trouble for a publicity stunt.

I am really excited to get to Hawaii and see everyone and start eating again!  I’m really looking forward to tree time. Looking back at the trip, I was expecting to say the hardest part of it was leaving, but I can’t say that. There have been some very challenging, emotionally and physically, times over the last 2 weeks. Overall I am really happy with the boat and how it performed. The biggest thing I would change is to bring a whisker pole. Not having one really reduced my miles in these conditions leaving me to be under a main more than I would like. With the heavier conditions, it was too risky for my to fly a spinnaker.  20 knots was my limit. I was expecting to do a lot more spinnaker work, but it didn’t allow for it. I also expected it to be a lot warmer. It really didn’t get warm until 4 days ago.
I am happy with how dry my boat has been, the bilge hasn’t even filled up once!  Thanks to the dodger, and new hatches and all the work I put into sealing all the holes.  It sure makes a big difference psychologically having a dry place to go to and sleep. I am happy with my autopilots and electrical system. Everything ran perfectly and I had plenty of power.
Next time I would bring more fleece pants and long underwear. I also would provision a little more differently too. The same meal gets pretty boring and then I don’t want to eat.  I spent today cleaning up the boat and packing bags that go ashore so I can just anchor and head to the beach. It will be a dream come true tomorrow, hopefully the squalls won’t be too bad tonight.
2 days ago I came across a group of dolphins, there must have been hundreds of them. They would swim along the boat and jump right in front of it, kind of playing with it. This went on for about a half hour, sailing along with all these dolphins in the middle of the sea, it was a very unique experience I won’t ever forget. Reminds me of a time I was working on a ranch that borders Yellowstone National Park, and after a long day of fixing fence up in a high mountain pasture, I was riding home across a hay field and came across a herd of 400 elk. Next thing you know I was loping my horse in the middle of this herd of elk across a field. There was nothing like that in the world. Purely living in the moment.
Well, that’s all for now, gotta get things set up for night squall sailing!
Shad