Emails from the fleet

[Philpott]

Green Buffalo POL (and more ;-) )

June 26th
Day 1

Beam reaching in 20k-25k of wind and moderate seas. AWA 76-100 degrees... "almost" spinnaker time but too bumpy and too windy for this tight a reach when alone. Crossing the North Asia to Panama Canal shipping route... saw three ships today and one "quite close" (consider a half mile is 3 boat lengths for a large ship). John on Perplexity is right behind me maybe a mile back... as he has been since the start... which makes using the AIS Alarm tricky as it keeps going off because John is so close.

8536

Started eating a wee bit... sardine sandwich... swiss cheese on crackers... trail mix. This is "early" for me as usually I need to avoid food for 2-3 days to avoid mal de mer... the meclazine I started taking the day before the race must be working.

Weather forecasts has me going further south then first planned as the High in the middle of the track is delaying going NW as originally expected. And how close to pass the High pressure ridge? The secret to the Universe like 42.

Spinnaker tomorrow? Maybe. By Wednesday the wind lightens and backs another 20 degrees so Wednesday for sure.

Cheers,
Jim Q

[Philpott]

Tales from the Deck of Tortuga
Sunday, June 25th

It was a misty morning at the start of the day.
I had finished most of my last to-do projects at about 9 pm the previous night. The last things to take care of after the swirl of the emergency haul out (oh yeah, that’s right, I had to haul the boat on Friday and splashed Saturday morning to fix my max prop that came loose and made it to the skippers meeting just in time!) were to finish installing the boom pieces and lines for the 3rd reef, get the dingy secured, and remove the last minute things off the boat I didn’t need. The saying that getting to the starting line is the hardest part of this race couldn’t be more true!
Admiral Dani and Sailor, the dog, were there in the morning, as well as Jim from W32 Resolve and his sister, who came by to wish me well at the dock at Pier 39 along with Chris from the Pork Chop Express and his wife Charlotte who are my dock neighbors; we also got to wish each other a safe passage.

I wasn’t sure which head sail to start with as the forecast was for a lighter breeze outside the gate. I’m so glad I didn’t try to fly a larger jib! It was a breeze getting out of the gate. I had a terrible start and got caught in the counterflood current that had started to flow. I was trying to start with just the staysail to make it easy to tack back and forth as needed, but then I realized I had to get the jib up to get enough speed to make it across! The other 2 Westsails pulled away from me and made it under the bridge before me. The nice consolation was the pics Dani sent me of my friends from onshore who came out to GGYC and friends that came to see me off from the water and the day before at RYC; THANK YOU!
It was a washing machine ride out with the last of the ebb pushing us out under the bridge and past point Bonita doing almost 9 knots! It lit up a bit, and I knew the breeze would eventually pick up, so I was torn about expanding the energy to put up a bigger headsail or not. I decided to leave it as it was and made some decent progress in the lighter breeze and nap. I could see about eight other boats just to the north of me, so that was good. The breeze did fill in, so we were bounding along at 6.5 knots later in the afternoon. It was a bouncy night with lots of shipping traffic, so I was eventually down to a double reefed main with the working jib and staysail.
A pesto margherita pizza from the oven with fresh basil topped off the evening!

Team Tortuga


On Sat, Jun 24, 2023 at 10:11 PM randy leasure <captleasure@yahoo.com> wrote:
 
Ahoy!
Tortuga and I depart for the Singlehanded Transpacific Yacht Race on tomorrow Sunday June 25th!



The race tracking page will be available to view here:



https://www.jibeset.net/tv.php



I will be sending update to the race committee and they will be posting all the racer updates on the Singlehanded Sailing Society site:



https://www.sfbaysss.org/main/



Note that this tracking is not 100% real time for all boats and there could be delays or times when trackers stop working. Fear not, if the tracker stops working it’s probably just some tech gremlins at work.



The race starts on tomorrow Sunday at 10am off the Golden Gate Yacht Club for those that want to see the start.



I’ve had a crazy 24 hours! The bottom cleaning diver found a bunch of play in the max prop moving fore and aft on Friday am. I was able to get an emergency haul out yesterday and got the problem fixed with the bolt holding the hub on the shaft had worked loose. I splashed again yesterday afternoon but the blades weren’t aligned right. We got the blades aligned properly and back in the water before low tide this morning when they couldn’t launch me.

It couldn’t have been that easy though….

The line holding the lifting straps got caught in the prop in the sling. In a flash, the boat yard hero Mohammed dove in the water to cut it away! all good and was able to make it to the skippers meeting this afternoon.

All provisions loaded and ready!



A big thank you to my north star Danielle for her patience and help as I’ve been working non stop on boat projects the last few months!



Thank you to all the others who have supported Team Tortuga with advice and help prepping the boat! I wouldn’t be able to race without you!



Randy

W32 Tortuga

[Philpott]

Reverie daily report 6/26
Inbox

abenderskii@gmail.com
5:56 PM (3 hours ago)
to racereporting, maricelly_vargas

Hi all!

This is a communications test as well as a report of the first two days of the 2023 SHTP.

8537

6/25/23

Reverie started the race at 10:15 (Group B - Lono division - also Green Buffalo (Cal 40), Solstice (Cal 40) and Circe (Freedom 40)).

Winds on the nose W 12-18 coming out of the Golden Gate. Ebb tide about 2kts. Doing over 9 kts SOG for a while!! Got out of the shipping lanes by 11 am. Light winds NW 10 kts. Following Solstice and Green Buffalo.

Big pod of grey whales (short dorsal fin like a little hook) before the South Faralones, spouting on both port and starboard - looked like they were swimming in circles (maybe feeding?)

Light winds Sun afternoon, 6-12 kts. Flew code Zero for a couple of hours (inspired by Perplexity who passed me flying his code 0 around 14:00). By 16:00 it was getting to about 15 kts so the code 0 had to come down.


Sunday evening and through the night the winds continued to build, eventually topping at NNW 25 kts, with a couple of periods above 25. Beam to broad reaching under full main and 150 genoa furled in to about 100%, doing 8-9 kts. I don’t think I’ve ever gone this fast in Reverie. Pelagic autopilot was struggling (expectedly) on the beam reach point of sail, I had to adjust sail a few times during the night. Had a better time after the wind backed so that we had 100-105 deg true wind.

Fast, bumpy, and wet ride, lots of water in the cabin (leaks and showering down the companionway), sleeping in my foulies. No sea sickness (took Bonine), but not much appetite. Just ate some bananas and power bars for dinner.

On AIS, Green Buffalo, Jamani, and Solstice ahead of Reverie, and Circe, Siren, Elmach, Gwendolyn, and Pork Chop Express just behind. Perplexity was also ahead but disappeared from AIS during the night. Until early evening also saw Such Fast peeling off to the south, and Elisabeth Ann, Horizon, and Eos South.

6/26/23

The winds abated some but still NNW 17-23 though out the day, Reverie averaging around 8 kts on beam to broad reach. By the morning only Green Buffalo, Solstice and Jamani ahead and Siren behind could be seen on AIS.

[Philpott]

From Christophe Delange

D1 ELMACH : close call with a buoy on the start (there is a picture) and a whale indulging me with the smell of her breath. Happy with my position in the pack

D1 ELMACH : Cold, 20 to 25 Kts, waves cross beam. A sense of deja vue with the recent crossing from BC, at least I knew where to find the tuque

[Editing provided here: According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, "In Canada a tuque (sometimes spelled toque or touque) refers to a warm knitted cap, traditionally made of wool and usually worn in winter."] Latitude provided a billed cap, as it has done for years. A prescient gift by the Latitude marketing department, since they will all be wearing the branded sunhat by the time they pose for their arrival photos.

8543

In order, front right, then clockwise: Whoever guesses every sailor gets macapuna ice cream at the Capitola Boat Club. My treat.

[Philpott]

abenderskii@gmail.com
7:22 PM (30 minutes ago)
to racereporting, maricelly_vargas

Tuesday 6/27/2023

Daily report from aboard Reverie

Winds steady all day in 12-18 kts range, backing from NNW in the morning to N in the evening. Seas calmer, much more comfortable ride, still pretty fast, averaging 7-7.5 kts. Have been following Solstice, who is about 10 nm ahead, in VHF contact. His AIS receiver is not working, while I have non-functioning AIS transponder. So between the two of us we have a fully functional AIS system :) This was useful as there were a couple of close crossings (within a few nm) with tankers going SE towards the Panama Canal.

[Philpott]

Green Buffalo POL (and more ;-) )

June 27th
Day 2

Still beam reaching but in a much easier 10k-16k of wind... gave me the chance to flake and brick the #1 that has been on deck since yesterday. Bit of an ordeal as the #1 is maybe 50 pounds dry but 100 pounds wet (want to get the deck clear for possible spinnaker launch tomorrow and dropping the jib top on deck). AWA 76-100 degrees same as yesterday. All entrants are now far enough away I can properly set my AIS alarms without the worry of frequent false alarms.

The solar panels (280W)run the boat maybe 6 hours a day (albeit its still a bit overcast with a bit of sun hear and there)... the other 18 hours means running the engine to keep the batteries charged... and I have the "large" autopilot ram which is a real power hog... so running the engine 3 times a day.

Ate some more but not much... swiss cheese and ramen... why so little when I feel just great?... mostly about the hassle of preparing food when at an angle with an occasional "large surprise bump" from the thrice an hour large wave from the north. Tomorrow comes "real food"... will it be Mac and Cheese or Tortellini with marinara sauce?

Did I mention how much I have been sleeping/napping? Beam reaching there isn't much to do. Check the sail trim and maybe tweak the autopilot a degree or two once every hour or so. I probably slept 10 hours in the last 24.

The weather folks cannot make up their mind on where and when the High in front of us is going to head northwest. Yesterday the forecast had me head a bit lower... this morning a bit higher... what will I see this evening?

Four years ago my wife Mary bought me a book for my 60th birthday titled "Sixty" - which I have now taken up reading (the writer is a literary sort so a lot of soul searching about what one has done with one's life). Given I am retiring next year... an interesting read.

Cheers,
Jim Q

[Philpott]

Christophe Desage (via inReach)
9:34 AM (4 minutes ago)
to racereporting

D2 ELMACH: 14C in the cabin, tuque on, that old sleeping bag shows up unexpected ... from Tibet to the Pacific Ocean, who would have guessed ?

[Philpott]

Race Chair David Herrigel just spoke with Tony Bourque s/v Circe:

He is OK, if a little bruised... and disappointed of course, but he feels solid about the decision. What happened was a crash jibe, sounds like the boat went up on a wave and effectively rounded down - either poor reaction on the AP, or the rudder came out on the crest. End result was 2 broken AP's, which he wasn't sure he could resurrect, and he didn't want to continue past the point when he could hand steer home.

[Philpott]

June 28th 8am

Hello and good day from Such Fast. It has been cloudy the past few days, which is normal, and the race for me to date has been keeping up with sail changes, navigating around a big high pressure and deciding whether to stay south or stick closer to rumb line. Same question as every race to Hawaii.

You can see from the tracker where I went and for the first night and second day, I was totally overpowered with 2 reefs in the main and the reefed J4. I guess a J5? Toe rail in the water and any course the autopilot could drive, which was south, was more than I wanted. Sailing at 30 degrees makes everything but laying in the pipe birth hard.

I've seen a few whales and lots of boats until the sunset June 25th, then at sunset we spread out into the dark. Nights have been the darkest black, black-black. You are in a tiny bubble of the lights from the autopilot control...and how do I turn those lights down again? Two layers of black tape I guess.

Today the boat told me to check the water tanks, and I started in the aft most tank, a hose clamp had fallen off the tank, I lost about 3 gallons but was able to put the clamp back on. I still have plenty of water onboard for the entire trip.

My getto solar panels are hanging in there. I give the two outside panels 90% chance and the center one 60% chance of making it the entire way. Extra parts are on board just in case. Always have back ups to my back ups.
My sailing plan for the first part is to keep the toe rail in the water, keeping the boat powered up, which is not hard to do. This boat is light and tippy. It requires lots of reefing and letting out of reefs and going between the J2 and J4.

For those of you wondering, I have not been seasick too much and today the patch came off, unintentionally. No idea where it went. The sea ate it.

Water has not been coming into the boat, only 2.5 gallons to date, and I found the source of about 2 of those gallons. This boat has been pretty wet in the past. I have a new under the floor pump system version 3 for those who know what I'm talking about. It has been sending water from the port underworld overboard and that seems to be keeping the boat dry.

I'm catching up on my sleep and have been eating and drinking. The food is great, especially all the fresh food like salads, which are amazing. I still have some ice in the water bottles. That is about it for this morning.

David/Such Fast

[Philpott]

From EOS
To: <dherrigel@gmail.com>


Running a knife edge here on the isobars using that barometer you like. The wind and pressure is actually a little better than expected. Maybe I’ll be lucky, I fear not! Hope I don’t complete screw up and stall for days. Sorry in advance. Fixing a lot of stuff as I go along. Figuring out a lot of stuff too. I am having fun though and that was your last bit of advice.

[Philpott]

Wednesday check in from Siren. Gonna re charge until 5pm. This old Garmin isn't energy efficient apparently.

[Philpott]

From Horizon: Race report: if I could send a photo it would say warm sun, blue water, shorts, t shirt. Slow going for the next two days unfortunately. But I’ll take it.

[Philpott]

Reverie daily report Wed 6/28

Winds light and shifty all night, but I decided not to put up Code 0 and get some sleep instead. As a result, Solstice sailed away from me and out of AIS range. Elmach caught up and passed me in the morning. Grey skies and occasional drizzle. Put up code 0 after breakfast (around 09:00 - I slept in :), as the winds were fluctuating every 30 min from less then 10 to over 16 (and getting headed as wind piped up). Got hit by a ‘micro squall’ - wind headed about 30 deg and got up to 17-18 kts for about 5 min. After that wind abated to 9-12 kts and code 0 was not enough. Finally (after much wondering if I’ll get hit by another wind shift) put up A2 at 12:30 after waiting out a squall to pass behind me.

After that, it’s like someone flipped a switch - felt like a completely different world. Going downwind, sunny, and much warmer than the previous couple of days.

Awaiting the afternoon position report - I think I slipped down a few places due to procrastinating with the code 0/spinnaker. I feel I need a lot more experience sailing downwind - trying to figure things out as I go.

[Philpott]

Tales from the Deck of Tortuga
Tuesday, June 27th

Got some decent rest on and off throughout the night. Woke up early to light conditions and shook out the reefs in the main. Sleeping conditions are great with the port settee on the low side and a great place to nestle in. Some things are money well spent, i.e., the world's most expensive sleeping bag from Ocean Sleepwear. They make them for the extreme survival ocean races like Vendee-type conditions etc. A nice thick fleece liner with an amazing outer shell. Doesn’t seem to mind if you’re wet. You’re still warm and cozy. I call mine The Revenant. If you’ve seen the movie, you understand.

Made some blueberry pancakes to kick off the day and then switched out to my super Yankee, and we’ve been flying along all day at 6.5/7 knots in 12/14 knots. Could use some more sun to top off the house bank. The new AP is a bit power-hungry. Got the folding solar panels out on deck for the goal zero battery that I use to charge all the devices etc. Hope I’m sailing down south enough of the high-pressure zone. Could actually be out on deck today without getting soaked. A welcome change, and I think we are out of the “windy reach”.

I set up the Monitor Windvane to start steering this afternoon to give the AP a break and conserve more battery power. If the wind backs up a bit more tomorrow, I will fly the code 808.

Looks flat up ahead. Hope I don’t sail over the edge…

⛵️Team Tortuga 🐢
~~~_/)~~~

[Philpott]

Green Buffalo POL (and more ;-) )

Wednesday
June 28th
Day 3

The wind swung aft at 5am early this morning... AWA went from 70-90 to 100-120 degrees... 14k-16k... spinnaker weather! Watched the wind direction oscillate a bit over a few hours while prepping for the hoist. Getting pole setup. 3/4 oz AP on deck and hooked up to sheets, guys and halyard. Double checking everything to insure a clean "first hoist" (nothing worse then making a mess of the first hoist :-) ). So at 730am up it went. Clean and easy. Had plenty of yarn on the chute including frogs legs so it was all the way up before it opened. Then hustling to get some basic trim while getting the jib top down on deck. Took two hours to settle everything down... tweaking sheets, tweaking autopilot, tweaking heading... till it got to the point I could stop and take a rest (yes a nap).

All day the wind "occasionally" swings back (a header) and I have to trim the sheet and guy and head off a tad... currently heading off a bit more then I want but I believe the extra speed from the spinnaker makes it worth it. Now hoping the night quiets down a bit... having seen 18k at times on a header (okay but uncomfortable being on the beam)- so I can get more sleep (yes I like my sleep).

Real food today (though not everyone would call it that)... mac and cheese with a can of tuna thrown in (I should have thrown in a can of string beans but forgot). It was a lot of mac and cheese so had it for both lunch and dinner (waste not want not). As some of you know I am not a foodie... really just need to get some calories on board after "not much" the first two days.

Had my first bowel movement. Now non sailors might wonder why I would mention this. But when going offshore, ones first BM is a good sign that "all systems are go". The bump, food and sleep disruptions can make one a bit irregular... and constipation offshore can be a serious thing.

Stripped down to just my longjohns as the boat heated up quite a bit today... foulies and boots are put away till the next time I have to go on the foredeck (as I was this afternoon to flake and brick the jib top and get the spinnaker net set).

T-shirt and bathing suit tomorrow and maybe a shower?

And when is that High going to leave in a NW direction so I can just "point the boat to the palm trees"?

Cheers,
Jim Q

[Philpott]

The Race Committee is beginning to relax. No boats have fallen off the end of the horizon, everyone has sent in Proof Of Life and David Herrigel might finally get a solid night's sleep. Here is his most recent memo to the rest of us:

We have crossed the ridge and are settling in
🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆

Good night, sailors. Good night, moon.

[Philpott]

Christophe Desage (via inReach)
9:02 PM (2 hours ago)
to racereporting

End of D4 - ELMACH: Enfin du soleil ! Shorts, a bit of Gennaker, still catching-up on some sleep. Sea state much easier with .5 to 1m waves.

[Philpott]

Thursday 6/29 - all good aboard Reverie, beautiful warm day but slow going due to light winds

[Philpott]

Horizon, Day 1: It's been one day since I cast off. The sea was angry with me all night. Chastising me for a bad start? Washing off my sins? Horizon and the yet-to-be-named Windvane did me a solid. I tended to their needs and they kept me safe. 30 kn gusts, went south a bit. Daylight reveals the carnage, but also gives me back my confidence. :)

Horizon, Day 2: Sometimes I have more choices than I need. For example, all my gloves are either damp, a little wet, or wet. If I choose the damp ones they might get wet, so I decided to wear the wet gloves. That's a problem I was solving last night. Bummed to see my friend turn around. This morning seas are relaxed, feeling good. Morning made better by chocolate covered almonds.

Horizon, Day 4: SSDD = Spinnaker set, Deep downwind. I'm trying to get out of low wind as quickly as possible. Working a lot harder today than any other day trying to get the boat to move. Finally moving at 6, with 8 on my back. Not in the direction that I want to go, but I'll take it.

[Philpott]

Green Buffalo POL (and more ;-) )

Thursday
June 29th
Day 4

Restless night last night. Wind speed as low as 7k and as high as 12k (yes liht). Wind direction oscillating from 95 to 170 AWA. Up down. Trim the spinny and tweak Otto (the autopilot). All night long. And then the morning was light somewhat frustrating 6k-9k though with less oscillations. I think I am now across the High pressure "ridge" as the wind has built to 10k-13k and rarely changes directions... and settled in at a great 100-120 AWA (ie fast given these lightish winds).

Hooked up the outgrabber (sheets the spinnaker to near the end of the bottom while also reducing "boom bang"). Moved a few sails that were on deck to down below (grunt... that heavy #1 and jib top).

Over the next day the course takes us over the "Moonless Mountains" which is a bit of an oxymoron as the moon is out most of the night and you can just about read a book by the moonlight. The Moonless Mountains are near 4000 feet tall... but off a "plain" that is over 5000 feet below sea level. So that makes them about the same size as Mt Tamalpais, Mt Diablo and the Santa Cruz mountains (but yes their "tops" are still well over 1000 feet below the surface). Pull out your chart and take a look at 30 degrees Lat by 140 degrees Long.

Finally got to that tortellini (cheese and spinach) with marinara and parmesan. mmm mmm good! (despite not being Campbells :-) ).

Did a little sunbathing in my birthday suit (just 15 minutes) to help me feel a bit more human (all the time below deck makes one start to feel like those subterranean people in the "Time Traveler"). Though I hoped to shower today... that will wait till tomorrow (boy am I looking forward to it).

The boat is "almost pointed at the palm trees now... but that is premature... it will likely be two days on this spinnaker run with the wind slowly lifting before the first jibe (140 ish?).

Cheers,
Jim Q

[Philpott]

abenderskii@gmail.com
Jun 29, 2023, 9:57 PM (11 hours ago)
to racereporting, maricelly_vargas, ibenderskii23, abenderskii27

Had a bit of fun last night (Wed) with the big A2 (asymmetrical spinnaker, almost 1500 sq. ft.) as the wind freshened towards evening, 16-18 kts with gusts up to 20-21 once every 15 min or so. A2 getting overpowered, Pelagic not coping, rounding up in gusts. Had spinnaker wrap around 19:00, but it came undone with a few course changes and pulling on the sheet (need spinnaker net - should’ve listened to Jim Quanci! :)

After sundown winds lightened but still some gusts. Had to sit at the wheel till midnight. Not much sleep, worried about rounding up. Finally figured out that the wind mode on Pelagic works fine, so got some sleep 30 min at a time.



6/29/23 (Thurs) wind backed and got light (ENE 6-8 kts maybe? - my wind gauge seems to be off for low wind speed), not enough to sail deep, slow going, main flapping, A2 collapsing all the time, only doing 3-4 kts. Even went wing-in-wing with A2 for a while. Some wind finally filled in around noon. Warm, partly cloudy, t-shirt and shirts weather, I guess we finally made it South!

[Philpott]

GWENDOLYN- captain, crew, owner, and guests all well 6/30.

[Philpott]

Mike Smith <m.j.s.smith@myiridium.net>
12:16 PM (6 minutes ago)
to Jackie


Mail to the race reporting address is failing for me. Let me know if this works?

Thanks for starting me early BTW !

-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Fri, 30 Jun 2023 12:14:14 -0700
Subject: Sunday Day 1

Flooding at the start line already. I knew that and still messed it up. Every year we get huge runoff from the Sierra, I windsurf off Crissy and it is ebbing all the time at the red nun buoy but flooding all the time at Blackaller buoy and all the way down the edge. Thanks though Jackie for starting me early because I’m not sure I would have got over the start line much later. Had to take care not to get in the way of Randy short-tacking a Westsail. He times it well, me not so much. Then I am slow off the coast as usual. Messed all that up. Rough sea state and looks like it could get windy too. I’ve done the sail out to the Farallones a few times now for practice, but I know how bad it can get. Hopefully it doesn’t get that bad.

[Philpott]

Mike Smith
12:29 PM (2 minutes ago)
to Jackie




-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Fri, 30 Jun 2023 12:27:01 -0700
Subject: Momday Day 2

It was bad. Very rough. 25g30, but it was the very messed up sea state that made it so bad. Mayhem for 24 hrs. No sleep. Randy sent me an email to encourage me to keep going. That helped. Equivalent of three reefs in my Schaefer roller main. I heard on VHF that Jamani broke the vang and was ready to help but he got it fixed. Later I heard Circe had to retire. Looks like everything is OK on the boat despite a real pounding, so on we go. Pumped more water from the bilge than I ever have before. I think it was from repeated waves flooding over the cockpit and leaking down the locker hatches. There’s a reason the GGR makes you seal those. So easy for water to get in if there’s any way it can.

[Philpott]

Mike Smith
12:29 PM (3 minutes ago)
to Jackie




-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Fri, 30 Jun 2023 12:27:24 -0700
Subject: Tuesday Day 3

Still using reefed main and my small staysail only. It was crazy to rig a Solent stay on the mast myself the week before the race and Joe built me a staysail over the weekend, but as it turns out I’m glad we did it. Still should not have done it though. Funny it wasn’t the first sail folks said I should get next. They probably thought I had a bunch of sails already. I drool when I see those fancy black racing sails, but then my wallet smacks me on the head.

Food is working out OK. Should have just got more oranges, grapefruit and apples at the Marina Safeway the night before the start though. So easy to just grab one of those and no waste. More baby carrots too.

Getting good at going to the bathroom. Should have practiced that more.

[Philpott]

Mike Smith
12:29 PM (5 minutes ago)
to Jackie




-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Fri, 30 Jun 2023 12:27:38 -0700
Subject: Wednesday Day 4

Parked it in the North Pacific High with no wind. Or in pieces of the NPH. Fog everywhere. Both 130 Genoas up rigged as twins but used as a sandwich but didn’t help. I thought I could skirt around the pressure mess using my barograph but I’m not smart enough. I can hear my friend Dwayne laughing and nodding. Should have listened to everyone and followed everyone. Learned a lot though. Wow: there is nothing out here. No birds. Nothing. I guess I’m the only one who didn’t read the memo to avoid the NPH. In fact it was the last thing Randy said to me. So I messed that up. Another newbie mistake.

[Philpott]

Mike Smith
12:29 PM (6 minutes ago)
to Jackie




-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Fri, 30 Jun 2023 12:27:52 -0700
Subject: Thursday Day 5

I didn’t lose as much time parked in no wind in the remnants of a scrambled NPH as I could have. At points I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life there. A very long night to think about what I’d done. Anyway, took what wind there was during the day and that took me south. Turned out to be a good time to fix things including a sheet that had chafed through already. How does that happen so fast and why did I not see it coming? Good questions. Still no sun and a lot of fog. No stars either so far. How the heck did people do this before the transistor?

Those that know me know I have labeled and numbered everything. What I forgot to number was my underwear.

[Philpott]

Mike Smith
12:29 PM (7 minutes ago)
to Jackie




-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Fri, 30 Jun 2023 12:28:05 -0700
Subject: Friday Day 6

Started a fast (for me) “Kessel” run overnight (but no crazy Ivan’s yet in case Ivan is listening - and yes Ivan I did notice what you did with all my pens and pencils). Wind stayed at 350M-ish at 10-15 knots so far. Not sure how long it will last. The splattered sausage of an NPH could, would, should give me longer sailing at an angle of 70 degrees AWA which is the only sailing point of wind I have in any way tried to measure and optimize. I only have sails for that angle and dead downwind really. Well I did get storm sails but I hope I don’t get to use them out here; scary enough to use those in the bay with my friend Dwayne laughing the whole time. There are some storms coming down the west coast that I think will push into the reforming North Pacific High and strengthen the winds where I am. That was the idea of going north anyway. Well north of everyone else, as I’m pretty much on the shortest distance line, or rhumb line, close to the great circle line. But I think I messed up by going too far north early on. Learned a lot though! Anyway what I have to now is point at Hawaii. I should be able to manage that.

[Philpott]

Tales from the Deck of Tortuga
Thursday, June 29th

It's been super light winds all night/morning. At first light, I got the Asymmetrical spinnaker up and going and we’ve been ghosting along about 3-5 knots.

Treated myself to a toasted egg, avocado, and cheese sourdough breakfast sandwich after getting the spinnaker all sorted.

The last time that sail was used was on my friend Marks boat for the PacCup last year. We tested it for his boat but never ended up using it on the race. I thought I had made it around and out of the high-pressure zone but no luck. I even noticed the barometer went from 1016 to 1020 when I was making my log entries this morning. I wonder how the other boats are fairing or if they made it more south. From what I can tell on the daily position report it sounds like there are a few boats much farther south than me. Probably in better winds, I would imagine.

Spent the afternoon with the Asym up and gliding along at 3-4 knots. If the gribs I’m pulling are right, I’m right along the southern edge of the high-pressure blob and should have some more breeze this afternoon. Kicking myself for not giving it more margin and heading more south. If this wasn’t a race, it’s downright pleasant! I don’t have to do parkour to make it across the cabin, I can just walk. What a concept! Took the opportunity to wash the dishes and was able to open the sink drain and it would actually drain. The Asym has been flying all day. The zone of the micro squalls the last few days is no longer. Not sure if that’s because I’m skirting the high or not. Will keep the kite up into the night if the breeze stays this light. I’ve got my mental fire drill all worked out if I need to douse it quickly. By 1700 we were back to doing 5-6knts right on course. 6 or 7 would be better, but compared to earlier today, I’ll take it! Really nice steady sun this afternoon for a few hours and it topped up all the batteries nicely.

Got a couple of emails from other racers and it’s nice to see how everyone is doing now we are in a more pleasant phase of the race. The last few hours before sunset it got really light and foggy. Was sailing along at 2-3 knots inside a cloud. The AP was barely doing any steering and it was eerily quiet. The wind picked up after the “sun” went down and I was back to 5/6 knots. I could see a moon trying to peek through the clouds giving the sky a pale glow. With the slight wind increase the spin halyard started its squeak again and the sound reminded me of Sailor the Dog telling me it’s his dinner time.

Mermaids? None so far…

Team Tortuga

[Philpott]

Rain has soaked Hulas grass skirt. All aok.

[Philpott]

Fri 6/30 - everything ok aboard Reverie, a pod of dolphins playing under my bow :)

[Philpott]

Jamani
Inbox

Jamani <WDE4563@sailmail.com>
Fri, Jun 30, 4:48 PM (20 hours ago)
to SHTP

Jamani reporting on progress..

After 5 days of sailing and over 850 nm from the GGB, things are settling into a routine. We survived the (very) windy reach with minimal carnage, then Jamani fought through the transition zone desperate to get south. What a weird Pacific High this year! Even at latitude 30N (ie Mexico) we still suffered high pressure and low wind speed. Yesterday, at latitude 30N I crossed Maersk Tender around 1600 hrs. It looked strange, two large commercial vessels very close together. They politely informed me that they indeed were tethered together - with a net(!) - sweeping plastic out of the High. They asked me to get out of their way as they had "limited maneuverability." As did Jamani, with 3 kts boat speed in 5 knots of wind. But we avoided them and wish them well on an amazing mission.

Here's best wishes for safe and fast tradewind sailing to all the competitors.

[Philpott]

Green Buffalo POL (and more ;-) )

Friday
June 30th
Day 5

Good night and day on the Buffalo. Chatted a tad with Dave Garman on Such Fast... boy does he have a great VHF installation... he must be over 30 miles away! Still a bit of wind direction and strength oscillating but not so much as prior day. Took last sail off the deck (the too heavy #1) - and then took a shower! I really needed it. Funny Mary and I purchased a Sunshower at West Marine back in 1989... the plastic water bag that is black on one side so heats up under the sun... and hear it is 34 years and 17 passages later and we're still using it. Makes for a great warm shower (in the cockpit... crewed showers are on the foredeck for a wee bit of modesty). Put away the thermals - and its t-shirt and shorts from here on in.

Thinking about the spinnaker... it does a small "pop" every ten minutes or so as the boat rolls... as happens with every boat and chute. But do the math... 6 pops an hour (most small but maybe one more significant)... 144 pops a day. The chute has been up 2.5 days so far so that nearing 500 pops. In another two days it will be over 800 pops. So when to change out to the next and possibly the "heavier" spinnaker? Before the inevitable happens (and always at night :-) ).

Course is pretty steady as she goes. Hanging as high as I can without stressing the chute (which has me just a tad south of optimum course... but "close enough". Waiting for the wind to swing further aft - likely late tomorrow - when I will start driving as deep as I can safely (leading up to the first jibe).

Food... finished off tortellini leftovers... snacked on string cheese... and then Korean noodle fish soup (pretty good considering its out of a cardboard bowel).
Had a absolutely scrumptious apple (better get to eating more before they get over ripe). And I got into the red licorice my son gave me when he dropped me off at the boat the evening before the start (Mary was in Europe <sigh> making the world a better place while I get some alone time. :-) ).

Half way early Sunday? Which could mean finishing Friday the 8th (but its way too early to talk finish dates... a topic for another day).

Fair winds and seas!

Cheers,
Jim Q

[Philpott]

abenderskii@gmail.com
Fri, Jun 30, 10:15 PM (14 hours ago)
to racereporting, maricelly_vargas, ibenderskii23, abenderskii27

Happy Friday!

Nice steady winds all day mostly in the 14-16 kts range, champagne sailing (a welcome change after the last two nights with multiple gusts and round-ups). Trying to learn to sail VMC angles - slotcars phase of the race!!

Pod of dolphins played around the boat around 14:00.

Made (over the last 2 days) and installed spinnaker net a la Green Buffalo.

Saw some floating plastic trash in the water - I guess we are skirting the great Pacific garbage patch :(

[Philpott]

Shocking news: Flight attendant fixes solar regulator! Hula aok.

[Philpott]

Michael Polkabla (via inReach)
1:07 PM (11 minutes ago)
to ssspol23

It’s Alive!!!
Me that is…. POL on 7-1-23 at 1:05 pm.

[Philpott]

Tales from the Deck of Tortuga
Friday, June 30th

WWDKD? What would Dave King do? For those friends who don't know Dave, he is the Westsail racing guru, having sailed and raced to Hawaii more times than I can count. His wisdom and words have been with me this trip; his main advice was: "If you’re not sailing at 7.4 knots, trim your sails". Well, I’ve been doing plenty of that and trying to keep the boat speed up in the light air. At this point, I know the other Westsails are ahead of me from the daily update, but I'm still trying to make the Westsail family proud by keeping the boat moving as best I can and at least beating my previous best time doing the race of 17 days.

The Asymmetrical spinnaker has been flying for 24 hours now. Will likely be at least another 24 hours before the wind starts backing too much for that sail. Then will need to decide on flying the symmetrical spinnaker based on winds and squall frequency.

No sun yet this am. Another grey day so far. Pulled another GRIB report, and I really hope I’m out of the light winds now, although it looks like there is another possible spot late morning for a few hours, looks too big of an area to try and skirt around. Headed down a bit more south. We shall see.

Was a great afternoon, and the sun came out for quite a few hours. The little squalls have become bigger, and after the one around 1900 decided I shouldn’t be flying the asym anymore. It was a good 36-hour run with that sail-up. The squall didn’t look like much on the horizon, but it was windier that the others had been on the leading edge, and we started to round it up pretty quickly. Jumped into quick douse plan action, fell off

⛵️Team Tortuga 🐢
~~~_/)~~~

[Philpott]

Green Buffalo POL (and more ;-) )

Saturday
July 1st
Day 6

1072
1072 nautical miles that is to both Hanalei and the Golden Gate Bridge. So half way! And the second half should be a bit faster to the first half - with winds forecast at 19k-20k over the next several days (what I have right now).

I should probably have swapped to the heavy kite today... but mornings are lighter 14k-16k and there are "light patches" at night. That said, I will do it tomorrow. The 3/4 oz AP kite will have been up 5 straight days come tomorrow morning. It mneeds a rest.

Getting used to sleeping while the boat is surging down waves at 10k-12k boat speed... takes some time for the emotions to "acclimate" to sleeping with Otto at the helm when the wind is brisk.

Most years at this point in the race one would be running dead down wind and preparing for the first jibe. But not this year. The High is racing NW as fast as we head SW so we end up on its SE corner where the wind still has quite a bit of NE in it. So here I am on starboard tack easily sailing low of the islands - and struggling to
point to the islands (shortest course) without "spinning out".

Food... tuna fish sandwich with crunchy chopped celery for lunch. Why does celery sometimes go limp in a day yet now 7 days after I bought it its still got great crunch? Back to tortellini for dinner... that's what happens when I but a four serving bag... needed to cook the "second half" before it starts to "grow" something. :-)

Now its time for getting my evening weather surface progs (ie forecasts) as well as GRIBs to determine if I should try to lean right or left... or just "steady as she goes".

Oh
Give your sympathy to the SHTP Race Committee... they arrive in Hawaii on the 7th... sure possible a boat gets to Hanalei before they do. Its going to be a close one.
Hey it would be like the inaugural 1978 race... no one there to greet them when they arrived so they had to greet themselves. :-)

Cheers,
Jim Q

[Philpott]

Mike Smith
6:06 PM (11 minutes ago)
to Jacqueline.Philpott

My fast run ended when the wind shifted to 020M. That happened sooner than I thought. Now I have 15g20 kts but at a bad wind angle for me. I have a poled out jib, my 10 oz. very heavy cruising Genoa. Not the fastest setup but that’s what I have. It’s a fun ride anyway. Finally blue skies.

Had to fix a floorboard yesterday. I stumbled, landed on it and two screws supporting the joist popped. When people see my boat they wonder why I label everything, even the screws! I try to touch every nut, screw and bolt on the boat but sometimes it doesn’t make sense to unscrew everything. This was a case where I should have: the screws only went 1/4” into the wood underneath. Getting the wood piece out of the bilge 5 ft below was interesting. Either deliberately flood the bilge or try and use a 3 ft long pair of forceps I have. I just managed to get it out and replace it properly.

At 3am the VHF alarm went off for no position input. Something wrong on the bus that joins all the gadgets. I had an LED terminator from Actisense that allowed me to chase around the wiring and find the problem. Without that LED light telling me where things are good and where they are bad it would have been like fixing Xmas lights.

[Philpott]

Max is alive and still aboard Iniscaw.

[Philpott]

Christophe Desage (via inReach)
9:35 AM (20 minutes ago)
to racereporting

Canada Day report from ELMACH - sailing with a flag. A bit of gennaker but then above 18 Kts it feels like dancing with a partner who can hurt you...

Christophe Desage (via inReach)
9:34 AM (19 minutes ago)
to racereporting

Clear sight of Henna Cargo ship passing by at 2nm ... in clean air condition means probably 5nm of visual

[Philpott]

Horizon, Day 7

This morning, the Pacific surprised Horizon and I with a gift of flying fish on deck to commemorate one week at sea. I respectfully returned them to the ocean because they couldn’t help me trim the sheets.

[Philpott]

GWENDOLYN- making good progress 7/2. Todd

[Philpott]

abenderskii@gmail.com
3:39 PM (4 hours ago)
to racereporting, maricelly_vargas, ibenderskii23, abenderskii27

6/30/23 (Fri night): Not many stars seen at might due to clouds, but can definitely see Venus and Mars every evening (around 22:00-midnight) as they are on top of one another and look super bright. First time the clouds cleared and I saw it, I thought it was a helicopter with its projector beam on flying towards me.



7/1/23 (Sat) Forecast models predicted 14-15 kts (45-50 deg) but I’ve been seeing 20’s all day. Fast but not comfortable ride, constantly worrying about rounding up, between wave action and A2 overloading, Pelagic does not cope well. There’s lot of shock loads on the sail and the rig when it happens (I guess my A2 was designed for that? - it’s a heavy 1.5 oz spinnaker).

[Philpott]

WDC7036@sailmail.com
6:10 PM (2 hours ago)
to A, Mary, A, A, Stephen

Green Buffalo POL (and more ;-) )

Sunday
July 2nd
Day 7

Changed the 3/4 chute for the 1.5. The 3/4 had been up 4.5 days so it needed a rest. The things one finds... having been on the same jibe the whole time, the after guy was getting a bit chewed up... not near breaking but enough to want to take a few minutes and cut the ragged end back a foot. The 1.5 that is now flying has a much slower "motion" to it (drags the boat around less) - plus its socked so I can "reef it" in a pinch (the sock lines go back to the cockpit so in a pinch I can grind the sock down without leaving the cockpit).

Now its still a tad cool - and the ocean off Mexico is cool (why tropical depressions spinning out of Central America this last week have quickly died when they hit Mexican waters).
Will this mean less squall action this year due to less "heat"? I have seen no real squalls yet - or their younger brethern "proto squalls". I have heard of Hawaii races with zero squalls but I have never seen one personally.

And what about that fist jibe? If you believe Expedition, it will be Tuesday (mighty late as these things go).

Oh... the weather forecast has reduced the wind forecast for the next few days from 19k-20k to 16k... so just maybe "smooth sailing" all the way to the palm trees?

Will skip the food situation as its been pretty boring... more tortellini... more tangerines... etc.

891 nautical miles left to go (Friday finish?).

And time to pack that 3/4 chute I just took down... see ya tomorrow!

Cheers,
Jim Q

[Philpott]

Mike Smith
7:11 PM (1 hour ago)
to Jacqueline.Philpott

Morning was grey and wind couldn’t decide what to do in direction or strength. Afternoon was the first real sunny spell I have had and it was great. Wind settles down and now a bit in my favor. Now I can see what this is all about. Endless surfing down the deepest blue waves in brilliant sunshine. I can see why some see this as a pilgrimage for sailing, like going to Ho’okipa for windsurfing.

Found some sediment in water from one of my two 26-gallon water tanks. Must be from the pounding the first two days. Note to self: flush tanks after a hard sail next time. Anyway I shock treated the tanks which was easy and checked the tanks and filters which was super hard because they are buried deep. I’m not worried as I have a lot of spare water. I have enough bottled water to get me there if need be and three 5-gallon carriers that are for emergencies.

[Philpott]

From Randy and Tortuga 7/1

Tales from the Deck of Tortuga
Saturday, July 1st

Really, really frustrating morning; the wind shut down around 0200 - 0600. We were ghosting along around 3 knots for most of that time, rolling around in the swell. The squall-type weather affected the forecast of 15 knots, I think. There wasn’t just one, particular, squall; just a large patch of light winds, drizzle, and rolly seas. Was feeling really down about my position when got a note from Elizabeth Ann early morning, and Gary said they were in the same weather pattern, so I felt a little better about not falling even farther behind, but not sure how much it slowed their lead.

Had an actual visible sunrise this morning with a rainbow to cheer me up.
The last the blueberries are gone, with a batch of blueberry pancakes to start the weekend off right. I bought super green avocados and haven’t been able to eat more than one. They’ll be great next week, I bet. Only a few bananas are left, and the oranges and apples are holding strong. Have not started using the lemons yet, so I think I’ll be able to avoid any scurvy outbreaks onboard.

The wind filled in by late morning and started backing more, so I got the staysail down and poled out the super Yankee to port. It’s Day 7 of being on a starboard tack. Been cruising along in the mid 6ks all day. Get bursts into the low 7s with squalls passing over. Still too breezy for me to fly the symmetrical spinnaker comfortably. There was a period when it lightened up, and I thought about it but will see what tomorrow brings. I can cruise at 6.5-7 with no fire drills and ride the squalls passing over with the current sail config. That seems to be working right now.

I’ve been seeing many batches of old fishing gear and netting going past me today. Disheartening to see it, and certainly, I would not want to get caught up in one of those floating islands of debris.

I noticed my bilge pump going off before taking my evening nap. I investigated further and found the starboard cockpit drain thru the hull weeping around its base. There is no seacock or valve; it’s just a straight hull that the cockpit drain hose attaches to and goes overboard just above the waterline (when not moving around). I tried tightening the hose clamps, but it seems it’s weeping at the base. Possibly the inner retaining nut is loose, or something else is the issue with the thru-hull piece. Not sure. I mixed up some splash zone, did some boat yoga to reach it, and put it in the affected area. It’s curing now and seems to have stopped the water. Will try a second application once the first is cured.
“If it was easy everyone would be doing it”.

⛵️Team Tortuga 🐢
~~~_/)~~~

[Philpott]

Solstice POL check in for 7-3-23. Less than 800 to go now!!! Omg that’s like sailing from SF to Cabo

[Philpott]

I brought way too much food. Could you make it 2 laps? Hula aok.

[Philpott]

GWENDOLYN- POL, Sailing good, weather good, see you soon. Todd

[Philpott]

Max Crittenden (via inReach)
2:19 PM (4 minutes ago)
to ssspol23

Broke wiskr pole. Annoyed but alive

[Philpott]

Christophe Desage (via inReach)
5:35 PM (1 hour ago)
to racereporting

What a ride yesterday with Gennaker. It went from surfing the waves at 10.4 Kt to watching it roll around the jib furler ... 2 hours to untangle. Exhausted.

[Philpott]

Christophe Desage (via inReach)
5:47 PM (1 hour ago)
to racereporting

Today too many squalls to open-up the flying machine. Heading Southwest will be tricky while wind too much on the stern and waves abeam are rolling Elmach

[Philpott]

Bestiary report (all landing on deck) : Squid, Sardine, Flying fish ... and unidentified fishing boat spreaders wide open, no AIS on my 6 in the squall

[Philpott]

Green Buffalo POL (and more ;-) )

Monday
July 3rd
Day 8

Relaxing day... big heavy chute and moderate 16k-18k breeze... though mostly no sun (but that's okay because that means no squalls <yet>).
Passed the fishing boat "Sylvia" out of Oahu skippered by a Hawaiian native out of Maui - Nathan. He took a few pics of the Buffalo in her element (albeit from a distance... see details below on Nathan's mobile... text him and he'll send the pics... he has "Starlink" so lots of bandwidth). He is a long liner... has been motoring into the wind for 4 days... one more day to go and he'll be putting his lines out to catch tuna (Ahi?).

The fore guy I had shortened yesterday is peeling its cover "again". Guess the fore guys are "past their due date"... I'll swap out for a new one after tomorrow's jibe Yes its going to happen tomorrow... I suspect this is the latest I have ever jibed... really hitting the right hand corner hard... at risk of over standing the finish line... wouldn't be the first time having finished two PacCups reaching in under white sails (I have a target finish 50 nm upwind of the real finish to avoid over standing).

Food... more boring... ramen for lunch and chili mac for dinner.

Sure looks like a Friday finish... a day before I booked a hut near the beach for... and two days before Mary and crew arrive. Do I sleep Friday night on the Buffalo, on the beach, or find a lounge chair in someone's back yard? :-)

[phone number for Nathan of Fishing Vessel "Sylvia"... someone text him and get the pics... 808-232-3722 - and give him a warm "Mahalo" (he has a great warm Hawaiian voice :-) ).]

Cheers,
Jim Q

[Philpott]

Mike Smith
7:28 PM (5 minutes ago)
to Jacqueline.Philpott

Monday Day 9
Is it Monday? Is it day 9? I’m losing track. If it is and I’m nearly half way that’s not too bad.

Water situation all sorted out and good. Electronics back in shape. Now just need to tame these poles. I wish I had asked around and maybe bought some beefier ones. I know Randy looked at them a bit funny. I’m using three sheets on each clew so the pole just really acts to pull the sail out and most of the load is still taken on the active sheet.

I saw another glass float today. That’s two in two days. Given the sample size that probably means there are a lot out here. I don’t see too much trash, mostly what looks like soggy cardboard, but again given the sampling size that means there is a lot.

[Philpott]

Tales from the Deck of Tortuga
Monday, July 3rd

We hit the 1/2 mark at 0630 SF time this am! Was nice to get to that milestone.

The wind got very light and shifty through the night, so it was hard to find a point of sail that wasn’t thrashing around in the swells. At some point, I finally found a good point of sail that was a bit higher than I wanted to head, but it mellowed out things; I figured it would shift back.

Finally got a few hours of sleep in the early morning. Today was supposed to be in a zone of about 12-14 knots of breeze, but it was more like 5-8 knots for hours this morning/early afternoon. Rolling around like that is hard on morale and the gear. Just trying to stay positive, knowing my position in the race standings can’t be good unless this crazy light air stuff is spread through the course. Was getting ready to set the spin with enough breeze, and then in a matter of 10min it went from 10 knots to 20, and we were barreling along at 7.5knts of boat speed. Had that boost for a few hours. It’s going to be a long last half of the race if the wind continues to be so much less than forecast.

Had my 1/2 way mark celebration with the presents, cards, and pictures Dani sent along with me and some ice cream. The freezer isn’t really all that frozen since I’ve been shutting the refrigerator off at night to save power; with all the cloud cover we aren’t getting a full charge every day. It was super mushy ice cream, but delicious nonetheless!

⛵️Team Tortuga 🐢
~~~_/)~~~

[Philpott]

abenderskii@gmail.com
3:16 PM (4 minutes ago)
to racereporting, maricelly_vargas, ibenderskii23, abenderskii27

7/3/23 Variable winds all day, sailing under a cloud cover which makes wind fluctuate in strength and direction. This makes for slow going since A2 cannot set properly and collapses often even in 15-20 kts of breeze. Hit a slow patch in the afternoon, wind kept backing, so I decided to jibe around 18:00. This worked out ok since the wind kept backing to about 55-60M, so I was able to sail rhumbline towards Kauaii on port pole.



7/4/23 Around 05:00 PDT (03:00 local time?) the A2 once again wrapped itself into an hourglass. I tried to unwrap it, but in the process the lower part got overloaded (it was about 20 kts of wind at the time) and ripped about 8 feet from the clew :(

So I packed it, poled out genoa and went to sleep. We were making 225-230M course (Hanalei is 238) going dead down wind all night in 14-16 kts. In the morning, around 09:00 PDT, there was a big cloud touching down behind the boat. Once it caught up, the wind piped up to 20-25 and Reverie was off surfing down waves touching double digits.

Winds stayed in the 18-20 kts range most of the day, so going ok without spinnaker, dead down wind wing-on-wing.

[Philpott]

Green Buffalo POL (and more ;-) )

Tuesday
July 4th
Day 9

Miserable last 24
Squall at midnight laid me out... boom in the water... okay time to see if that snuffer works (in 28k of wind)... and IT DID! Eased the fore guy and sheet, ground in the snuffing line which was pre-led and already on a cockpit winch. 20 minutes later the real problem... no wind. Rain... bit of wind... 50 degree wind shifts... more no wind... more rain... spinnaker all over the rig...6 hours later the wind filled in. Yuck (later calculations showed I lost 3 hours in this one "incident").

Now I did get much better at working the snuffer... 10% snuff... 20% snuff... 40% snuff. Have had a few passing clouds deliver wind in the upper 20s to "practice makes perfect". I also learned Otto needs to be put to bed when the wind is in the upper 20s... though snuffer+Otto will take me to 30k of wind.

Oh... did I mention we jibed last night? Uneventful (once the wind filled). From here to quite close to the finish is a port jibe most all the way in.

Food... mac and cheese with string beans and chicken thrown in. Yes not a lot of eating today... spent much of the day napping after the too busy night.

With the 3 hour loss... could be a sunset finish Friday (barring I fall into another one of those "half the night" dead zones).

Cheers,
Jim Q

[Philpott]

Alexander Benderskii (via inReach)
4:46 PM (1 hour ago)
to ssspol23

7/4 16:00 Reverie is reporting loss of tiller for aux rudder, meaning can't use Pelagic to steer as intended. Trying out different ways to steer

[Philpott]

Alexander Benderskii (via inReach)
6:10 PM (2 minutes ago)
to ssspol23

Pelagic itself is ok and primary wheel steering is ok. Trying to drive the wheel with Pelagic, but it's slow (3rd reef in main). I guess I'll do some fishing:)

[Philpott]

Oh... and happy independence day!
Despite it being the 4th of July... with a little luck no fireworks from the Green Buffalo today/tonight!

Cheers,
Jim
====================

Green Buffalo POL (and more ;-) )

Tuesday
July 4th
Day 9

[Philpott]

Mike Smith
6:28 PM (1 hour ago)
to Jacqueline.Philpott

Happy July 4. I was going to hoist the Union Jack but nobody here to see it.

Yesterday was grey skies all day. In general in this stretch the wind has been lighter and switching around by as much as 40 degrees in the morning building slowly during the day and then ramping up a notch after sunset while settling down in direction. Follows the windward side trade wind pattern in Hawaii which makes perfect sense. Does make a huge difference to me as the twin headsails only work above a certain wind speed and in a very narrow wind direction. I don’t think I’d change anything though without having a lot more experience flying spinnakers. For example last night at almost exactly 10pm I got hit by a huge 25-30 knots gust. Like a blast from a canon. I had already furled everything for the night. I don’t think I would want to be flying a spinnaker in that.

If I were good at sighting I could probably have got a sextant sight by now, but I haven’t.

Today turned out to have everything. Grey skies and light winds gave way to real rain storms. Then finally back to blue skies, puffy clouds, real waves to ride and solid trades. What a day!

Well this is as fast as I go so I’m settling down for safe and steady and enjoying the ride.

[bobwalden]

Pics taken of Jim/Green Buffalo by fishing boat:

8557
8558
8559

[Philpott]

Solstice POL checking in on 7-5-23. Question for ya… are my onboard dailies getting to racereporting@sfbaysss.org ? Airmail working but not my Sailmail

[Philpott]

Doing the reaching strut boogie! Hula aok.

[Philpott]

Device Name: suchfast1d35
Latitude: 25.54842
Longitude: -152.00162
GPS location Date/Time: 07/05/2023 12:22:14 PDT

Message: I am doing okay!

[Philpott]

7/5 Wed - Reverie ok, making slow progress (poled out genoa and 3rd reef in main) with alternative AP set-up Pelagic driving main rudder steering wheel

[Philpott]

Green Buffalo POL (and more ;-) )

Wednesday
July 5th
Day 10

What a difference a day makes... ("Lovin Spoonful"?)
Last 24 hours hours have been easy fast sailing (unlike the prior day). No squalls. 16k-22k of wind. Rumbling down the road.
Now there have been a few "things"... after taking a shower (which was way way hot... that Sunshower was "cookin") and changing clothes so I smelled so so sweet... a small seam opened in the big kite (just 3 inches long)... but these things tend to "unzipper" along a seam... so took the kite down, a bit of rip stop tape repair... and back up it goes. Maybe 20 minutes all told. Does have me thinking thru what I do if this chute gives up the ghost... Put up the already socked shy kite... or sock the 3/4 AP and put it up.
Did I work up a sweat! Guess I am taking another shower Friday morning in any case so I am ready for "re-entry" into the world (no one wants to hug a stinky, sweaty, stubble faced sailor).

Dreams...
One dreams A LOT when single handing to Hawaii. At least dreams one can remember details of. Getting up every hour to an abrupt alarm (loud kitchen timer in my case)leaves the latest dream fresh in ones mind. Several times a day for several days. A whole lot of dreaming going on...

Stray factoid...
How much toilet paper should one have on the boat for a passage like this? Well back in 2021 I used 1.5 rolls of toilet paper - and this "fast passage", I am still working on the first roll (but suspect I'll move to that second roll before landfall).

Sea life... birds that is...
As I am getting closer to land the birds start showing up... first a frigate bird (many of which hang on the north side of Kauai out by the lighthouse)... then a bird I couldn't identify but was sort of like a Tropic Bird only a darker color... and then came the booby who made several passes eyeing the Buffalo for a ride. Boobies "love" to hitch rides on passing boats and will leave a mess on deck when they do. I gave this passing boobie a few threatening looks to make sure she/he took a pass on stopping on the Buffalo.

Food...
We all know about a "meal in a pot"... well that mac and cheese with string beans and chicken from yesterday is looking to be three meals in a pot (its a lot of food... more then I can finish today).

383 miles to the finish... less then a LongPac... so two days (and two nights). I see no real squall activity... so maybe tonight will be quiet like last night (I can always hope).

Cheers,
Jim Q

[Philpott]

Mike Smith
5:54 PM (3 hours ago)
to Jacqueline.Philpott

Wednesday Day 11
I think I did 150 miles yesterday. Probably not today. Grey skies are back. Light wind at about 10-12 knots this morning but at least it has clocked around to 60 degrees towed Hawaii. Over the last 72 hours the wind has not stayed stable in speed or direction for more than a couple hours at a time. Not as advertised.

The last 48 hours for me were tougher than the first 48 hours. I mentioned the rain squalls night before last. Then last night was horrendous. One after another rip your arms off squalls. What’s that song about a little black rain cloud? Somewhere I read (I think it was Jim) someone say he’s never seen more than 25 knots in all his time doing this trip and back. I took some screenshots during one that hit over 30. There is a big difference between 25 and 30 knots at night trying to go downwind. I’m just not that good at it yet, but I am getting better. I can unfurl pretty quickly, that’s easy. But now I can furl even faster, driven by blind panic. Slack on the port side outhaul, slack on the port side clew haul, same on starboard, haul in the jib furler, PDQ. I can do it in the dark with no lights now in about 30 seconds. I have to. Weirdly I have stopped using headlamps or cockpit lights, I literally just feel for everything.

I don’t think I have seen more than the Big Dipper once on this whole trip so far. From where I am it looks like the whole Pacific is covered in cloud. I would like to see the satellite photos.

I fixed the last squeak that was bothering me, the boom mandrel. I inspect most things every day, but I go a lot by sound. The less extra squeaks, knocks, bangs, taps, and the like the easier it is to hear something that ain’t quite right. I caught one of my autopilots, the CPT, yesterday. It was making the normal “brr, brr” sound clockwise but “grr, grr” the other way. I shot some WD-40 in the bearing. About 10 minutes later, back to “brr, brr” on both sides, and quieter, almost “prr, prr”.

Must… keep… going…

[Philpott]

Tales from the Deck of Tortuga
Tuesday, July 4th

Happy Birthday, America! It was another super light shifty wind at the start of the day. I was just trying to find a combination of course and sails to minimize the rolling in the swells. The wind finally filled in, and we were 5.5/6 knots all day.

I was feeling pretty lethargic and couldn’t motivate myself to get the spinnaker up. I smashed my knee pretty good a few days ago while tripping on deck, and it was sore, but then, while doing the thru-hull repair, I had to do some crazy boat yoga to get all the way over the engine and into the stern area. The only way to support myself and have my hands free was to put all my weight on my right knee. After doing that for a 4th time, I’d really done something to my kneecap. It started swelling and getting red. In the picture, it's looking better than 2 days ago when it was a big red blob. Been icing throughout the day the last few days and taking it easy, and that’s helping keep the swelling down. Maybe that’s why I’m feeling so run down. Anyway, It’s hard to move around right now, so my moves getting around a bouncing boat are very calculated. Today was spent being mellow and icing my knee.

Hoping the wind holds and we don’t start the day again bobbing around for a few hours before the wind fills in, which seems to be the pattern the last few days. Still mostly clouds today but actually had a sunset for a moment.

Day 10 and still not shorts weather! I want my money back! 😎
⛵️Team Tortuga 🐢
~~~_/)~~~

[Philpott]

NOTE TO ARMCHAIR TRANSPACKERS:

Mr Hedgehog and I are leaving for Hanalei Bay one day earlier than planned in order to have (almost) all hands on deck for the arrival of the first boats. Greg Ashby is already there, staying aboard s/v Pamela, as is her skipper Dennis Maggard. Synthia Petroka arrives Friday.

Control Central is not available to us until Friday afternoon, but the boats are coming! The boats are coming! We hope there will be room for two more aboard a 37' Crealock.

Keep watching the Jibeset tracker; you'll know shortly after we do which boats and sailors cross the line. This email aggregator needs some sleep, flying United Airlines tomorrow morning. That's how normal people get to Kauai.

[BobJ]

Thank you for passing along all these email updates!

[Philpott]

Solstice POL on 7-6-23 at 4:15 pm PST
250 nm to go!!!

[Philpott]

Thursday Day 12
About 660 miles to go

Clear skies. Trade winds. 12-16 knots at 050-060M. Waves have died down quite a bit so not really surfing like we were a couple days ago. It was never Jaws, but it was fun and I got some good video for Dwayne I think.

What do I do all day? Well today as I reached for the freshwater pump switch I noticed the bilge pump LED blink. It never does that. I went down to look at the pump and all was dry. I sat and stared at the LED and a few minutes later it blinked again. I remember reading something goofy in the manual that might be relevant, so out with the manual. I carry paper copies of the important and useful ones and electronic copies in Evernote (terrible software BTW) for everything. I have a Xylem/Rule pump as do probably half of you. Read along with me on page 6 of the manual describing “Rulemate Imtelligence” and see if you can figure anything out from that. Some of the worst technical writing I have read; and from a British company too. Anyway let’s try testing the pump which by the way means reaching a button that cannot be easily reached from any sane installation position and with a label also impossible to see. Works. And I never saw the LED blink since. That all took me 1.5 hrs. That is about how all Marine hardware works.

I took my first sextant sight! Started with baby steps and took a noon sight, a LAN. Failed pretty badly, over 100 miles off. It’s really hard to get the red sun ball to just touch the horizon on a pitching deck. I am a real fan of David Burch and his books and guides but why does he get wrapped around the axle on the fact for example that the sun isn’t round and we need to correct for that when that error is beyond being in the weeds compared to practical problems in sighting.

The only thing I could get really wrong was the sun Declination 22 deg 38.4 min N from the almanac and I think that is right. So try again tomorrow or I’ll have to start doing sight reduction. My goal for this trip is to take a sight on Hokulea.

[Philpott]

Green Buffalo POL (and more ;-) )

Thursday
July 6th
Day 11

Another beautiful day...
Last evening started a bit ominous with a great big long black cloud going over head just after sunset... but turned out to be no big deal and the start of a beautiful quiet night (now maybe 15k-16k of wind is too quiet... vs today has been more 16k-18k which really helps move the odometer forward). No excitement and no drama. I thought I would need to jibe onto starboard to get a bit mor enorth before getting to Kauai - but I have been slowly headed and are just going to need a short jibe and jibe in maybe the last 50 miles (vs I am 214 nm from the finish as I write this). And maybe I get real lucky and get headed enough I don't need to jibe at all (though unlikely).

Food...
After 11 days at sea it was time for Mary's famous cabbage salad. Cabbage, ramen, tuna, dressing (without the slivered toasted almonds and green onions one would have at home). Sorry but I think I waited too long. The cabbage salad was "okay" - but it was a wee past due not having the "cabbage crunch" one expects.

Spring cleaning...
Getting the boat organized for re-entry to civilization. Sole scrubbed, sails organize, extra water stored away for the trip home (just a few cases). Organizing my "go bag" with wallet, mobile, drugs, maybe the laptop (maybe not)... knowing I will likely finish 11pm ish. Too late to hit a bar or restaurant - and my cottage doesn't become available till 3pm on Saturday. There will be several finishers early Saturday so easy enough to catch a ride (ashore or afloat? not sure where I will end up Friday night... maybe just helping the support boat meet finishers?).

Trepidation...
This year was about getting away from the "electronic buzz" we all live in these days. Unplugging. I know as soon as I get a cell connection (typically 10 nm from Kauai)I won't be able to resist cleaning out the email inbox, text messages and the sort. My work and private electronic life is pretty mushed together... no real separation. Which make dredging thru 12 days of email (likely several hundred emails) sort of like an easter egg hunt. I know most of you know... but if you don't... I retire from Autodesk at Aprill end 2024 (in 9 months). Which should reduce the gain of my "electronic buzz" a bit. :-)

Cheers,
Jim Q

[Philpott]

Mike Smith
Sat, Jul 8, 4:34 PM (23 hours ago)
to Jacqueline.Philpott

Saturday Day 14
Squalls are back. I even got hit by one after dawn that seemed to chase me. These make sleep hard. As the song goes “Nobody told me there’d be days like these”. There were some big swells too. I didn’t realize how fast size and swell period can change.

Morning started light and winds shifting around again. Day finished with clearing and light trades. Plodding down the rhumb line.

I see a lot of folks finished together. Exciting! I am so slow though, and hope I don’t mess up at the end. Took me a day to get from the Farallones to SF in the LongPac.

[Philpott]

Horizon, Day 10
90% of my trip has been with the wind wane steering. Yes, it is slower, but I feel safe knowing that any sudden wind shifts won’t negatively affect my rig when I’m snoozing. Also that I am not stressing my ship’s rudder, which seems to be a frequent cause of failure for some boats in the past. I was surprised to see that it outperformed my auto pilot when deep reaching. It especially shines at night under a starlit sky mirrored on the black sea by sparkling bioluminescence gushing over my side decks and in my wake. I often think about how privileged I am to be part of a timeless tradition of Polynesians who charted these same waters eons ago. I can imagine their excitement at nightfall which was their only way of knowing where they were. Although they would have had bad luck on this trip. Most of the nights have been very cloudy.

[Philpott]

From Randy and Tortuga 7/7


Tales from the Deck of Tortuga
Friday, July 7th

I’m no longer awarding the most uncomfortable night of the trip, as I had thought the previous was it, but now all the remaining nights want to win it. Nope. Sorry. No longer part of the Tortuga Awards program, so you can all stop vying for it!

I will say that there was a real moment of zen hand steering around 0300 doing a smooth 7.7 knots of boat speed as a squall was passing over us. The boat felt perfectly balanced while the rain and winds whipped past for about an hour. The winds, dare I say, have picked up a little later this afternoon in more the 15-knot rage, which is keeping us closer to a steady 6 knots of boat speed and is bringing us that time to finish read out on the chart plotter so much closer!

When we occasionally jump up to 6.5/6.7 of boat speed, it actually becomes less than 72 hours! That's only 3 more days of singing sea shanties, getting rum rations, and carving exquisite scrimshaw art. Because, of course, that’s what I’ve been doing this whole time!

The red Sharpie perimeter drawn on my leg has worked and kept the swelling from my knee from spreading farther. Every medical kit should have one of these magic markers. Still lots of icing, elevation, and taking vitamin I.

I had another great sunset; the boat was doing 6/6.5 with winds in the high teens into the wee hours.
We are getting there. Slowly, but we are getting there.
Team Tortuga
~~~_/)~~~



On Fri, Jul 7, 2023 at 10:

[Philpott]

Mike Smith
3:28 PM (14 minutes ago)
to Jacqueline.Philpott

Sunday Day 15
All those people that finished already must have had pretty fast times I would think. I’m just letting folks know what it’s like at the back of the fleet.

I had a great time today. Set the sails at about 50% last night and went to sleep for a bit finally. No squalls and I must have slept pretty well because when I woke up I had no idea where I was! Of course that was actually true because I messed up my noon sight. I missed a few readings near the meridian. Once you miss the sun’s maximum height, that’s it for the day. I found you can guesstimate by curve fitting to what you have. I’m surprised nobody teaches that method or at least I haven’t seen it.

Then today was like I thought every day would be after the Farallones: blue sky and steady trade winds all day. First whole day that I have had like that. I wonder about everyone else.

I need to do some real navigation! First I found my chart plotter won’t let me add a waypoint relative to Hanalei, it has to be with respect to the vessel if you want to use range and bearing. So I gave up, started to do the math for absolute lat & long and then gave up on that and back to drawing on charts! Or at least on big sheets of graph paper so as not to mess up my paper charts that are both hard to het and expensive now.

Onward!