As the Eastern Pacific high pressure begins to stabilize and move north, our racers will feel the trade winds fill in. 

From Mountain, 07:15
Hello from nearly half way!
In honor of National Dave Letterman day I made a top ten list to share.
Here in no particular order are my top ten unique sailing terms and  deep cut gems from the Mountain ipod:

10. Revenge of scorpio – Ted hawkins
9.  fraculator
8. the seed – The Roots
7. scantlings
6. bad luck city – R.L. Burnside
5. monkey butt
4.  stranger in a strange land – Leon Russell
3.  baggywrinkle
2. for my next trick – Warren Zevon
1. Soak it!

Wishing a peaceful night to friends, family and armchair yachties everywhere…
Sail fast,
Reed

Hula, 11:30
Dr. Frankenstein has successfully re-attached the head of the half ounce spinnaker. It’s ALIVE!!!!!

Nozomi, 12:10
Nozomi checking in. So far so good…

Northern Star, 12:10
Northern Star Daily Report. All happy and well aboard Northern Star. Jamie is alive, well, and even typed this message himself!

Happy to be in the Tradewinds, it is a beautiful day.

Jamie

Shark On Bluegrass, 12:15
Wind finally picked up, 105 miles in the last 24 hrs.  Nice tropical breeze….
falk

Sea Wisdom, 12:19
Hi RC,

The wind die down last night and this morning.  It started pick up again, blowing 8-10 knots from NW. Better than no wind!

Hope everyone is well.

Will

Aloha, 14:41
i think i can see Hanalei!!!!! very small of course…..

Good afternoon from a sunny Aloha, I am writing today’s update from a much better place than we were in yesterday both mentally and physically. As many of you might be able to imagine, the hole in the middle of the course was quite taxing on the sailors out here (speaking for myself anyway) and as it progressed it had seemed like there would be no end in sight. Forecasts downloaded each day made it appear that all we had to do was make it through that respective day and even if no forward progress was made at all, the wind would fill in and it would be right back to racing. After the third day of telling myself that i just had to make it to tomorrow, I quite honestly had a bit of a breakdown of faith in my ability to continue to cope with the lack of progress being made.

Thankfully, not too long after I composed yesterdays update which was written after having sat in about 1 to 2 knots of wind making about the same in speed, some wind did fill in and has mostly stayed with me since then. Last night i went to bed early being that I had suspected I was due for a busy night. Bed time came before the sun had even set and I kept a close eye on my course as it was slowly was beginning to veer again to the north as winds shifted into trade winds with a more east west component. The goal was to keep the apparent wind angle constant but unfortunately to do so the auto pilot had to head up.

At around 1130 (2330) I hit my upper limit which was a persistent course of around 270 (due west) which was about 35 degrees to the north at the time of rhumb line to Hanalei. Getting out of bed was an interesting treat which brought me to a near panic as i looked directly back out of the companion way (due east) and saw what appeared to be either a large tanker on fire about 5 miles back, or perhaps a fishing vessel illuminating the area as squid boats do that was much closer. I stared at it for a minute and contemplated hailing them on the VHF as checks of the chart plotter revealed no AIS signal. The next minute or two passed and I slowly began to realize that i was in fact watching the moon rise between the sea surface and the clouds and much as the setting sun glows a violent orange, so was the rising moon that was reflecting both off the ocean and glowing the clouds orange. Once i realized this to be the case i was able to relax a little bit and enjoy the beauty that nature sometimes provides.

A few minutes later, it was on to the task at hand which would be a midnight gybe to port tack which will have the boat more or less pointed towards the islands. Though not the prettiest or fastest gybe even conducted, it got done with the whole sail stack moved over and the boat dialed in now on port tack at a heading of about 210. Throughout the rest of the night and early morning, winds came and went, but were mostly in the 10 knot range at a direction that had me mainly steering a course of about 220.

Sunrise brought some clouds which i have come to know as a very good thing with regards to wind speed and direction as winds increased from about 9 to 15 with puffs up to 17. A little bit of legitimately fun trade wind sailing ensued before the winds calmed back down for a bit. In the 2018 pacific cup, i came to realize that in the trades, the mid morning is typically a break from the winds of the afternoon and evening, this seemed to be the case most of morning till a little after 1 west coast time when wind built from about 6 to 9 or 10 which is much closer to the forecasted 11 that i should have for the next day or so. This morning we crossed over the halfway marker with 1065.5 miles to go at 5:07 and i will soon be passing to less than 1000 miles to go (just checked while tying and it’s at 1004). Crossing over the halfway marker meant the opening of a few much anticipated halfway gifts.

The first one came as a bit of a mystery to me as it was labeled to Aloha from SV Tortuga, now what’s weird is that I don’t actually know an SV Tortuga, my buddy Elliott has a motorboat called Tortuga but after asking him he confirmed that it wasn’t him. So without the slightest idea who it was from, i dug into a care package that included a bounty of party supplies for a halfway bash for one which included two party poppers, a bunch of glow sticks, some powdered hawaiian punch, some hot chocolate mix (in case you cross halfway in the middle of the night), a lime (to ward off scurvy perhaps)  and a few other goodies along with a hand written note From Captatin Randy of the Westsail 32 Tortuga who competed in the 2012 SHTP wishing good luck and to enjoy the halfway party. If you happen to see this Randy, thank you very much from the bottom of my heart.

Next it was on to the flashdrive that Brian had put together with what i have been told is about 25 minutes of warm wishes from family and friends back home. Unfortunately due to technical difficulties with the laptop not recognizing that a usb had been inserted, i am not able to actually see or hear the video until i get to the completion of the second half where Dad assures me he will have a laptop that we can try it again on, or perhaps when i get cell reception near the islands (like 30 miles out) i can get it emailed and watch it then. Regardless, id like to thank everyone who contributed, it means a lot that there’s so many people back home keeping up with my progress on this great adventure that i have embarked on. Lastly was a lovely letter and pictures from our recent adventures in Tahoe and up the Stockton from my lovely girlfriend Eliza.

Though it may just be me out here, I can’t say there was a single dry eye onboard. On to a celebratory lunch which was topped off by  my first mountain house dessert which was a raspberry crumble, absolutely fantastic and because it serves 4, there’s plenty leftover for dessert after dinner this evening.  After lunch the sailing has improved with winds building out of the 6 knot range up to about 9 to 10, not quite what the grib files indicated but after that last few days, it’s hard for me to complain at all. Trusty Simrad autopilot is still back there steering away to the wind angle and i must say doing a very fine job 10/10 would recommend having an autopilot that can be integrated to all your instruments and sensors given the opportunity to do so.

That’s about all from Aloha, again thanks to everyone that contributed to the halfway stuff, i can’t wait to see it as soon as i can, and tank you to everyone following progress from back home. Think windy thoughts. -Aloha.

cheers,
Kyle

Green Buffalo, 19:01
Now this is what they call sailing to Hawaii!
10k-12k wind from astern.  Sun, blue skies and white clouds.

The smoothest carper ride ever!
With last week’s Low off the coast, a tropical earlier in the week off Mexico disrupting the trade winds, and the receding High, I have never seen such a flat ocean.  A few foot swell you can barely tell is there, wind waves under two feet… smooth sailing… easy on the chute, good napping/sleeping, and easy on the autopilot (which means low power use with the single 140W solar power keeping the batteries topped and no need to run the engine).

Sardine sandwich for breakfast (one can do that when alone 🙂 ).

Mac and Cheese for dinner?  Or back to tortellini?
Maybe time for some afternoon music…

Cheers,
Jim
Green Buffalo

Mountain, 21:48
Life exists on Mountain!

Shark On Bluegrass, 12:13
All well on the shark. It’s “Shark On Blue Glass” right now. 57nm in the last 24 hrs. Who said during the skippers meeting “ the pacific high is not going to be in your way?”
Falk

Green Buffalo,  13:17
Today mark’s one week on the water… and with the slow going and expected high to head back north tomorrow… likely 8 more days in front of me (if not 9). Slowest of the 19 Hawaii races I have done. C’est la vie. Just be thanful I am not on one of the smaller heavier boats which are doing the math and being unsure if they will make it to Hanalei for the Banquet.

After 20 hrs of a decent run (a decent run is staying above 2k boat speed and not “triple zeroing”), the wind died this morning… 5 hours of slatting with no headsail up. Heard Siren call a freighter passing nearby as he wanted to be sure the freighter knew with so little wind he wouldn’t be able to get out of their way.

Now slatting is good for something… a busy morning… flake and bag the #1, cut the jib halyard back 12 inches to remove a chafe point, and drum roll please… take a shower on the foredeck!
Yes after a week with two clothes changes but no showers, I was starting to smell myself. It was time. Pull out the SunShower, canvas bucket (salt water wash and fresh water rinse), and the Prell (which lathers great in salt water). Boy did that shower feel great!

What else?
I did make that cabbage salad with chicken yesterday for dinner. And had enough left to add some tuna and have for lunch today.

Cheers,
Jim
Green Buffalo

Sea Wisdom, 14:39
All is fine, so calm that I flew the drone for some area shot of the SHTP doldrum!
Hope everyone is well. I think we should get wind soon.
All the best,
Will

Hula, 15:48
For those of you flying to Hawaii today, Hula is no longer bright pink, but neon yellow!

Aloha, 17:09
who do i talk to about a refund? these “trade winds” are not what i signed up for!?!?!?!?

22:16, Not a whole lot to convey about the day and night as of right now. I’m not sure I mentioned it in yesterday’s report, but it was up and down three or four times between the code zero and the A2. I climbed in bed at around 11 I believe, west coast time, with the code zero up as the wind had been tight most of the late evening, but not ten minutes after getting in bed the wind backed and I had to swap back to the A2.  

With the moon as bright as it has been out here the last few nights, a headlamp was hardly necessary during the maneuver – lack of visibility is always the most difficult thing about sail changes between sunset and sunrise. Since then it has been all A2 doing its best to keep the boat rolling.

Most of the night from what I could tell we had fairly okay wind, but with the autopilot in wind angle mode, I did wake up to notice a lift had taken us all the way up to a heading on 300 which is quite a long ways off from Hawaii. So while I got ready for a gybe in the wee hours of the morning, the wind fortunately returned to its previous direction just as I was ready to throw the helm over.  

Speaking of gybing, most of the morning was spent very much on starboard in a little bit of wind keeping the boat moving, however watching the plotter and my heading, I noticed the boat slowly heading up from about 235 the night before to about 270. With the autopilot in wind angle mode, this had indicated a fairly sizable shift which is what is expected about now on the course as we should begin to enter the trade winds. With that shift I decided it may be time to gybe over to port and start heading towards Hanalei with the filling trades wind slowly heading me down towards the ultimate destination. But, after maybe two hours on the port board, fate would kick in and the wind out of nearly due west would vanish in favor of the hole that we have been sitting in for the past few days out of the north west. So it was back to starboard tack on a heading of about 250 trying to keep the boat moving in the general direction of Hawaii.

Thinking postive thoughts and hoping to be out of the hole and surfing my way to Hawaii in a few hours. Almost halfway there, Aloha to you all. -Kyle

cheers,
kyle