Jacqueline – Page 2 – Singlehanded Transpac 2018

The parties in Mike’s head

another morning of sailing dead down wind. its a little challenging because my boat begins to dislike the full main at about 21 kts tws depending a bit on sea state. last night i was humming along with full main 20 kts reasonable sea state good boat speed so decided to get some sack time. rude awakening sometime later with my tws alarm going off, the boat jumping and complaining and me sitting there in the bunk thinking “remind me where i am again” answer, you are in a sailboat about to do another reef Mr. Cunningham…NOW WOULD BE GOOD!

You untangled those reefing lines earlier right? Sir, yes Sir.

by now you may be wondering how many actual people are on the boat. well there’s Mr. Yellowcoat protecting the forward cabin, a Marine Drill Instructor kicking my ass, and a bunch of talking chipmunks who get pretty chatty when i get short on sleep. i also continue to be on board and am, in fact, doing all the work.

rcvs 9:38am PDT 7/6

Mike and his AP

i have had an interesting voyage of discovery with my ray ev1 AP. the pilot has three settings: performance, cruising and leisure. i have found them more like Chihuahua on drugs, Chihuahua on less drugs and “the dude”. the Chihuahuas consume power like crazy and steer downwind as their name implies, whacky and somewhat demented. they do stuff, you just go….what??? “the dude” however is perfect downwind. just like you would expect after a few White Russians. i wish i had discovered “the dude”three days ago.

Day 12 Summary – Carnage continues, but there is a rainbow at the end

At least one racer can attest to that rainbow so far. Double Espresso made it into Hanalei bay just about at sunrise, in time to see there really are rainbows. Passages and Nightmare are due in later this evening and tonight. Crinan II, despite reporting a series of issues and a lack of functioning AP, is still holding his own and will follow. Rainbow has been silently creeping up on others who are contending with some issue or another and is now on pace to be the fifth finisher. Riff Rider, Fugu, and JouJou (the others) have all reported power issues or AP issues and so are sailing much more conservatively.

Taking the opportunity to gain some ground is Dark Horse, who may actually pass some of the former leaders. The comfort clump is still rocketing along, all be it with a little bit less wind, and a lot more sun, and eastern Morning Star is still keeping pace. He could get a boost in wind from the front of the tropical depression remnants. He should be far enough ahead as to not get stuck in the dead wind behind it. Looking forward to more arrivals and the official beginning of Tree Time – let the Mai Tais flow!!

“i feel like i’m in boot camp”: Mike C

another day of sunshine and 25 to 20 kt trades. i have lost count of the number of reefs i have done and undone. my boat likes a full main to about 20 kts so not so bad but yesterday it was up and down and up and down. OK Mr. Cunningham gimme a reef…NOW! now take it out, now put it back in. i feel like i’m in boot camp. man i wish i had that spinnaker!!!

i keep a couple of ratchet straps on board. got a bad foul in a reefing line and was able to use the ratchet strap as a temporary reef while i got the tangle sorted out. i would think ratchets would corrode like crazy but they hold up surprisingly well and give you some otions when something awkward needs pulling or squeezing or tying down. they are cheap too.

apparently the RC is serving MaiTais in Hanalei. there better be some left when we arrive.

later the same day:

its getting hot out here. time for some nude sailing. i dont suppose Rimpac has any drones or spy satellites overhead. wouldnt want to frighten anyone.

First Finisher!!

Congratulations to Philippe on Double Espresso – First to Finish on Elapsed Time at 8:38:11 PDT!!!

Next expected is Passages, and then Nightmare, both sometime later this evening.

Day 11 Summary – Remember that carnage?

Well, there has been more carnage reported, but so far everyone is doing fine and hanging in there, from a lost solar panel to a ripped main sail on a boat that only has one sail, to AP issues, to various lines breaking free, the increased winds have dealt their blow (ha, pun) – the back half of the fleet has gotten the strongest, reporting sometimes 33 kts. The sentiment is starting to switch from let’s enjoy this great blue yonder to: yeah, I’m kinda over this and can’t wait to hit Hanalei. Well, for our fastest boat the wait is almost over as he is expected to arrive sometime Thursday morning. RC is gearing up to be ready to greet Double Espresso as he makes landfall.

We’ve seen our clump stay dispersed somewhat today and Dark Horse, despite suffering some of the aforementioned carnage, has continued to surge and is almost overtaking JouJou. Riff Rider has hung back a little, likely due to AP issues, as well Fugu, suffering some charging issues, may rest. Until he jibed back, it almost looked as though he decided to go see the erupting volcano on the Big Island and give Kauai a miss. He’ll jibe back again.

Dolfin, and his AIS alarm, have kept their distance from Jacqueline, and Crazy Rhythm has volunteered to keep Jacqueline company instead.

Winds should lighten up slightly so the fleet won’t be quite as on edge. Looking forward to the first finisher tomorrow.

Jacqueline – Yellowcoat

i call him yellowcoat. as mentioned many posts ago, i have a bad mast creak. i have wrapped the mast in towels and stuffed some cushions around it to quiet it down. one of those cushions is a homemade quarterberth cushion covered in yellow sunbrella i have had forever. the yellow cushion is standing on end to block the doorway.

so the quarterberth cushion is narrow on one end and wide on the other, you guessed it, just like a human being. well, close enough.

so anyway, three or four times a day i look forward and oh shit!! theres another person on board… and he looks a lot like my quarterberth too.

ha ha, maybe i should paint a face on him and call him…what did tom hanks name the ball??

“you have to make it happen” says Mike C

now this is more like it, sunny day wind blowing 20 -25 kts on lower side. sweet sailing. i tell you though, i am looking forward to the finish. folks dont know how grueling this is. day after day of 3 axis movement, tough getting adequate sleep, continuous motivation needed to get things done and keep racing. its a hard thing to sustain.

no choice though, which is one of the attractions. you have to make it happen. its often too easy to quit stuff, not this game.

Jacqueline contemplates the science of sleep

managed to get some good sleep last night. rolled up the two flannel blankets i have and made a cocoon inside my lee cloths. this kept from rolling around on the berth but felt a bit like i was inside a coffin. visions of Moby Dick.

i dont know what i dreamt about but they probably centered around NOISE.

brian boschma turned me on to a book called “why we sleep”. very interesting read. the author talks a lot about the importance of and differences between rem and nrem sleep. i ponder the things we do and wonder what a singlehanders sleeping cat scan would look like. probably lots of bangs, pops, squeaks and pings on that thing is my guess.

Mike is miserable

this has gotten a bit miserable. been blowing 25 kts plus all day. the boat is rolling through the resulting sea state most disagreeably. still making decent speed but its going to be a pretty uncomfortable night.