June 28, 2004

Acacia sets sail from San Francisco, California.

Hello from Acacia

We finished our first night and completed the first radio check in. We are at:

37 01.352 N
123 50.702 W

Everyone is doing well and Acacia is fine. The good news was that we didn't get the forecast gale (40 knot winds). What we did get was very light air from the wrong direction for most of the night.

It's better now and we have the Asymmetrical spinnaker up and we are moving nicely. Given the weather forecasts it not clear if we should be heading south or more directly toward Hawaii. We will see how the winds develop.

Bob

June 30, 2004

Hello from the blue ocean.

We are now at:

34 44.8 N
126 22.7 W

Lots of dark blue ocean is all we can see from all directions. Now I know why they call it "blue water sailing". It still overcast and cool. Not as bad as the previous days. Hopefully it will get nice one we get further south.

Everyone is well, but various degrees of tiredness. We had an event last night a little after midnight. We were flying the asymmetric spinnaker. All of a sudden the sheet (the line that controls the sail) slipped out of the winch. Before we know what had happened it was wrapped around head stay. It wasn't a good thing. With much work, especially from Tom and Carl, we were able to get it unwrapped. The bad news from the wrap was that in the morning after examining the sail we discovered a long rip. We have sail repair tape, but think it is best to keep it reserve for the later parts of the race for our two other spinnakers.

BTW, I forgot to mention in yesterdays report we saw some whales (possibly humpback). One even breached a 100 feet behind the boat. Very cool!

Overall the boats holding together well. The SSB radio has been working well for the morning check in. You should now be able to see all of the boats that have started at

http://www.pacificcup.org.

That's all for now. Just got off watch and need to get some sleep.

Bob

July 1, 2004

Wonderful day. As if about 5pm PDT are at:

32 57.3 N
128 41.5 W

Started out cloudy and cool as before and as the day progressed it cleared up and got sunny and warm. The waves are now much smaller too. Everyone stripped off the foul weather gear and long underwear and have started wearing shorts and sandals. We are now flying the big spinnaker and it is all great. We even have music in cockpit. Now I understand why people do this.

Everyone seems to better acclimated and is enjoying themselves. Tom made us great tuna fish sandwiches for lunch and we be having beef stew for dinner.

Bob

Last night we had our first sunset. We hope it won't be the last.

Today has been a day of contrasts. The morning was a complete calm with only a slight ocean swell. It was sunny and warm. As the afternoon progressed the wind starting to pick up and now we are moving at over 6 knots. A lot better than zero. The only problem is that wind is not from the direction predicted by the weather charts. I guess the weather folks who do the charts are not here, they are in their offices somewhere :-)

Our current position is:

32 1.9 N
130 34.2 W

We have come about 570 nautical miles so far and have crossed the 130th longitude. A long way yet to go, but we are well on our way.

For lunch today we had Steve "famous" peanut butter and jelly with margarine. Everyone else figured it must be some sort of Canadian thing, but was quite good. I even had seconds.

Bob

Very nice day. The spinnaker is up and we are moving well. The weather is clear, blue sky with some occasional clouds. Just another day in the Pacific ocean. At around 4:20pm, we are now at:

31 11.4 N
133 8.7 W

We have been in sight of another boat since 3am. First it was just a masthead light on the horizon and now we can see it in the distance. We think we know which boat it is and may confirm it on the 5pm SSB chat. This must be what it was like in "Master and Commander" where one ship would see another ship on the horizon and take days and days to catch up to Everything moves in slow motion.

The SSB has been very nice to be able to keep in touch with the other boats and remind us that we are all in the same ocean. It's very easy to feel isolated given the amount of distance involved. Being involved in the SSB roll calls and chat sessions brings all the crews together.

Boat and crew all doing well.

Bob

The day started with rain squalls and more squalls. Like lots of thing regarding the weather on the trip, this is one more thing that wasn't supposed to happen. Squalls are only supposed to happen when we are three or so days close to Hawaii. We are currently at (5:20pm):

30 22.4 N
136 26.3 W

We hope to be at the half way point sometime tomorrow. It will be nice to start seeing the miles to our destination start to be less than miles traveled.

Everyone is well and Acacia is moving well. We are all getting lots of experience steering with the spinnaker and ocean swells. It quite an experience doing it at 3am!

Bob

Not quite half way in miles yet. We expect to get to the half way point tomorrow morning. Then we get our half way party!

We are now (4:20pm) at:

29 50.6 N
139 25.6 W

Our approximate arrival in Oahu will be next Monday (a week from today) based on the speed we are now making.

We have found the trade winds. Steady warm and the wind from behind us. Lots of blue sky and sun. We even saw our first flying fish today. None landed on the desk yet, but I would be surprised in the morning.

That's all for now from the middle of the Pacific ocean.

Bob

Even though we still have a long way to go, it seems like "downhill" from now on. We made our half way point at around 2am this morning. We are now (8:30pm) at:

28 32.9 N
142 45.2 W

Last night was interesting. We had alternate rain and clear skies. Before the rain started it was very dark and the phosphorescence from the boat wakes was really spectacular. Then came the rain followed by clearing. The moon came up and it seemed as bright as day. We only have a few more days of moon for the trip. The last days will be in the dark. At least we know our way around the boat now.

Today was another great sunny day. Not as much wind as we would like for sailing but it's hard to complain. Lots of blue sky and occasional clouds. It's hard to tell but we don't think we will have any rain tonight. It will be nice to not have to get the foul weather gear on at night (again).

The flying fish are becoming more plentiful. We saw some whales at the start of the trip and some dolphins last night. I got to see the whales but was asleep for he dolphins.

Bob

Not too much exciting to report. Another nice day, no rain last night, lots of sun today, lighter winds for the morning and early afternoon, and more wind now.

Almost forgot. Our first flying fish landed on deck, but it was too small to eat.

At about 5pm we are at:

27 36.7 N
145 03.8 W

Yesterday we finished the last of our prepared meals. We all wanted to thank our spouses for preparing them and to say they were all excellent. They were a great treat. Tonight we will have leftovers before switching over to "freedom meals" tomorrow.

Yesterday we replaced two spinnaker sheets that were fraying and would have parted if we had not noticed in time. This would have, of course, happened at midnight and been a major fire drill. We are keeping the ends of these lines as souvenirs of the trip. We have solved the problem by putting Teflon tape (not the type used for pipes) on the ends where the wear occurred. This type of tape is also called "millionaires" tape.... So far it seems to be working but we keep an eye on the lines and sails for chafe.

Bob

Last night we had lots of rain and wind. It's exciting to drive with the spinnaker up with 20+ knots of wind in total darkness and rain. Who said Valiant's can't surf. Then less wind, but more rain. This morning we had good sailing but now the wind seems to have gone elsewhere. We hope for it's return soon.

At around 5:20pm we are at:

26 28.8 N
147 44.8 W

Bob

p.s. Probably shouldn't say this, but the wind is coming back with the rain to follow.

Let me start with the night. Except for a very brief period of rain, it was clear all night. They sky included a complete cover of stars including a very viable milky way. Below us was the phosphorescence thrown up by our wake. Quite a sight.

The day was gorgeous but with a notable absence of wind. It was a very warm day with little progress. Not a dead calm but lots of sails flapping. I had the watch during the warmest time of the day and the best I can say is that is now over.

We are having our first "freedom" meals tonight not a previously reported. Turned out we had leftovers, and mac and cheese for the last two nights. I will include a report on the "freedom" meals in tomorrows email.

Almost forgot, at about 6pm we are located at:

25 35.7 N
149 46.3 W

Hopefully by this time tomorrow the wind will have picked and we will have made more progress.

Bob

We have now had two sets of "Freedom" meals. While not as good as the home made prepared meals we have had for a lot of the voyage, they are very good. They are not like the dehydrated variety, but prepared meals in a foil pouch that is heated up in boiling water. They have real food in them. The ones last night even had a whole chicken breast. Steve said that he has gotten the same type of food for backpacking in Canada. [Editor: to try them yourself go to Freedom Meals ]

Since last night the wind has picked up and we are moving well. The forecast we have gotten show that it should continue for the next days. We are all much happier now that the boat is moving again.

As of about 9pm we are located at:

24 13.1 N
152 38.8 W

About 330 miles to the finish line outside of Kaneohe Bay, Oahu. We expect to get there next Monday evening if this go as planned.

We all have mixed feelings about the end of the trip. While we are all very excited about landfall and seeing our families again, it's been a great trip and we are enjoying the sailing and it will be sad to see it end. But we are not there yet and there is still lots of blue water under our keel.

Bob

The wind has picked up and we have been moving very well for the past day. In fact we made our best 24 hour run of 169 miles. If we are able to maintain our current speed we should do better in the next 24 hour period.

Our current position at 4:30pm is:

23 1.3 N
154 57.9 W

We should arrive sometime early evening on Monday. At least that when we think we will get to the finish line. It will probably take us another 3-4 hours to get in the channel past the reef to the Kaneohe yacht club. Then the arrival parties begin :-)

It's not clear what we want to do after meeting our families. Have a cold drink at the bar or take a shower. Such difficult decisions.

It been a great trip and we are all excited about our pending landfall.

Bob

Aloha!

Acacia arrived 12:32 Hawaii time yesterday. The crew is well, had a good night's sleep last night and is enjoying Hawaii. Bob will file his status report sometime later today.

Maryann

We have now been in Kaneohe for four days. The arrival was wonderful. After we crossed the finish line there was an escort boat waiting for us to lead us over the reef into Kaneohe bay and to the Kaneohe Yacht Club. They put us on the bulkhead Mediterranean style. After completing arrival formalities (e.g., certifying that we were not bringing in fruits and vegetables, etc.) we were welcomed to Hawaii and given purple orchid leis, mai tais and fresh pineapple. Let's say that after two weeks of nothing cold and little alcohol, the mai tais really did their job. We then got to kiss and hug our wives. It was a wonderful arrival.

Maryann, Sharon, Marge, and Marty were able to go out on the press boat for our crossing the finish line. It was great to be able to see them as we came to the finish line and afterwards. They took some fabulous pictures of Acacia as we crossed the finish line with the big spinnaker up. I am attaching one to this email. The web site has updated photos from the first day, and will be updated in the near future with photos of the trip and arrival in Hawaii.

The voyage was a wonderful. We all had a great experience and will remember it for a long time to come. The boat performed very well and we didn't have any significant problems. Valiants are really designed for crossing oceans.

It was the first ocean crossing for Steve, Carl, and myself, and for Acacia for that matter. Tom was our experienced ocean racer. We all learned a lot from him, especially for what was normal. Carl's extensive small boat experience and spinnaker driving was a wonderful asset. Steve was our GPS "master". Everyone got along well and worked well together. We had some difficult moments but at no point were we concerned with our safety. The common phrase we repeated was "we are in the middle of the f***ing Pacific Ocean, don't break the boat". The notion of self reliance when you are 1,000 miles from land takes on a new significance.

I want to thank the many people who helped make this trip possible. This starts with the folks at Valiant for building such a seaworthy boat, Jocelyn Nash at Quantum Sails for the sails (especially the big spinnaker that we used for 3/4 of the trip day and night), Bill Joos and Dick May our Valiant dealers for a wide range of support, our wives for their understanding, provisioning, and too many other things to list, David Kessens for managing the email list, Toni Sormunen (my boss at Nokia) for his support and the loan of the Iridium phone, and lastly to all of the encouraging comments we have received from the people on the mailing list. We couldn't have done it with out all of you.

Bob