Closing the Circle

On the Trailer in the backyard of Chuggy's new Office.

As chance would have it I found myself on the Duke Point Highway, among the Ferry Traffic, around 2230 on Tuesday Night. As I proceeded I came upon a strange contraption making it's way down the highway and it took a minute before I realized that it was Chuggy with Narrow Escape in Tow completing the final leg of their 2009 Transpac journey. Remember in April of this year they did not have a boat! With how much got done before their start date, in the short time after the buying decision was made, it might better be described as an epic!

I remember the way I felt after completing the 2003 Transpac in the Baby Dart. A terrific amount of work and sacrifice goes into putting a boat from Nanaimo on the starting line in Long Beach.

So for me the time after the finish in Waikiki was also a time filled with emotion measuring the experience and estimating the value of fulfilling a lifelong dream.

Some of you might be surprised to know that the extent of my Ocean endeavours in the future was far from certain for a while after the race. But about a month after completing the race - back home - the momentum started to grow and it became clear to me how much I looked forward to getting out there, in the company of good friends, again.

So I am not be surprised to hear the race crew express how they have quenched their ocean racing thirst (except for Roscoe he would head back out there again tomorrow).

As time goes the power of the experience and the wonder of the ocean grows in our memories. So while no one is talking about it much right now I will be surprised if we don't find each of our race crew back out there on that ocean again seeking victory on the course and harmony with their world.

Since I wasn't out there this time it is a lot easier for me to become nostalgic about their accomplishment and look forward to my turn again - coming soon.

And having had a major hand in putting that little ocean crossing package together in the first place I find it satisfying that it has now crossed that stretch of ocean three times with almost no breakdowns or even wear and tear. On the other hand that might just be testament to the proper execution of a good design!

Narrow Escape is a 1982 model year. I bought the boat in 1992 so even though I don't know the boat's entire history after all my blood, sweat and tears that went into its renovation and in consideration of all the memories the crew and I have made on board it is also pretty exciting to have the Baby back in, what I will always consider, it's home port.

No one knows what the future holds and Team Narrow Escape's plans remain fluid at this time. But with the same degree of certitude that the sailors ocean racing careers are not yet over I am pretty sure that Plan B/Narrow Escape/Baby Dart has many more crossings left in her.

Racing across an ocean among friends is a life enhancing experience and anyone who gets a chance should take it. Talking about it, reliving it or planning the next time are all part of the joy of it.

Chuggy is hosting an informal debriefing reception at his new office at 2214 McCullough Road, immediately off Northfield Road, in Nanaimo commencing around 1600 today. We will have some beers and maybe order in some Pizza.

Captain Chuggy says: "the More the Merrier". I hope he means it because he knows not how vast and wide my Plan B Blog audience is!

The boat will be on hand for tours.

Anyone with an interest is welcome. I hope you will stop by, introduce yourself and share your ideas.

Shaping our future ocean racing endeavours begins tonight and we have many and great plans to form!

End Transpac 2009

Blogmeister, Cap't Billy- Out.

Decommisioning for the Long Trip Home

Hawaiian Waterways Fraught with Danger and Regulation.

With getting the boat taken apart for the Matson Trip home being one of the last structured activities of Chuggy and Roscoe and Evil and Doug's 2009 Transpac effort they thought a little sightseeing might be in order.

The boat lift is no longer located in the Ala Wai and so a short deliverance around to the commercial basin was in order. Navigator MacArthur promulgates the possibilities. Go by sea of take the scenic inside route. Our boys had seen enough ocean and decided to take the inside channel.

At the end of which was a low bridge (marked clearly on the chart had anyone bothered to look!) restricting their passage. Then things started to go bad.

It was at this time that a nearby Tug Boat notified them that the Harbour Traffic Controller were trying to raise them on the VHF. Of course being sailors they were not running the Radio.

Of course being ignored affected the Harbour Polices' disposition when they showed up shortly thereafter.

They were directed to a nearby dock where Five-O is waitinmg - no really Mcgarrit and Dano. It is described to me that there are some aspects of Aloha that are not so well known by tourists and certainly this categorization applies to the "Aloha Police".

After submitting to a Body Cavity search and a little friendly Waterboarding and threatened with fines the size of which would resolve the entire American Bailout spending they were released to go on their way - but around to seaward of the Commercial Basin.

Apparently everyone knows that the commercial basin is for commercial shipping ONLY and there was a sign about the size of a toaster at the entrance to this affect that everyone onboard missed.

Even after this encounter no one is completely clear about what our brother Americans are so worried about but when the Coast Guard showed up - no really - and found Plan B loaded to the teeth with. . . wait for it. . . Safety Gear - maybe better than their own kit - I think that put them over the top and things started to thaw quickly after that.

Because of Roscoe's vast experience and well just because he's Roscoe the whole "take the mast down get the boat on the trailer" procedure took only an hour. The Longshoremen commented that they never had a sailboat lift go so fast or well.

And good thing too. After all the excitement they were about ready for a Mai Tai and Mrs Cutler had found just the place just around the corner. It was a joint and a classic Tiki Bar (picture above) and I would tell you all about it but in order for it to maintain the status that makes it so appealing it needs to also remain a bit unknown. Sorry.

Cap't Blogmeister.

Awards Banquet

Position: now measured by range and bearing to that Cafe serving life saving Kona Coffee. It's still sunny. Does it seem really bright to you?

Amid Pomp and Ceremony in Flip Flops (Aloha Style) here above is pictured our crew, up on stage, receiving their accolades and awards while basking in the warm admiration of their fellow racers.

Well sort of.

Apparently there was a little bit of results/awards confusion in our teams favour and for a short moment it looked like Chuggy, the now abbreviated crew and their Hawaiian Beauties were all in danger of getting the Cane.

In the end Chuggy's acceptance speech was not truncated and things were worked out to everyones' satisfaction.

Cap't Billy

Transpac Act Two: The Aloha Parties

Don't know where they are and probably they don't either. It's Sunny.

Oh the Aloha Parties and Tradition.

What a great way to smooth the race crews transition back to land mammals.

One after the other enjoyed with family and amid the camaraderie of their fellows under the warm Hawaiian skies.

When I went we had some old Tee Shirts. Apparently Chuggy has a slightly more upscale haberdasher!

Blogmeister

It's Official and Written in the Records Books!

49.11N, 123.59W Wind 17 @ 270, Bar 1020, Cloud Cover 10 percent. Distance from Finish 2332NM.

For Transpac 2009 the Final Results are posted.

As the race has evolved over the last 100 years Transpac has struggled to find a way for a bunch of boats with very diverse speed potentials to all arrive in Hawaii around the same time. Of course the only way to make that happen is to stagger the start dates with the slower boats heading out first and the faster boats starting later resulting in finishes that occur over a a shorter span of days.

One problem with that is while elapsed times are adjusted for handicap boats on the course early sail in different weather than later starters.

The weather over the course between Southern California and Hawaii gets to be very reliable in the summer. I read somewhere that the Pacific High starts to get setup in it's normal position around the beginning of July. You can almost set your Oceanus Timepiece to it! It might be more clear to say don't start the race before July 1st because it is very likely the weather will not be here before then!

While later starters enjoyed ever improving conditions that made for less distance sailed and even record times for the big boats (rich guys can even buy the weather it appears) those among the first start, six days before the sleds, endured three very slow days in the first week at sea.

Based on the random nature of luck and reflecting their clean living our team headed out on the first start and the long slow route.

Narrow Escape hates light going worse than most ever other sailing design! And while they suffered greatly during that period (every sharp implement had to be hidden from Chuggy) your correspondent is advised that a new oversize 3DL main, which was kind of an afterthought, reduced the pain measurably.

Conditions in the last half of the race were everything the brochure advertises and memories of the previous calms were quickly forgotten.

After they got back into the wind they went to work on their handicap deficit. The restart that occurred out there meant they had about 2/3rds of the race course to make up all of their race time. I thought it was fairly impressive how they consistently pulled back ground (ocean I guess) lost.

In our collective experience, and not including 2001 where we did the short course (Catalina Race), in 2003 we went the wrong way but the winds on the right course were good. In 2009 the winds did not show up for a few days and they covered a lot of extra distance to get there. I can't help wondering how we, and that boat, might fair if our Transpac Stars ever aligned. 2011 anyone?

I like to say that their results don't tell the whole story. They were just a little behind still when the race track ran out that's all!

Blogmeister

Starting Up the Big Wind Up

49.11N, 123.59W Wind 17 @ 270, Bar 1020, Cloud Cover 10 percent. Distance from Finish 2332NM.

My reporting has been neglected and I need to get to work closing down (closure of?) the Plan B Blog.

I have not wanted to use bandwidth while waiting for Notice of my Pulitzer Prize but after a month and still nothing I need to resign myself to the obvious - passed over - again!

While our team celebrated being back on land, and among their loved ones in paradise, those of us still on duty at Plan B World Headquarters were sweating out the corrected time results still at play with the Hounds still at sea.

It was frustrating for us because of reporting delays originating at Transpac.

But as most of you know now, and unfortunately for our team, the Hounds managed a narrow (get it) margin of victory.

All of the shorebound team join with the Race Crew in congratulating them on a fine race.

Blogmeister

Double Down on Narrow Escape

Cap't Billy's math looks good to me. At this point, it's too close to call. I just don't know what information/data can be considered valid. Too many delays and unknowns. The good news is they still haven't posted a 25 mile time for Bloodhound. Cap't Billy's breakdown shows that the 'hounds need to be at the 25 mile point just after 1300 HST or 1600 PDT. Well, that was over an hour ago and still no time posted. Does that mean they aren't there yet or is it just a delayed posting? It is definitely going to be a close one.

All I can say is I am always amazed that two boats can race over such long distances and their corrected times end up being so close. Those handicappers must be doing something right! Whatever happens, it looks like both boats were sailed extremely well. But my money is still on Narrow Escape.

Nail Biter!

1100HST, On Transpac Row in the Ala Wai Basin, Cloud Cover 30 percent, Clouds of vertical development over land, Distance 24 hrs, 0.00 DTF 0.00.

Is what we have!

The Race Crew think this is over. After all they have put their numbers up on the Big Board. Now all they have to do is nurse some (probably) heavy heads.

But for us Bean Counters back at Plan B Central the race continues.

You might recall after LBC Ben's handicap corrections epiphany, referred to in the New Math News Flash (NMNF) posted below, I observed that our team had a faint hope to correct over the (Blood) Hounds, up to second, in Division 6.

Since then, and fueled by a strong run for the roses down the Molokai Channel yesterday, that flicker of hope is strengthened because this morning Transpac estimated that our Plan B is likely to prevail on time by about 80 minutes!

But I am from Missouri so I have been doing the math (Ben check it). At 0300HST this morning (0600PDT check in) the hounds were still 97 miles out to sea. For that 24 hours period they covered a distance of 171 nm for an average speed of 7.1 knots. In the last 15.78 hours to the finish yesterday Plan B managed the remaining 144 miles for an average of 9.13 knots for an implied 24 hours distance of 219 nm and a speed delta of 2.03 knots vis-a-vis the Hounds.

I'm not sure if I can extend their last 15 plus hours on course out that way or if we actually needed a little more race track to make it work.

If you refer back to the NMNF post below you will find that I indicated Plan B needed "to pull out roughly another 50 miles" to save their time.

The difference between Plan B's implied daily run and the Hounds actual daily run is 48.72 miles so naturally I find myself a little more interested than "roughly" now.

Here is some more information for my readers consideration:

Plan B has generally extended away from the Hounds for the last week (since the wind came back) of the race. Not including yesterday they have averaged a little less than a 23 mile longer daily runs. Their biggest 24 hour gain was 41 nm.

The Hounds are doublehanded and we can hope they are getting tired and therefore slower by now. But doublehanded is also light and light is fast.

The hounds have the normally boisterous Molokai Channel to the finish still ahead of them and it should be anticipated that their average speed will increase as the rest of the race unfolds.

At the Hounds 100 mile check-in they estimated an ETA at the finish of 1600 HST - 60 minutes safe for them on time.

The Hounds need to finish before 1700.41HST to correct over Plan B meaning they need to cover the remaining 97 miles since this mornings check in 14 hours and 41 seconds or an average of just less than 7 knots.

At 0700HST they had covered 30 miles of that distance for an average of 7.5 knot and remained 67 miles away from the finish line reducing their needed average speed to about 6.7 knots.

The breakdown looks like this:

0800HST - DST 60.3nm
0900HST - DST 53.6nm
1000HST - DST 46.9nm
1100HST - DST 40.2nm
1200HST - DST 33.5nm
1300HST - DST 26.8 nm
1400HST - DST 20.1nm
1500HST - DST 13.4nm
1600HST - DST 6.7nm
1701HST - DST 0.0nm

If, when we look at the hourly Tracker updates (don't forget they are 4 hours delayed) for a set time, and the Hounds DTF is greater than the miles indicated on the schedule above then Plan B is ahead. Less of course indicates and advantage to the Hounds.

While not ready to concede yet, at this point, it does look likely that the Hounds may manage to correct out.

So much depends on the velocity of the winds in the normally (and unfortunately for our team) blustery Molokai Channel this afternoon.

There is a drama unfolding on the high seas of Molokai this afternoon and everything points towards a close finish, corrected time style, culminating at 1700.41HST today.

Stay tuned!

Bloggermeister

"The Mother of All Evil"

0800HST, On Transpac Row in the Ala Wai Basin, Wind 040 @ 8 knots, Sea rippled, Cloud Cover 60 percent, marine scud, Distance 24 hrs, 0.00 DTF 0.00.

The scrutineers have been crunching the numbers all night and the Directors at Narrow Escape/Plan B World Headquarters are now pleased to announce the winner of Estimated Time of Arrival Pool.

Congratulations go to Mommy (Verna) Evil (Kimmerly) whose arrival time estimate most closely matched Narrow Escape's actual finish time Last Night.

The Racing Crew will present MVEK with her award (probably a Narrow Escape Tee-Shirt that is the wrong size) at a proper ceremony after they return home.

There will be just no living with her after this!

Blogmeister

NB: Your Blogmeister, Cap't Billy, was First Princess.

Goterdone!

1847.17 HST, Wind 20 @ 090, Barometer 1016, Cloud cover 20 percent, Sea 1 foot, low easterly swell, DTF 0.00.

So long anticipated - so soon over.

And for Chuggy and Evil there is only one first time and like the first times in other arenas they always occupy a special place in our memories.

A race breakdown and wrap up will follow tomorrow.

We're proud of our boys!

Cap't Billy, Blogmeister from Plan B Worldwide Headquarters

Revised Estimated Finsh Time

1845 HST.

They must now be plainly in sight.

15 minutes and home.

Sleep on a bed that doesn't move tonight (I know it's not ideal but life is about compromise)

BlogGrinder

Chasing that Sunset.

1752 HST - Transpac Committee reports Narrow Escape abeam Makapuu - Check.

And I only stopped off for one Mai Tai at Hammers and bang they are here!

So soon now.

Check back,

Grinder

25 Miles and Counting!

At 1625HST Transpac received a message from Narrow Escape advising them that our boys had crossed an imaginary line on the ocean - its actually quite clear on the Computer - indicating they are now only 25 miles away from the finish line at Diamond Head.

In all to short a time the crew of Plan B will return to the land.


For those who love the ocean and the peace found there it is always a difficult transition.


Natures spectacle, in honour of there finish, will only make it more so.


But their loved ones will be there to greet them on the dock and the next phase of the Transpac - the Aloha Experience begins.


Over the years Transpac has embraced this Hawaiian Tradition which is found so effective at smoothing the rough spots of coming ashore.


As for the crew of Plan B. The Aloha Tradition will find them willing contestants for sure!


Mahalo to Plan B sponsors, Honolulu Sail and Power Squadron, who will care for our team in Hawaii!

Cal Who?

You're math is flawless Cap't Billy. Plus you caught the 2300 mile "exaggeration." I didn't catch that bit of Transpac Voodoo Magic. Is it just me or do the corrected time calculations and ETA estimates seem a bit creative?

By the way, I haven't said anything to date, but I don't work at Cal Poly. Cal Poly is a great school, but they don't possess the technology to produce "lucky aluminum." I work at Caltech. Better known as the California Institute of Technology. You might have heard of the place. You certainly have, if you have ever seen a news story concerning earth quakes. Or as the smart people call it Geo-Planetary Science.

So who ever wins the prize from my desk can also have a free tour of the campus. All the winner has to do is swing by Pasadena!

Now where are the boys? I've been checking the Transpac website every few minutes looking for the 25 mile time. COME ON PLAN B!

Hollywood Finish at Sunset.

1600 HST, Wind 21 @ 070, Barometer 1016, Cloud cover 20 percent, (clouds of vertical development over land), Sea 6-8 feet, DTF 27nm, ETA 1820HST (estimate).

I find it interesting that their estimated finish time is around sunset in Honolulu. Because the sun sets later at Plan B's home latitude it is about that same time here as well.

There were some frustrating times (now forgotten by the race crew I'm sure) in the early going when the tracker was estimating a finish on July 30th! But the last half of the race has been what Ocean Racers dream of.

So at about the same instant the sun falls into the sea of Waikiki and sets behind the mountains back home Chuggy and MacArthur and Roscoe and Evil should be sweeping past the Diamond Head Buoy putting the lock on one of life's best memories.

In all it's majesty nature is going to make sure the ending to this crossing is a pretty one!

Cap't Billy

New Math News Flash

1500HST, Wind 20 @ 070, Barometer 1016, Cloud cover 20 percent, (clouds of vertical development over land), Sea 6-8 feet, DTF 35nm, ETA 1815HST (estimate).

In his spare time when not hosting our team or posting to the Narrow Escape Blog SoCal Ben works at Cal Poly (there's a longer name but you know). I thought they made zip lock bags but maybe not too. Apparently Ben is a bit of a Math scholar and he pointed out that the Transpac handicaps made no sense to him. The handicaps never make any sense to me so I failed to pick up what he was laying down.

I thought the the Rating Column indicated total handicap per boat in hours for the whole course. So that would have meant that our boys would owe the (blood) Hounds - a not slow downwind design Hobie 33 - nearly 36 hours. The J-120 who normally pays Narrow Escape about 40 seconds a mile, according to me, received 24 seconds a mile. And I could not get my head around how they were ever going to come up with 2 and a half days between them and the J-35 Addiction.

And if my understanding of the ratings was correct why did it not even come close to jibing with the Transpac Daily Corrected Time estimates?

All is now revealed thanks to Ben! The ratings are expressed in seconds per mile. The course length is exaggerated to 2300 miles (2225 actual) because Transpac determined that the bigger boats had an unfair advantage over the smaller boats that the ratings alone could not correct out.

So why is this a News Flash? Because based on this new formula a faint hope has opened for our team to correct over the (blood) Hounds.

Yesterday at 0600PDT Transpac estimated that Plan B was still 4 hours behind on corrected time. This morning, because the Hounds had a short day, it appeared that Plan B had shaved that deficit down to only a hour and 7 minutes.

According to the new math (check me Ben!!) Narrow Escape owes the Hounds 22.89 hours. Therefore if the Hounds average the same speed they did yesterday over the next 24 hours Plan B needs to pull out by roughly another 50 miles, or average a little more than 2 knots faster to save their time. To put that in perspective up to now the single biggest day difference they have managed has been 41 miles.

What? I didn't say it would be easy. Slim Chance. That's what I said. Could happen. Everything is possible!

I just want them to read nothing here that might quell their enthusiasm or initiative!

And I guess Team Narrow Escape needs to give a Shout Out to the fantastic effort onboard Relentless these last two weeks. They completely crushed our division - and doublehanded no less!

I am sure all of us join the sailing crew in saying so (and the sailors will convey these cheers to them in person):

BLOODY WELL DONE Tim Fuller and Erik Shampain - Relentless - (bastards)!

BlogMeister

Switching to LIVE at Plan B Central

No more 4 hours delayed from now on we will be running live and for the duration of the race.

But first the overnight stats:

0600PDT, 21.38N, 155.16W, Wind 045 @ 17 knots, Barometer 1017, Cloud Cover 50 percent, Sea 4-5 feet, Distance 24 hrs. 208, DTF 144.

What looks like an easy night for the crew onboard. While they may have covered considerably more ground than we know they converted all but 4 miles of the distance between the waypoints into distance down the course - which is high efficiency.

As noted below at 0830 Hawaii StanDart Time Plan B checked in 100 miles away from the finish at Diamond Head. They have estimated their finish time 10 hours later at 1830 for an anticipated average speed of 10 knots for those last last miles.

They will also check-in again when 25 miles out and one last time abeam of Koko Head (5 miles to go) .

The winds in the Molokai Channel are so reliable that we can schedule their arrival time with the accuracy that a German Railway would be proud of. The winds in the Channel are enhanced by the venturi effect in the passes between the islands. And because they have chosen an afternoon finish the winds will be further accelerated anabatically as the land is heated during the day.

As chance would have it, in 2003, we finished during the heat of the day also. Here are some remarks I put down in my journal after that finish:

Welcome to the Molokai Channel a sort of Mecca for sailors. Many famous sailing stories have been conceived right here. I am hoping we will not become one of them.

The final run into the finish off Diamond Head can be exciting at any time of day but if you are looking for that maximum adrenaline rush, big windup, grand finale, it is best to plan an afternoon finish when the normal, channel enhanced, Trades are further augmented by anabatic effects. I was secretly hoping for a midnight finish for just these reasons!

I have succeeded in prying the helm out of that Rascal’s hands and quickly discovered why “those Sissy’s” had in the mini reef, the first full reef and only the baby spinnaker up. The wind was hanging around 27 knots, the waves were short, steep and huge and the boat speed seems never to slip below 15. In these conditions we have about 30 degrees of steering range we can live in. The finish line is at the top end of that range!

If steering was not already tricky enough the wind continues to build and in order to get over to the finish line we are really hanging on the hairy edge. A couple of times we got “a little too close to the sun” and did what you might expect would be some Wide World of Sports Wipeouts but they were not so bad. We will later came to realize that we were sliding, exactly sideways, down the face of a wave that was itself traveling at 20 knots or so and that takes a lot of the apparent wind sting out of it.

The last ten miles deserves a separate paragraph and so here it is. Now I have sailed on a lot of boats over the years, planning dinghies and beach cats, but nothing can quite prepare you for going so fast in a big old keel-boat. By now we have loaded all the sails out of the bow into the back of the bus. That helps. All the fat bastards are behind the companionway hatch and that helps to. The wind is now in the low 30’s all the time and we will ultimately cover the last ten miles of this race in just over 40 minutes. You could have knocked my eyeballs off with a stick for each of those minutes. There were some huge long surfs, minutes at a time with the spinnaker just flying like a flag from the end of the pole. MacArthur suggested we might as well take it down since we were not using it anyway! And I still thank God - yes I found religion of a sort in the Molokai - that the big steep wave about 12 inches in front of and six feet above the bow kept moving as fast as us – most of the time. When it doesn’t our remedy (I’m not entirely sure it was completely our remedy or choice) was to load a 12 inch thick, heavy, layer of saltwater all over the deck until the boat slows down and drops back in behind that wave or often climbs over and charges down the next. You just kind of recklessly point the bow into that big hole in front of you and hang on – no really you hang on.

And then suddenly it’s over. Too suddenly. The wind speed drops by 15 knots the waves mostly disappear and there are para-sailors and jet-skis, VIP boats and helicopters and surfers all around.

I still remember being there like it was yesterday. And I am missing it badly today.

So anyway because the winds will likely increase quite a bit over the next 100 miles and I know Chuggy will want to "Go Like Hell" I would suggest that they will arrive between 30 and 60 minutes ahead of that schedule.

And it looks like they will be finishing in a flock of boats today too so the arrival parties will be raging at a fever pitch on the Ala Wai all night long.

Memo to Helen, Mrs Cutler and Mommy Deere please ditch those Surf Instructors and find your way over to the dock before then.

Blogmeister

100 Miles To Go!!!

No fancy prose here. Just the latest from the Transpac page:

Boat Name: Narrow Escape
100 Mile Time: 13/0830
25 Mile Time:
Makapuu Time:
ETA/Finish: 13/1830

Here's the latest from the boat:

At 0830 Hawaiian Standard Time 1130 (PDT) we filed our 100 mile report with Transpac Diamond Head indicating that we are 100 miles from the finish. The trip logs shows that we have completed 2514 miles in this little 40' culvert we call home. "Anyone have a cold beer?

We had a good evening of sailing last night with the sky finally clear. We could see all the planes taking off and landing from HNL (which is about 10 minutes by air) from our position last night. Anyway, off Hawaii, on a clear night is a good place for star-gazing. That is until the moon came up and lit the night sky like it was daytime.

Talk on the boat has started to turn to drying sails, repacking and prepping for the home delivery.

Its all good!

Doug

Retraction

Because I am always trying to save column inches I took some editorial liberties with the previously posted message below:

Dear Plan Bees,
Here is a distinguished entry into the ETA Pool tonight it comes from Evil’s Mom.
She says:
>>>>>Hi Capt Billy
Thanks for all the emails keeping us up to date. We are checking the race site every hour just after the hour.
As near as I can figure out all the stats are in PDT so because I’ve never known Evil to show up on time for anything my guess for their arrival is 00:48 PDT on the 14th which I guess would be 21:48 HST on the 13th.
Take care
Evil’s Mom (aka Verna)<<<<<

I thought I had captured the essence of it but apparently some of the feeling of the message was not preserved with my paraphrase so here below is the complete message intact as received from the Matriarch of the Evil Dynasty:

Hi Capt Billy
Thanks for all the emails keeping us up to date. We are checking the race
site every hour just after the hour.
As near as I can figure out all the stats are in PDT so my guess for their
arrival is 00:48 PDT on the 14th which I guess would be 21:48 HST on the
13th.
Take care
Evil's Mom (aka Verna)

So as you can see at least I got the time and Evil's Mom parts right!

Blogmeister

The End Game

0600PDT, 22.55N, 151.47W, Wind 090 @ 12 gusting 15 knots, Barometer 1017, Cloud Cover 50 percent, Sea 4 feet, 24 hrs. distance 212, DTF 350.

I so love it but since is costs about the same as a tank of gas I only have it on hand for special occasions. In the spirit, and in community with my mates at sea, today I broke into the Kona Coffee. Don't mock me. Until you have tried 100 percent pure Kona Coffee you don't know what you are missing!

Tonight I am arranging a Luau (others might call it just a bar-b-que but like I said I'm in the spirit) and I will wear an Aloha Shirt in their honour for that occasion.

At first glance one might think that our team was laying back a little yesterday with a more modest 204 miles run on course. But you tireless correspondent has uncovered a lighter trend to the trades over the last 24 hours that likely impacted their DOC. I must be noted that they did convert all but 8 miles of that run into the direction of the finish line.

Here is an e-mail received from the boat yesterday:

Less than 500 miles to go (2 Swiftsures), Port gybe, and a clean t-shirt. as I came off shift just now Ross announced that by his calculations we now had less than 500 miles to go. We are well into race 4 now having gybed off the high at about 6 this morning. Faced with diminishing wind and hotter gybe angles that were taking us away from Hawaii, Evil decided that we should gybe in order to get in front of a nice squall. Now that we have them figured out, squalls are beautiful things.
So the usual routine is that Evil and I come on at 6 am sharp, if you are late at all the on watch can get a little pissy so we try to make sure we are on the mark at 6 sharp. This of course conflicts with my need to capture a 0600 position report and e-mail it to Alaska Eagle. So what happens is that we get on deck, let Ross and Chuggy climb into their bunkies and I come down shortly after to file the e-mail position report. I give all this background because the moment of our decision to gybe came fairly abruptly as Evil (now on deck by himself lets go the tiller to begin to rig for the gybe (he is a native foredeck person) with no one technically steering the boat and with no one on the EDSQRM we promptly rounded up and began dumping seawater in the companionway hatch. Luckily I was able to catch most of it in my jacket. So anyway we did manner a rather clumsy gybe (doublehanded in the dark) and low and behold we were sailing directly at Hawaii on port. The wind is bouncing around a little now but we will likely stick with this gybe for a couple of hours yet.
Can report a new entrant into the 20 mile club as Evil ticked off some 20’s again this morning.
So, its hot, there’s wind and things are going well.
More to follow,

Doug

Here was my reply to that mail:

Dear Doug,

Great to hear things continue well out there. A little too bad you are not so out there any more though huh?
When I was describing the numbers of Swiftsures you had remaining I was speaking of the kind where you find the lightship in its usual spot about 67 miles out there and then come back. I was not thinking of the ones where you miss it entirely - maybe even on purpose - and keep sailing out west until you run out of beer and then come home!
You have to admire Evil he is a get her done kind of guy. Was he sleep walking when he undertook the gybe? I remember sort of waking up in my hotel room in 2003 the night after we arrived with the windows open and the curtain flailing. Finally I got out of bed thinking well someone has to gybe that thing. Then I woke up a little more and realized it was only the curtains. So I just went on to gybe the curtains instead! Maybe I am a slow waker upper.
I have no problem seeing you as squall hunters.
Congratulations on Evil’s initiation into the 20-mile club. But I know girls from Evil’s past who will tell you he goes for zero to a hundred in almost no time!
Cap’t Billy

And I have received an new and important entry into the ETA Pool such information was uploaded to the boat:

Dear Plan Bees,
Here is a distinguished entry into the ETA Pool tonight it comes from Evil’s Mom.
She says:

>>>>>Hi Capt Billy
Thanks for all the emails keeping us up to date. We are checking the race site every hour just after the hour.
As near as I can figure out all the stats are in PDT so because I’ve never known Evil to show up on time for anything my guess for their arrival is 00:48 PDT on the 14th which I guess would be 21:48 HST on the 13th.
Take care
Evil’s Mom (aka Verna)<<<<<


Duly logged into the journal,

Cap’t Billy

Even though I thought Momma Evil was a kind of rough with our Evil - we know how sensitive he can be - her finish estimate may turn out remarkably close.

Starting tomorrow as they approach the Island I think we can count on Narrow Escape stretching her legs a little in stronger winds as the boys let her run towards the finish, hopefully and likely sometime tomorrow, at Diamond Head.

Cap't Billy

PS: Check back here often as I will be reporting their 100 mile check-in live as it happens - probably sometime around PDT1000 hrs tomorrow.

Today's Run and the Few "Todays" Remaining

0600PDT 23.45n, 148.12W, Wind: 15 knots @ 045, Barometer: 1017, Cloud Cover: 85 percent (broken - and getting to be a broken record too!) Sea: 3 feet, 24 hrs SOC: 219 nm, DTF: 554 nm.

If we had a sailor onboard "Miked Up" I bet we would learn that the winds got a bit lighter this morning ruining their chance at a record days pace. Even still they are getting down the track.

You correspondent predicts some stronger Trades this afternoon and evening followed by some more normal conditions on Sunday and then the big finale, run down the Molokai, in brisk Land effect Trade Winds.

Which brings us to that time in the race when we try to get a closer estimate on their ETA. As you know Cap't Billy has the 1800HST slot in the Finish Pool. Unfortunately for him, all things hanging together on the boat and present forecasts come true, it now appears likely that they will arrive earlier than this.

At this point things look good for a daylight finish which includes the fantastic ride down the Molokai Channel in enhanced Trade Winds.

My current best guess is a 100 mile report at 0400HST Monday. Arrival off Diamond Head at 1402:45.

Blogmeister

Good Morning Sports Fans

Yesterdays Stats, getting closer to Hawaii, Wind: Trade Winds, Direction: Trade Winds direction duh?, Distance on Course: 237 nm!!, DTF: 765, Barometer: 1017, Cloud Cover: 85 percent (broken), Sea: 3 feet.

The home town heroes had a stellar day on the water Thursday night and Friday - some of which has already been reported below.

The first news is an impressive 237nm distance covered on course averaging just short of 10 knots!

Yesterday they sailed into a band of strong Trades (20 to 25 knots) that extends along their course for about 400 miles. This morning things are expected to lighten up a little but then rebuild for about another 150 of today's miles.

The normal 15 to 20 knots Trades return until about 100 miles out.

According to forecast the Molokai Channel is set not to disappoint. Winds of 20 to 25 knots are expected while diurnal winds in the afternoons could reach 30 knots. The wind is also expected to do that classic little Transpac veer nearer the islands - making their short final port gybe a productive one for VMC.

They had another pretty long day yesterday. With an hour left to go they already had 211 miles in the bag.

About now the crew onboard begins to experience mixed emotions. On the one hand they are enjoying some of the best sailing conditions in the world and their little world among it has become simple, organized and easy. There is freedom that comes with being minimalist. They are self sufficient in water and they could carry on indefinitely if the food and sun screen holds out! The Tropical Paradise Islands of the south seas lie just another 8 days down that track and the draw to continue the comfortable pattern they have developed at sea is a strong one.

On the other hand is reintegrating with their lives.

Because of long experience with the deepest and darkest of Post Regatta Syndrome (PRS) the Transspac Committee arranges the Aloha experience for crews come in from the sea. Three local Yacht clubs hold receptions honouring the racers and there is the Gala Awards Banquet in there too. In the long Hawaiian Islands tradition each Transpac boat is assigned a Honolulu sponsor - like Ben in the LBC only with an even better tan (?). The Island sponsor arranges an arrival party, day or night on the dock, to meet the sailors. It is common for other finishers to join in and it is not long and usual for a riotess time to be had by all.

I have been in touch with the crew's loved ones and they are all anxiously awaiting Narrow Plan Darts arrival. In fact Ali has been standing at the dock head in the Ala Wai, sort of like that bronze statue at Oak Harbor on Whidbey island, since she arrived in Hawaii on Thursday. Helen and JD asked if she could give them a ding at Duke's Canoe Club when the boat turned up.

I think I will push the boat away from the dock today in solidarity with our crew at sea and their great adventure! The only thing wrong with my plan is that it ends around dark for me.

Blogmeister Billy

High Excitement on the High Seas!

I have been away with work all day and so this report (in its entirety below) from the boat rather jumped right out at me!

July 10th 2009 at 1038PDT:

The boys are abuzz up top now. Shortly after rollcall this morning they realized that they should be able to almost see J-World from here. So Chuggy, on the helm at the time looked up and there she was about a mile in front of us. Giddy with excitement they set to work to reel in the catch and we have come up on the boat very quickly. Discussion now circles on whether we have in fact captured our dockmates or whether perhaps we have encountered a cruiser in the Pacific, unlikely, but possible. A more definitive answer on that before we finish this note.
So last night we a good one for us. As part of a 236 CMG day we had some new members of the 20 mile club. While Web and I remain with personal top speeds of 19.2 and 19.6 respectively Ross and Chuggy our newly defined A Team scored high with runs through a squall each of over 20 knots.
The boat runs well, now light on food it fairly dances across the water. My favorite feeling is when the wind is strong enough to pull the the boat UP the waves. This is always the precursor to a fairly delightful ride down not one, but several waves sometimes lasting minutes or more. As Evil says, the boat is sailing its little heart out for us.
Back to our new neighbour must 200 metres away now. We have confirmed that the boat has the same dark blue hull as J-World but this boat is flying a genoa headsail downwind so that leaves us with some doubt? Hopefully all is well aboard J-World this morning.... Now to get to work on the 15 hours or so that we owe them?
Over and out,

Doug

Again I left all the grammatical and typographical errors intact because I am just so jealous not to be out there living this dream with them.

You just can not script this stuff. And the way they are going it turns out there is a real horse race going on.

I will put together the detailed post tomorrow hopefully along with some continued good news from the beautiful Pacific Ocean.

Initially I took the 1800 HST, Monday, estimated finish time slot in the arrival pool. At the time mostly that was just to give them some hope while the wallowed in the nothing out there. At there continued pace it now seems I did not give them enough credit for squeezing a little bit of performance out of the Pocket Sled!

Pick your finish time slot by comment below and win a nice prize off SoCal Ben's Desk!

Cap't Billy

Transpac Voodoo Magic

Unlike Cap't Billy, I don't have the same navigation software that is being used on Narrow Escape. But I do intend to use him as a resource when it comes to installing all that cool stuff on my boat. In the meantime, I have been studying the daily standings put out on the Transpac website.

TRANSPAC HONOLULU RACE

             DAILY STANDINGS 0600 HF SSB ROLL CALL

                          ALASKA EAGLE

                          JULY 9, 2009

                DST   CORR    AVE  24H  24H  FIN TIME/

YACHT           2GO   TIME    SOC  DOC  SOC    ETA **

===============================================================================

DIV VI:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RELENTLESS      802 250:35:37 6.1  232  9.7 14/17:11 **

NARROW ESCAPE  1001 308:13:52 5.3  221  9.2 17/04:29 **

J WORLD         955 283:28:01 5.4  222  9.3 16/13:21 **

BLOODHOUND     1020 291:54:05 5.2  207  8.6 17/11:03 **

ADDICTION      1157 332:03:45 4.6  190  7.9 19/18:17 **

TRANSPAC HONOLULU RACE

            DAILY STANDINGS 0600 HF SSB ROLL CALL

                         ALASKA EAGLE

                         JULY 10, 2009

               DST   CORR    AVE  24H  24H  FIN TIME/

YACHT          2GO   TIME    SOC  DOC  SOC    ETA **

===============================================================================

DIV VI:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RELENTLESS     571 232:11:23 6.4  230  9.6 13/22:47 **

NARROW ESCAPE  765 276:15:32 5.7  237  9.9 15/20:31 **

J WORLD        754 263:46:32 5.7  205  8.6 15/17:39 **

BLOODHOUND     824 269:52:59 5.5  196  8.2 16/13:02 **

ADDICTION      962 299:30:12 4.9  195  8.1 18/09:43 **

I'm still new to all this new fangled blog stuff. I couldn't get all of the daily information to display properly. So I deleted a few bits of info. Several things jump out at me. First, DST 2 GO is down to 765nm! Second, the difference between the corrected times are getting much closer and favoring Narrow Escape. Bloodhound's lead is down to just over 6 hours and the J World's is down to 12.5 hours. Both big improvements compared to the numbers posted yesterday. Third, Narrow Escape's FIN TIME/ETA has improved by about 32 hours! Of course, the corrected time and ETA numbers are derived by some Transpac Voodoo Magic that no one seems to understand. At least no one that will talk to me. Fourth, and this number doesn't come from some mysterious computer, look at the 24H DOC (distance on course). Narrow Escape covered 237nm in the last 24 hours!

I think the Transpac computer is seriously underestimating(?overestimating?) Narrow Escape's FIN TIME/ETA. I'm willing to bet that the crew is consuming copious amounts of Mai Tais on the 13th. What say you Cap't Billy?

Easy Miles

0600PDT, 23.33N, 139.56W, Wind 045 @ 12, Pressure 1016, Cloud Cover (broken) 95 percent, Sea 3 feet, Distance run 24 hrs. 221, DTF 1001

Well they are nothing if not consistent. For two days in a row they have managed 221 miles sailing. Those two days put them 435 miles (or more than 3 Swiftsures' - long course) closer to Hawaii meaning they only wasted 7 miles chasing some new speed record I guess - so that's not bad.

And they have extended a little on the (Blood) Hounds. I estimate that they now have 2 hours of their handicap in hand - just 34 more hours needed - so giddy up.

After reducing J-Worlds lead by 15 miles over the last few days they gave them back a mile yesterday. And of course they need to find 15 hours handicap time for them by the time the get to Diamond Head. So I say a new plan is in order!

Cap't Billy reporting.

1000 Miles From Nowhere.

July 7th 2009, 1645PDT, 23.39N, 137.41 W, Wind 045 @ 12 knots, Boatspeed 9.5, COG 265M, Cloud Cover 95 percent, Sea 6 feet.

And speaking about parties?

I received an unexpected call by Iridium from the boat and the crew were well into their Halfway Party. I spoke with everyone and they all sound happy and completely relaxed. I remember that relaxed is something that you can definitely get out there.

It is reported that the 6 hours day watches and 3 hours night watch system is a big hit.

Being further south than might otherwise be the case this far from the islands they also reported being surprised by their first squall. It was not a mean one. It mainly got everything all wet and reminded them of things to come.

So they are all togged out in fake leis' looking forward to the real thing in thier future and towards which they are rushing.

Everyone onboard sends warm wishes to their loved ones back home (or actually on their way to meet the boat in Hawaii).

Cap't Grinder

Update - not Up to Date

July 8th Report, 0600PDT, 24.00N, 135.56W, TWD 045 @ 15 knots, Pressure 1016, Cloud Cover 95 percent, Sea State 6-9 feet, 24 Hours 221nm, DTF 1222nm.

I handed the reigns over to Californian Correspondent Ben yesterday and he neglected to put up the stats for the day - there now above.

Finally! From its apex at nearly 40 miles our favorites managed to grind down and slip by the (Blood) Hounds yesterday, currently leading them by a Narrow (get it?) 3 miles. Lets hope they can hang on to that and get to work on the handicap amount (almost 36 hours!) they owe the Hounds. In fact if I squint I can sort of visualize this improving trend vis-a-vis their whole fleet - except as concerns Relentless - we may need to call in an air strike on them! But even in their case they are not extending any more so let's break out the party favours and start planning their acceptance speech!

The handicap trouble was exacerbated when they hit that light spot (understatement of the year). The whole fleet converged and had a restart. So they still need to save all that time but the race track to do it on is diminished by about 25 percent. Compounding their problems Baby Dart/Narrow Escape/Plan B is not at her best in the light going.

But I have been very pleased to see them putting up some big days. So pleased in fact you will notice that I am now even posting under my own name!

Cap't Billy on the Blog

News from the Front

I’ve been in fairly regular email contact with the crew. I received the following email yesterday morning:

Thanks for the note and encouragement. Yes the miles are slipping away now and we are looking forward to a "halfway" celebration with our dinner this evening. Don't worry too much about the e-mail length. As long as they are text files we should be ok. Our weather grib files are the largest and Sailmail blocks anything bigger than 30,000 bytes.

I am off the early morning shift now, have made bacon and eggs for the boys this morning, cleaned up, brushed my teeth and am now loonging forward to crawling into that back pipe berth that I call home these days.

All the best from the middle of the Pacific,

The Crew of Narrow Escape,

Doug


Doug mentioned the email length because I sent them a copy of an article about the Transpac. I thought they might enjoy the read. I was impressed that they were able to have a bacon and egg breakfast. After those miserably slow first days, I’m sure some of the boats are thinking about rationing their food. Doesn’t sound like the crew of Narrow Escape is hurting for food. About an hour later I received the following email:

Thanks again for this note. To put the driving in perspective, do you ever remember this boat having a very small rudder?? I don't recall that ever being a problem in the past? Well in the 15 - 20 knots of breeze with the full flags flying the rudder can suddenly and instantaneously disengage from fluids (wait this just in from upstairs. Ross says '17.9' and Chuggy adds 'Sustained') now back to my story. Oh yes, the rudder will dissenage at speed as the rooster tail turns into white frothy suds. Well funny, without the rudder the boat doesn't steer nearly as straight, and we crash -- or 'wipeout' as we like to refer to it as the crashes are really pretty modest. We are getting better at the crashes now with a new "Evil Designed Spinnaker Quick Release Mechanism" (EDSQRM for short). Properly applied the wipeout will drop you to about 8 or 10 knots and then we can quickly get underway again.

As Chuggy will tell you, driving downwind is pretty ease. One just needs to hold a course of 240, 10 degrees lower and the spinnaker collapses in behind the main and does that twirly thing. 10 degrees higher and we initiate the aforementioned wipeout procedure. Did I mention the confused seas with two sets of swells the size of your house..., driving downwind is pretty easy really and we have all decided that we are now going to work hard on 'quiet crashes' so the the off-duty boys can get a little sleep without fearing for their lives. Recall that it can get pretty noisey inside the culvert.

Chuggy describes this whole process as driving a Budget van down the Choquhalla with no lights and no brakes, Ross seems to think it is like walking down the basement steps with the light off carrying a box of knives.

But as you say, it is all beautiful and we are enjoying each and every minute.

Over (that's navigator talk),

Doug

This email should help explain my last posting about the EDSQRM and I’m glad that Doug is finally picking up some navigator talk!

Barefootin’ to Diamond Head?

I received an email today from Cap’t Billy asking me to sign on as a “guest editor.” On the surface that sounds like an easy enough thing to do, but I have to tell you I’m just little bit intimidated. I happen to think Cap’t Billy is doing a fine job as blogmeister and he has been quite entertaining. Definitely a hard act to follow!

A brief explanation concerning the “Barefoot Skier” title. I took a bit of a tumble on the way back from Narrow Escape’s test start run to Catalina. One of the previously mentioned spinouts caught me by surprise and I found myself “skiing” from the lifelines. Even though the crew was quite busy trying to recover from the spinout, Chuggy still found time to latch on to the back of my life vest. It wasn’t long before I was able to clamor back on deck and the only comment I heard was, “Good hanging on, Ben.” That’s when you know you are sailing with real sailors!

So I was quite happy to read about the new "Evil Designed Spinnaker Quick Release Mechanism" (EDSQRM for short). Apparently, no one on the crew wants to compete for my Barefoot Skier title. It’s a good thing, too. I can get pretty competitive and I would have to come up with a way to defend my title. Not to mention towing a crew member has to be bad for boat speed. Now I just need more details about the EDSQRM so I can put it to use on my boat.

Here’s hoping that the crew stays focused, keeps sailing fast, and doesn’t waste any time water skiing!

California Ben

Now That's What I'm Talking About!

0600 PDT, 25.08.000N, 132.05.000W, TWS 15 knots @ 045, Distance 24 hours 207nm, DTF 1436, Pressure 1017, Sky 95 percent cloud cover, Seas 4 feet.

1100 PDT, 24.54.995N, 132.55.370W, Distance 5 hours 46.2nm, DTF 1389.8nm DTF 1389.8nm.

They are perking along out there now well into an area where the only wind predicted is from the east, or slightly north of east, between 15 and 20 knots - so perfect.

I thought we would have some stats today.

As of 0600PDT they have been sailing 185 hours. In that time they have covered 926nm for an average sailing speed of 5 knots. That sailing distance got them 789 nm down the course for an average speed on course of 4.25 knots. That distance covered by distance on course is about 85 percent efficiency and considering the choices they were faced with when they left and what they have endured for those dark days in the calm that ain't bad.

July 3rd was there worst day for distance covered at 69nm (2.9 knots average) and their worst day for distance on course was actually the day before, while they were clawing well east of course, at only 51nm (2.1 knots)!

Since then things, and spirits onboard, are much improved.

They started to get going for real on Sunday afternoon and Monday looks like it was a great day to be going to Hawaii in a sailboat. For a high efficiency rating Gold Star they managed to squeeze 201nm (8.4 knots) down course out of only 207nm (8.6 knots) sailed!

At 0600 this morning Diamond Head lies 1436nm ahead bearing 253T.

And I can tell you I am looking for an even better distance day tomorrow!

In the last 7 hours (1300PDT) they have clicked off another 65 miles on course (9.30 knots). If they are maintaining their previous down course conversion efficiency (!!) that works out to 9.6 knots average straight line speed. A 223nm on course day is implied if they can keep that up through the night. It should be noted here that the best ever Transpac Day on the Baby Dart was 240nm down course - looks like that benchmark could be in jeopardy if things continue at this pace!

To give you the flavour of what I am putting up with back here in the office, in the rain, this from Evil at around 1445PDT:

Aloha Grinder!
We’re voting Chuggy for helmsman of the year. He started off the race with the best start of his career (his first one too) and now he’s world class steering down wind in twenty knots! I guess when you’re thrown to the sharks you’ve gotta learn to swim.

Weather:
Apparently when the grib files say 5 they mean zero and when they say 15 they mean 20. Last night DCB and I had a great sail with full rags up 2A and main with flattening reef in it. We were averaging 12s and you couldn’t wipe the ear to ear grin off DCB’s face when in the 16s. When we got near the end of Doug and my shift, at 2am, it was a little windier, burying the nose quite often so we peeled down to the 3a and full main for Rosco and Chuggy’s shift. Save the rig.
When daylight came around we decided you can’t win a race being a so the 2A and full main are back up. Its 1430 now and the seas are about six foot swells and wind still 20 knots, we’re averaging 12-13s with numbers seen as high as mid 17s. On the instruments we set a high speed warning at 16 knots so you could watch the sails instead of the knot meter. Rosco moved it to 20 because it was getting annoying going off at long extended periods of time.
The baby dart is sailing her little heart out for us and we’re having one hell of a ride.
Chuggy described it best:
Its like going down the coquihalla in a budget truck with no brakes!
Looks like tomorrow at happy hour will be our halfway point (in miles not time).
Raytech says 5d 23h to go!
Cheers from the pacific

I have the July 13th at 1800 slot on the Finish Time Pool. Because Evil's (just all too entirely possible) ETA has them arriving off Diamond Head around lunchtime on that day I will be asking them to throttle back about a third of a knot. I don't know how much luck I will have with that they are only pushing faster - last (1800/1400 hrs.) update said 10.3 knots. In the time I have been on this they have covered another 10 miles down the course and have now closed to within 10 miles of Bloodhound (8.7 knots) the next boat ahead in their division - and very nearby on the water too.

Ben Smith (that Barefoot Skier and Narrow Escape Long Beach Sponsor) has just contacted me about putting the Lawndart Video up on his Facebook Wall. I am going to make the command decision in your absence and tell him to go ahead and do that. I am a little worried however that for at least some of you there will now be some photographic evidence that the authorities (and Merica's Most Wanted) could use to track you down after all the revelry that is coming soon to the Aloha State. Not the least of my worries is that my picture also appears in that clip and I sure would not want to confuse the police and have them come knocking on my door! On the other hand all the receptions in your honour and the girls and the accolades would not be so hard to take.

Speaking of "The Girls" they are getting out of Dodge (Nanaimo) tomorrow and the next day to be on the dock when you arrive. High excitement abounds among them!

I will update you about the onboard shenanigans relating to the half way party as I receive them!

Blogmeister

Hey, what's that noise?

July 5th, 2009, 0600 PDT, 27.14 N, 125.47 W, 24 hrs Distance 74 nm, DTG 1784.

July 6th 2009, 0600 PDT, 26.09 N, 128.26 W, 24 hrs distance 156nm, DTG 1637

Both (Groundhog) days! Wind 5 knots @ 295 Cloud Cover 95 percent, Barometer 1017

Is that a bow wave?

I resisted the temptation to post improvement until I had a couple of hours of it (4 hours behind).

Yesterday evening showed some real signs of improvement and today, from what I can see, things are getting engougeous out there.

Lets have some letters from the edge:

Around 1100 yesterday:

Web says to tell you that the head has nicely crowned.
Or Evil may be impressing us with his new found knowledge. For those of us who don't know Evil and Michelle (aka JD) just had a baby boy who they fittingly named Cap't William E. *family show*Stick > Kimmerly after me. I was just glad he turned out to be a "he". It would have been a tough moniker for a little girl - you know how cruel kids can be>.

We have had the 2A up a couple of times over the course of the evening and it is up again and flying now. We are thinking about putting that jibtop into a bag but we don’t want to jinx the project. Boat is moving easily now at 6 or 7 knots in about 8 knots of breeze.

All is well on the Handidart this morning and we are looking forward to a little more wind and some fairing so that we can finally start to turn west to Hawaii.

Just think a week ago we were doing our test run out to Catalina...
Onward,

The Special Olympians.

And about 1700 hrs. yesterday:

Hey Rudy, thanks for your kind words. That was the mother of all calm spots. It was honestly a bit disconcerting to realize that you are in a hole that stretches 50 miles in every direction and not a breath of air anywhere. It was seriously calmer than Maple Bay on a rainy afternoon. Only in this case the only exit plan is to wait for the seasons to change...

As you can imagine spirits are higher this evening as Web is helming on a beam reach with the 2A kite at 9 or 10 knots and I am still able to come downstairs and write a couple of e-mails.
Anyway all is well aboard the “Handidart” this evening and I wanted to say thanks for taking the time to send a note to the cheer us all on.
I am certain that we will catch up with you soon.
All the best,

Doug

And finally around 1200hrs. today:

Grinder
WAHOOOOO!!!!
Finally moving now. We’ve already forgotten about the PFSD (previous six days) Boat speed is steady in the 8,9,10s with flashes of 12s and the odd 14. We’re aiming for a degree of longitude every 6 hour shift.

It’s a running joke on the boat that at the top of the hour when the transponder fires up we always seem to be in a lull or slow down a little. Its our cloaking devise! We don’t wanna alarm the competition. So don’t worry at home we’re averaging much faster than transponder reports.

Its great driving the “mini-sled” under the A2. We head up a bit, lean in to it, and she spools up like a turbocharger. The apparent angle moves forward and we have to drive down about 40deg to keep the sail full. TURN AND BURN!

We would be on the cover of every newspaper in North America if it wasn’t for a pesky 100 footer doing 18 knots stealing all the publicity.

The only thing that concerns us about the PFSD is the time taken away from our elapsed time in relation to other boats in our fleet. This shouldn’t matter with time on distance we think but we’re still unsure how it works. Can you enlighten us on this?

Cheers from the ‘ESCAPE ‘DART.

Not much that I can say that will improve on that post so I will not.

Other than things look very good - hopefully for the remainder - for the boys at sea.

Cap't Grinder

It's Just Never Like This Here?

0600 PDT, 27-49 124-34 1851 557:14:29, TWD WNW, TWS 5 Bar 1016 Sky 100% Sea 1 ft, 24 hrs SOC 72, DTF 1851.

The Pacific High which I keep calling the Transpac Weather also influences our summer weather back home. The wind spins clockwise around the High, toed out a bit because of the Coriolis effect. And as we know the wind has been blowing between 15 and 25 knots from the northwest every day all day and night for weeks. It may be due to global warming that the Pacific High only generates wind on one side now. I wish we could tip it over so that they had some. I feel guilt wasting all the wind we have had here.

I caused a bit of a stir when I reported Transpac's anticipated July 25th finish date. They base that calculation on the last 24 hrs speed on course and because it has been a bit slow out there the output date was a bit late.. A more accurate estimate, made by your correspondent would be between 9 and 11 days if they break out of the light winds they have endured for the last 60 hours or so.

I note that the 50's that started on Thursday have rushed right up behind our fleet and not a surprise to the Plan B's have begun to slow down. At this point I would be happy if they went right by so long as they brought some wind up with them. Because of coarse the other alternative- the boats ahead sailing into better wind and the rich get richer scenario - is less appealing

Here are a couple of reports from onboard the boat:

Morning Grinder!
We had to take the knife away from Greg last night!
We had wind from noon til six at night and have been bobbing since. Chuggy woke up this morning like a ground hog and he saw his shadow in the pacific. This means we will be stuck here for another day :( Good news is this is extending our vacation by a few days AND Dougy has another unused airline ticket to put in his drawer.
Raytech software calculates 285d 13h to our destination. WOW! Our predictions are July 14th (we’re saying 15th so that it sounds better when we get there) Problem is we are due to run out of booze on the 9th. (Or sooner depending on how many more days with no wind)

The transpac race can be broken down into five parts, we think six, more on this later.
Part 1: The race to the synoptic winds
Part 2: Crossing the ridge
Part 3: Slot car racing on a chosen millibar line
Part 4: Nail the gybe
Part 5: The Molokai channel

In our race we’ve done well in the first part of the race, done the second part TWICE, waiting on 3,4,5 and jumping ahead to Part 6: the race to the bar!

Blogmeister

OK Shark Bait Out And Push!

0600 PDT, 28.23.000N, 123.30.000W, Wind 5 knots @000, 24 hours distance 69 nm, DTF 1911.

Its a grind out there!

Roscoe that Rascal became famous at Whidbey Race Week for jumping off the boat in no wind to push! When other boats asked what we were up to we told them we were trolling for Sharks!

Narrow Escape remains stuck in a small area of high pressure with variable winds, both in direction and strength.

Transpac is now estimating arrival times on the website. The fastest ETA is sometime on the 14th and the latest is July 30th. I think they base their estimates on the previous 24 hours distance run on course and so according to them we should start looking for Narrow Escape - now renamed High Hunter by Chuggy at 2008hrs. on the 25th!

Tantalizingly close to the south are steadier winds that will carry them to, and actually become, the Trade Winds reward.

The weather models still suggest that the Trade Winds will be well established for the duration of the race it is simply a matter of getting to them.

Cap't Billy

Drifting in Pardise!

It's late and I'm tired but if they can still be at it so can your shore bound correspondent

Here are a couple of messages back and forth with the boat today:

Thanks for this note. Yes, it was brutal. The e-mails from you and Rudy were helpful and we did really try, and sailed as best we could, but we just couldn't’t get out of the hole. Of course I am only writing this note because I think that we have finally broken free of the mother High and are now on our way to live the dream. It was an interesting couple of hours. I had never imagined that the ocean could be that flat. No swell, no ripples, not a breath. The main didn’t pump that badly because there weren’t really any waves. Ironically we had to put the first reef in just so the main didn’t saw itself in half on the backstay. Both of the best lines go to Chuggy who was surprisingly upbeat through the whole affair. I had a restless sleep thinking that he was just going to come down and slit my throat. Anyway Chuggy is going to rename the boat HighHunter and he says that he never wants to see his face in the Pacific Ocean again.
We are through most of that now though and are sailing pleasantly in light winds toward the high that will carry us to Hawaii. Roscoe has taken a keen interest in the navigational aspect of the race now so we are in good hands. As I write this I have a batch of Dirty Rice on the stove for the boys so hopefully tomorrow will bring better stronger winds. As we recall from 2003 the best parts of the race are usually saved for the end.
Over and out,

Doug

My reply

Dear Doug and those sailing again,

It is pretty easy for us at home to say bear down and try harder while sitting on the couch sucking on a Lucky (oh sorry to mention that Evil). I know only too well how completely stopped the Dart could get.
Don’t get complacent it looks to me that while it may not go completely haywire again improvement will be a slow process. But not to be a dream wrecker either I don’t remember ever seeing such a classic trade winds formation or as stable as the one predicted beginning only 200 about miles down the track.
Take care of Chuggy’s new main! Chuggy probably still likes the light wind as much as he ever did but he is a Leader and just doesn’t let it show! There was no chance of cutting your self with the knives that used to be on that boat so not to worry.
After seeing his reflection now Chuggy can imagine how the rest of us feel all the time!
Roscoe has probably just finished all his first tier reading and is getting into the navigation manuals now. At the rate you are travelling so far I expect him to be a board certified Brain Surgeon by the time you guys arrive!
Do you mean windier in the global sense or just onboard? Like what are adding into the dirty rice? Remember that is small boat.
It seems to me from here that the last 36 hours have been much more challenging for you than 2003 episode. Just imagine how great the (by all reports) fantastic ending will be relatively then!
Grinder
PS: It’s just about 2000 and still completely daytime light here.

PPS; I am taking tomorrow off to work on the boat since I missed Canada Day mostly due to a Narrow Escape related hangover. I will get into the office to field your much enjoyed e-mails and update the Blog however.

grinder!
Thank christ/wilson (our Hawaiian good luck wind rattle) we made it out of that hole.
Things in the pacific are once again peaceful for the “adivan racing team”
must have screwed up on giving you my parents email they must be XXXXXXXX.net not shaw, my bad
Thanks again, it’s great having such a great follower/mentor on shore. Wish you were here (and I know you do too)
Cheers from the beautiful blue waters of the pacific!
evil

My reply

Dear Drifters,

Jesus Christ now don’t you go getting mushy on me Evil - but I know how it can happen.
Thank God you are moving again! How fast are you moving again? The four-hour delay tells me that you were making 4 knots at 1530. Or maybe I just needed to be there for the past 24 hours for that to get me excited!
It can now be told that in the Back Home Navigators Pool I had the 1600 slot that the fast moving northbound ridge would pass over you while your southish angle would get you into some breeze on the down course (very much preferred) side of it. So I would say we have a wiener!
Because of the 4 hours delay the 50’s are only now all showing up in the San Pedro Channel about half way to the West End. The fastest boat in the fleet is making 7.6 and the slowest 7.5 so it is a massive cluster everybody all side by side - even zoomed right in! But if they don’t get out of the synoptic wind before midnight, and even if they do maybe, I think they will be wishing they were you for the next couple of days - not good near shore - sort of like how it was for you or worse. Typically things look a whole lot better for the movie stars by Sunday’s start. The rich guys can even buy the weather I guess!
I will get you Dad up to speed with a barrage of past e-mails.
My wife is away so I have been living on fast food. What’s for dinner there?
Grinder
PS: You will let me know when I spinnaker goes up eh?

Cap't Blogmeister

No Better But Far From Bad!

This just in from the boat titled: Pacific Highs!

I am not quite sure when it was penned.

Grinder Evil here!

We’re having a beautiful day in the sun drenched, crystal clear electric blue waters of the Pacific, tunes are playing happy hour is in full effect. Only one problem there is no wind!!!

Unlike previous Transpacs' of the Baby Dart going north and searching for the shortest crossing of the high, we decided to go south “skirt the high” and let it come to us! Good news the majority of our fleet is in the same pickle.

We first felt the high about 0200 this morning with sails flapping all night, I even suggested taking the main down so Chuggy and Rosco could sleep. At role call this morning the fleet was reporting anywhere from 0-2 knots to 0-4 knots. Looks like however the Id-35 squeezed through on the edge and is looking pretty happy.

As I well know these are the worst possible combination of conditions for Plan B. Therefore it is a very important part of the race where staying in touch with their fleet is paramount.

I am glad spirits onboard seem high, in the face of this adversity, but it should be noted that some of their worthy competition is sneaking away a bit.

The good news is Roscoe is getting way ahead with his reading!

Cap't Billy

Tough Sledding!

0600PDT, 29.04 N, 122.20 W, Wind 0 - 2 knot @ 270, Cloud Cover 20 %, Bar 1011, 24 hour run 102 nm, DTF 1975 nm.

I have spent the last few weeks wishing I was a part of the onboard crew but last night - and I even got up a few times to check if there was any better news - I was just as happy to be in my bed! And during that shift I made about the same distance as they did!

They remain stuck in an unusual little bit of high pressure which is rubbing up against the normal Pacific High (Transpac weather maker) and the friction is cancelling out any wind in the exact area where our boys are slating (and have been for a while now). But they can't be blamed. To get where they are going there was just no logical way around it and so, along with the rest of the fleet at sea, they ran right into it hoping that it would either not be there when they arrived, would move on soon after they got there or get absorbed by the bigger normal weather pattern that is developing to the north.

This morning Alaska Eagle is motor sailing because as Communications Vessel they have a rough deadline to keep. They reported coming upon one of the boats in the fleet last night and seeing all of its running lights - several time! Funny guys but it underscores the frustration those at sea must be feeling.

And things don't look any better for the 50's who start off Point Fermin today. That same little bit of high pressure that NE/Plan B are stuck in extends most of the way back to the beach. The only good news for our team is that at least they are nearing the down course side of it. Those starting today look to still have all that light wind ahead of them. And, like the first start, south and even east of south appears to be the only way to get to Hawaii - other than a 747.

And the winds here, which has been so consistently strong day and night since they started, are generated by the same High Pressure system that Plan B is relying on for the great slide (still coming) into Hawaii.

By a combination of them sailing southish and the farthest eastern extent of the ridge moving northish (pretty fast too) I think it should be passing over them soon. Depending on the speed of each, the way I read the GRIBs, suggests that they should be out the other side, which usually heralds better sailing conditions sometime tonight.

Let's keep our fingers crossed for them. I think they are probably ready for a little excitement.

BlogMeister

Walking to Winnipeg - Redux?

1300 PDT, 29.57.42N, 121.51.17 W, Wind 8 knots @ 270, SOG 4.9 Knots @ 203, Cloud Cover 100 percent, Sea State 2 feet, DTF 2006.1 NM

Conditions at sea at least seem blissful if not fast. Conditions in my office however are still a little foggy after a successful and well attended Narrow Escape Primer on the docks at the NYC.

Here is some e-mail from the boat (last night):

Hello to everyone. We have just finished our first offshore hot dinner. This is one of Bill’s favorites, pasta and pesto. Tonight we were able to add corn and salami so it was a real feast. As a appetizer we had cabbage salad with onions and bacon bits . Everyone ate a full menu and seems quite satisfied now. Web and I are off shift until 10 and Ross and Greg are bundled up warm for the first part of the evening.

The wind is still light, about 8 knots from the west and we have continued over the course of the afternoon with full main and jibtop. the weather is overcast which is typical for this part of the race. The boat was flat enough today so that we were able to make 4 or 5 gallons of water.

Once I send this note I am hopeful that we will have an updated grib file and see if our push to the west will be rewarded with some wind.
Hope that all is well for you all,

Doug

This morning:

We have just completed our 0800 roll call without incident. From that we are now seeing some of the same things that you will have seen. The southern boats appear for the time being to have made some distance on us over the past 24 hours. We have been trying to find the line between the radical southern route which gets us to the wind, but not necessarily Hawaii. We have been thinking, or more precisely hoping, that the high would revert to its more normal position a little further north and we would have some advantage over those who chose to sail the longer course to the south.

We have had light and variable winds overnight and have tried to stay to a line that would bring us just south of the high. With the information from today’s roll call we are now going to ease the sails a bit and add some additional southing to our course. With any luck the high will still move northward and we can make back some time from this position.

Last night we had a pod of dolphins running with us for about an hour. I had not previously seem that at night. They look pretty impressive with the bio-luminescence all around.

Thanks again everyone,

Doug

Sent from the boat at 1444 this afternoon:

Chuggy seems to remember something about not sailing into the centre of a high pressure area. Something about less wind?? I know that no one wants to render any outside assistance so maybe just nod your head when you read this... We have spent the first part of the morning thinking and rethinking our route through the bottom part of the high pressure area. The big wind barbs, that tell the story so clearly at the scale of the whole ocean, leave a little detail out of the picture when we get zoomed right in.

But notwithstanding these wind concerns I can report that we are now headed down track at 6.5 knots with the main and jibtop. Thank goodness for that big mainsail.

So far our concerns about being overpowered have not been too much of a concern.

Chuggy and Ross are on shift now.

The weather is really quite beautiful, shorts and tee shirts and lots of sunscreen.

Web is sleeping, or at least pretending to.

We have about 10% cloud cover, blue blue water, and a little less than 10 knots of wind.

Except that we are concerned that our competition has more wind than us we would be completely happy.

Oh by the way I have just handed the Iridium phone to Chuggy and this e-mail will come to you via the great world of satellite phones...

Hope that you guys are all well,

Dougie

Last crossing we spent a little (too much) time doing research in "the Ridge". The ridge can be a very nice place with balmy weather but very little wind. If you are racing you would try to cross it at right angles. We must have missed that memo.

The Winnipeg phrase above was coined at that time. We were making about brisk walking speed and we had about that far to go!

This year however light wind has clamped down over most of the at fleet presently at sea and extends to just about everywhere any of them might even consider going.

So it becomes a game of heading to where you think things will improve first, trying to minimize distance to get there and being mindful that you need a runway of Tradewinds that will take you all the way in.

In Blog Central I have the exact same software as the onboard team and I am "paper trading" the decisions they might make based on Narrow Escape's Polar Diagram and GRIB (weather map forecasts) Files that the software animates.

The forecasts change a little every 6 hours and the longer out you look the less reliable the predictions become.

According to me (and the GRIBs) they are struggling in a kind of isolated little High which is weakening and which they are getting west of. But right after that?

Just wait there and the Ridge will come to you! The Ridge, which is a fixture off the coast of Southern California in the summertime features in most Transpac Races and extends from the Pacific High (Transpac Weather Maker) along a northwest/southeast line. In a typical Trasnpac Race the boats encounter the ridge about 400 miles offshore. They would like to cross it (right angles - see above) quickly because the wind, which loosely follows the isobars swings around behind them heralding spinnakers for the long and joyous slide into Hawaii.

As the weird little High resolves and normal conditions re-establish themselves offshore the ridge is forecast to swiftly cross over our favorites (as opposed to the other way around) leaving them on the good side and and opening the way into what look like typical 15 knot tradewinds south of 22 degrees N and west 131 W.

It looks to me like there might be at least another 24 hours of pain for them before things very slowly improve as the get down the track. Right now I am calling this a rich get richer scenario.

And things don't look too good for the 50's scheduled to start tomorrow with light onshore winds and the weirdness or team has faced blocking their way too. Right now the big guys look to have drawn the best start date. The near shore wind will be light but they deal with light better and tradewinds like conditions back fill north towards the mainland for them.

The game plan onboard Narrow Escape remains to keep in touch with their fleet until such time as conditions play more to Narrow Escape's strengths - namely down wind and more wind.

Cap't Billy