Blog from Family Affair
by Paul Michael, July 21st, 2012
Not much to report on today. The trades threw us a few curve balls. We're less than a day out and have more of our game faces on. Focused on the finish, we play the squalls as best we can. After a big squall, the easterly trades are reduced to sometimes zero wind and take hours to fill back in. We seem to be averaging around 6 knots towards Lahaina which would put us in early Sunday morning. It would have been nice for a daylight finish. I have to be careful what I wish for; there are plenty of chances for calm weather ahead.
For the first time in 12 days, we saw another ship on the horizon. It was only navigation lights and passed over the horizon behind us. From the Yellowbrick information, it was Anne Bonny.
The weather's great and it's given us a chance to a major cleaning of the boat. It's nice to air everything out. Things are becoming ship shape.
I found that yesterday's communications issues were likely due to the high voltage cable falling off from the HF antenna. I reattached it and was able to connect back to the States.
At dusk, we had an albatross circle very close to the boat. It finally built up enough confidence to land on the top of our mast. He didn't seem to affect our instruments so we left him alone and he rested there for hours through calms and squalls.
We've seen a few other birds too, terns mostly. One was very interested in my fishing lure this morning. We've been sailing too slow to troll for the tuna I was hoping to get.
EDITORS NOTE: Hide the rum indeed! I thought rum was the only reason for racing across vast oceans.
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Featured Yacht Profile
Amun-Ra (2022)
Type: Beneteau Oceanis 45Skipper: Ben Homsy
Port: Vancouver, BC Canada
Blog: 1 articles posted
Ben Homsy; Owner / Skipper - Ben is ultimately responsible for bringing together this motley crew. Australian-born, UK and Canadian citizen with an impeccable taste in both teak decking and lasagna. Ben has skippered charter boats over the past 20 years. As a recent entrant into the Pacific North West sailing circuit, this will be Ben's first year participating in the Vic-Maui and other local inshore racing.
Rob Bergman; Watch Captain / 2nd In Charge - Rob is a fellow Australian who recently moved to Vancouver with his family. An avid sailor and nature-lover who grew up around sailboats. This will be Rob's first Vic- Maui and major ocean crossing, after participating in the 2021 Cascadian Convoy and the 2022 Southern Straits on SV Amun-Ra.
Brenden O'Reilly; Trimmer / Fishing - Brenden joins the crew of Amun-Ra with a sound knowledge of boats powered by noisy engines - but we have decided not to hold this against him as apparently he is a master fisherman. This is Brenden's first season sailing and racing in the Pacific North West.
Olivier Corbeil; Trimmer / Bowman - Despite being the youngest crew member (and the only one who can touch his toes), Olivier has over 3000 nautical miles sailing offshore and has raced international level dinghies for 10 years. Olivier has been navigator on a number of boats and crew on a J/22 during the J/22 Worlds in 2016.
Donald Scott; Trimmer / Engineer - Don has literally thousands of miles of cruising. His racing experience includes the Van Isle 360, Southern Straits, Swiftsure, SOAR, Anvil Island, Round Bowen, and Bird Island (Australia). He is also very handy with white electrical tape.
David Verlee; Trimmer - Hailing from Bowen Island, David joins the team at Amun-Ra with extensive sailing experience. He is a 25-year member of RVYC, having raced in the club's Wednesday nights on Virago.
