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And Miles More Still to Go

by Greg Harms, July 3rd, 2008



Our intrepid sailors have left the worst effects from the nasty low pressure system behind them and now are all enjoying slightly more 'normal' (if light air and strange directions constitutes normal) sailing conditions as they approach Maui. Strum, which has been moving almost due west around the 25th parallel for a couple of days, was roughly 400 nautical miles out on Thursday morning and no doubt hopes to sail into Lahaina Harbour late on July 4th, just in time for some American Independence Day fireworks.

The other boats are in two groups. Turicum, Passepartout, Black Watch and Seeker, which all choose a more northerly route, are now battling for the corrected time lead after reaching the mid-way point on Canada Day. Crews were too busy with 40-plus knot winds and waves of more than 4 meters (as Captain Dan writes below, some thought Armaggedon was at hand) to celebrate so held off their toasts until July 2nd. While these boats were surviving the gale, those to the south, such as Zulu and Red Heather were fighting SW headwinds. Further south yet, Strum went from steaming along at 8 knots to a near-dead halt of .5 knots as it hit one of the many wind holes where the trades are supposed to live.

This Vic Maui may go down as one of the most challenging and difficult in its long history but even with these trials, skippers reports are getting chattier and more up-beat. The one sad note is a decision by Starlight Express to withdraw from the race because of time considerations -- she is now underway to San Francisco.

Check out the skippers' colourful commentary below:


Black Watch
Let's see, today is really the day before yesterday which means yesterday was tomorrow and I am writing this somewhere in the future the day after tomorrow?? OK, it's been a few days, sorry, but something came up. Namely a squall, a storm, take the #1 down, put the #3 up, take the #3 down, put up the $%&$#@#$% #1, and that was just the first 2 hours of 6-30. After repeating the afore mentioned routine umpteen times through the night we came out into a quiet flat seas sunrise - what was that saying again, 'red skies in the morning, sailor take warning?' A beautiful RED sunrise and then all hell broke loose. Running under a double reefed main and about 3 ft of jib we beat to weather at about 20 something degrees of heel and those of the crew who believed in Armageddon were below preparing for the worst. Capt Dan 'HE THE MAN,'and Shakespeare Stuart 'HE TOO DUMB TO KNOW ANY BETTER' were on deck grinning down the wind and laughing hysterically - does anyone remember Jack Nickelson in 'The Shining?'

hahaahhaahahhahhahahhaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!

Skipper Dan Matthieu – Black Watch

Strum
Strum is now back in her elements heading slightly NW of Maui running on starboard tack with the spinnaker (finally) and staysail at 12 to 14 knots of boat speed in 18-20 knots of true wind speed. The sea state is quite smooth and visibility is very good. The Strum-hum is back (the acoustic vibration we get off our rope rigging that starts at @15 knots of breeze and increases in pitch with the wind speed) and we are making good progress. It is a beautiful day, sunny with a few of what we call the "Simpson" clouds (yes, from the TV show). We were followed this morning by a school of Bottlenose dolphins, which we have not seen since south California. I noticed that they seemed a little more laid back and swam a little slower than the earlier dolphins and I was told that that maybe a sign of things to come. Every once in a while we see a school of flying fish span out from our bow, which is always great entertainment. It looks like this wind may hold until the finish, but since I can not find any wood on board to touch, I will tell you more about this when we arrive. We have 2 more dinners in the freezer before we switch to our delicious canned pantry, so Maui must be close by.

Anyways, my afternoon watch has started and I do not want to be late for work so I will type more later. Typing is very difficult at sea on this small laptop, so even a short note like this can take a long time (and I have not found the spell-check button yet;) We are all very excited to be closing in on the finish line and will continue to push hard. Until then,

Randy Vogel, Strum CAN 54500

Seeker
A day of close reaching in weak to moderate breeze drew to an end with an excellent sunset, followed by a spectacular star specked night sky. Jupiter rises bright in the east shortly after sunset, Arcturus burns brightly overhead, and Spice guides our course to Maui. And then the clouds close in again and we're on our own with only the big luminescence to keep us company. Saw two flying fish today, and the albatrosses expressed new curiosity in us, giving us several close passes. The tuna, however, have still not exhibited any curiosity towards our lure.

Passepartout
Now comes the discouraging part. The winds have turned light and the weather maps don't offer much hope for another 96 hrs. This is also the part of the trip were stuff starts to break. The watermaker will run with one pump but not two - which means it takes twice as long to make the required water. I suspect a corroded electrical connection that is causing a big voltage drop thus a current increase and overheating of the pumps. But, so far I have not been able to find it. The boiler won't fire so there went the hot showers. This morning I noticed the main bilge pump running for a long time. When I checked the bilge I found the pump was running but it was not pumping. It is a diaphragm pump. I think the duckbill valves are shot. Fortunately North Harbor Diesel gave me two sets of spares.

The waves are down - 2 to 3 ft-just enough so there is a good deal of flogging going on.

Turicum has moved up to become a serious threat so along with the light wind we have Turicum and Seeker to worry about. Both of those boats will do better in light wind than Passepartout. Why can't we have a gale when we need one? Maybe not a gale - how about just 20 kts?

Ann and Andrew got a serious scrabble game going last night but nobody is talking about score this morning.

Captain Becklund, Thanks for your email. It came at just the right time. We needed the encouragement. We are really looking forward to seeing your whole clan in Lahaina.

Pete & crew

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