50 Miles to Go!

As I write this, we are 50 miles from the Diamond Head Finish. We're heading towards just west of Kalaopapa on Molokai and than the blast across the channel to Diamond Head. By the time you read this, we will have already finished - estimated ETA 23:15 H.S.T. Chances are, we will already be rocking and rolling on land in Waikiki and a great party thanks to Creekside!)

We are currently monitoring the radio for information on other finishers, and do not want to use battery unless absolutely necessary.

It's been a great - and largely uneventful - race. Great group of guys on a great boat in mostly great conditions. First place in our division - baring a strange turn - is locked up by Reinrag^2. We congratulate them on a great race. As I write, we're hoping to secure second in division and hopefully second overall. The latter will largely be determined by conditions - which presently are favorable for us. Kokopelli 2 sailed a great race. Congratulations to them on their first in division and - hopefully - their THIRD place overall.

We'll try to post some photos in the coming days and more upon our return to the mainland.

Thanks to all those who followed along with the blog and for all your good wishes.

And, on behalf of the Cipango Transpac 2007 crew, many thanks to Bob and Rob Barton who generously enabled us to share this wonderful experience with them.

Aloha,

Bob and Rob
Jon
Kevin
Jay
Joe
Matt
J.B.

and me, Barry

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July 21, 01:00 PST

Wow beautiful night so far. This is the end of my shift. Rob, Barry, Joe and Jay are on deck. Total opposite of the previous one. We have excellent conditions: moon light, almost organized sea, no squall, steady breeze in direction and velocity (20/23 knots) which push us to Hawaii at a nice 12 knots speed average over the last 6 hours. We are now under the 500 miles from the finish. And hope that our position, about 100 miles northest than "Reinrag 2" will help to pass them.
Heading to bed for a new shift at 5 am.

JB
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Tres belle nuit en comparaison de la precedente ou les grains avec 30 noeuds de vents nous on bien chahutes. En ce moment Cipango marche a 12 noeuds de moyenne avec des pointes a 16 noeuds dans les surfs le tout dans 20/23 noeuds de vents de Nord-Est. La lune est pour la premiere fois presente et la mer presque ordonee. Nous sommes toujours en 2nd position dans notre division and aussi 2nd sur l'ensemble de la flotte. Notre position 100 miles plus au nord du premier de notre division "Reinrag 2" nous laisse esperer la premiere place. Mon prochain quar est a 5 heures et mon banc m'appele.

A+ JB

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550 Miles to Go!

070720 @ 1800

We've clicked another 132 miles off in the 12 hours since 0600 - at the same rate of yesterday's 262 mile run. Not sure we'll have last nights hell-raising surfing conditions, but we'll see... Last night's top boatspeed allegedly touched 18.7. That might not seem fast, but it's scary fast on a sailboat like Cipango. (and a whole lot of fun, so long as everything stays together!)

We replaced our spinnaker pole with our spare, today. The one we had up was flexing quite a bit, and fissures were developing from a "chink" in the outer skin. It would have been just a matter of time. Minutes? Hours? Certainly not days!

Currently enjoying 21-24 knots. It should be a fantastic sunset, too.

Great wind most of the day. Hot and sunny - absolutely stellar. (albeit a bit muggy down below :(

There's no shortage of food aboard the Cipango. We probably have enough freeze dried for another lap! The crew have been pleasantly surprised, and more than a few have been eating "seconds." Tonight's delicacy was beef stroganoff with a side of corn. The blueberry cheesecake and raspberry crumble deserts ain't so bad, either. I won't even begin to inventory the junk food. Suffice it to say that probably nobody has lost weight on this trip.

We're still enjoying fresh oranges, though they're just beginning to "go off," and the milk might have one more day left in it!

We're already beginning to look forward to the hospitality of our Honolulu hosts from Creekside Bar and Grill. Thank you Shawne and the rest of our Creekside friend!

At present, it looks like we're 2 1/2 to 3 days out, rumbling towards the islands. We're still pleased with our course towards Diamond Head. Only time will tell if we can make up ground on Reinrag 2 and nip her at the finish. We don't have details on the two retirees from our division, but can only assume that they were suffering in light air to the north and decided their diesel was the best sail to put up.

Matt's given birth to his third monkey. We'll see if that one can make it to Hawaii. Nobody on board is taking that side of the bet, though. Apparently Joe's Octopus gave up the ghost today, too. Fortunately for me, my pet inverter, PC and instruments are hanging in there!

Lindsay: Kevin got to read Connor's poem today - he was thrilled! Thanks to all who posted comments to the blog - they were received via email today, and the crew got a chance to read them!

Time to go enjoy the sunset and then 3 hours of sleep - hopefully!

Cheers all!

Barry

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Poor Monkey

Matt's monkey died.

Again.

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17 knots of boatspeed in 27 knots of breeze!

Ya F$%king HOO!

(at 3am PDT)

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Notes from Kevin

Day eight, 5:51 PM

Going on watch in a few minutes - getting my gear together and preparing for another evening of light squall activity (22kts) and fun slides. Last night we had some rain and I expect nothing different in a few hours as the clouds chill. Water is getting much warmer and that should be a hint for me to bathe again. DD. Nobody is shaving and we're all looking pretty ridiculous. Good times. I had better get on deck.

Namaste baby,
Kevin

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Today must be Thursday

Because my watch and the GPS say it is...

Others are beginning to notice a certain ripeness to the boat - because they finally bathed!
I won't name names, but I fear there's a few who haven't yet.

We're sailing along in great trades of 18-20, and 10-11 knot average speeds. (1300 PDT) Day high on the speedo so far was 16.7! (tying last nights record)

Beautiful, sunny skies with light puffy clouds and good wind. This is why you do this race.

We encountered quite a few squalls last night. Due to the timing of my watch, I've yet to see the moon. Between the squalls and the lack of moon or stars on the horizon, night driving has been challenging. (with great swings of wind direction, velocity and swell coming from two directions!) At times you really lose perspective and feel that you're hurtling through space with only the digital compass readout to guide you. You know you need to sail, say, 270 degrees, but no matter how much you turn to the right, you just can't find it!

The squalls bring cool, misty rain and some good wind on the front side! We had more than a few wild rides last night.

I've heard that the Transpac/FIS tracker system has essentially crapped out. I've been a bit reluctant to post our position to the blog, because it's quite possible that our competitors would have access to that information (legally) if I do.

We're occasionally puzzled by our instruments. First, there's the issue of them reporting current in the middle of the ocean - as much as 1.25 knots, though now showing .44 to 241. I suspect that the paddle wheel that logs speed has come out of calibration (we calibrated it last week before we left), enhanced by speed and mileage... Or, maybe the rotation of the Earth in orbit has changed while we've been out here.

Our displays in the cockpit (known as "FFDs") kept shutting down last night at the worst possible time. (it's nice to know the wind direction and angle to the boat, in front of a squal when the wind seems to be blowing at least 22. Our performance navigation software seems to be the culprit, and caused the instruments to reset while trying to display "external" numbers.

2 days ago, our onboard computer kept crapping out. We eventually isolated to the inverter. We got it out of our electronics compartment (it was white hot!), took it apart, and lubricated its fan.. Now, we leave it out on the chart table with a fan pointed at it. (its fan has died again) Matt has his monkey, Joe has his octopus and I have the inverter and the B&G instruments. I hope my pets outlive theirs. I think Matt's monkey may have died today.

I know there are at least 2 people who will appreciate this minutae. Hopefully the rest can skim through it!

So, about our position and the current "standings." We're still pretty pleased with where we're at. Yes, we're concerned that the guys below us have some "leverage" on us (Reinrag in particular), but we bet that winds would fill in on our course, and they have. Further, we think we're enjoying some of this "fill" before them. Again, we're trying to maximize our speed, while minimizing our distance. We made some decisions contrary to the forecasts due to our observations and expectations and Jay's intuition and experience. (this is Jay's 14th Transpac, and that's not counting Pac Cups!) Our competitors appear to be following their automated routing religiously. So, we still think we might have it right. Either way, we're not about to consolidate at this point. We'll find out over the next 3-4 days, won't we?

Aloha to all,

Barry

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And Today IS another day...

2nd in Division, 2nd in fleet.

As suggested yesterday, we're currently bested on corrected time by Reinrag 2, who dug farther south, and gained more ground with better wind.

Matt and Joe have just given birth to two new shipmates. Matt's is a monkey, and Joe's is an octopus.

Like the original crew of Cipango, these critters need sleep every 4 hours. I give them very little chance of surviving the 1173 miles to Hawaii!

We're past the halfway point in miles sailed and handicap miles. From all accounts, we should be past halfway measured by time, still expecting to make the island on Monday.

Best to all, and thanks to those who provided the interesting halfway presents - well taken junk food and bizarre electronic pets!

Sailing along west in mild trades, 1173 miles from Diamond Head. All aboard are well, perhaps, except the octopus, who may already be suffering.

Cheers,

Barry

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Just Another Day

It is of course, just another day.
And a long way to Diamond Head.
1314 nautical miles or so.

But, it's still nice to hear "First in Division, First in Fleet."
It will be much more satisfying to hear that in 6 days!

We're working hard to sail fast on the shortest course possible to the island, now.
We have an eye on Verizon Chicken, Ruahatu and Reinrag in our Division, and I'd be lying if I said we weren't paying a bit of attention to our friends and foes on Kokopelli 2 in the 50/52 division.

We've also received reports that Cosme lost her hurricane stature as quickly as she earned it and is working more W than NW. I've been tracking her position reports, too!

Fleet coms also said the satellite tracking system is FUBAR. At the very least, they will "plot" our 0600 daily position reports that we transmit by radio. It's possible that they are getting more frequent positions from our transceiver, but we're not sure on the boat.

There's a twelve pack of Heineken in the cooler for a small halfway celebration. It's up to Jay to make it "official," but I look forward to my first beer in nearly a month! (some will find that VERY difficult to believe!)

Ah the sun has poked out... Perhaps some bathing today. You can only hope!

Cheers,

Barry

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Who is "Cosme" anyway?

Lest anyone become alarmed due to irresponsible network news coverage, we are well aware of a storm passing some 500 nautical miles due south of us, on a WNW track taking it just South of Hawaii. It's a compact storm with a well defined eye, according to Wally Barnes of the National Weather Service. We expect that it will have little effect on our projected course to the islands. We'll keep an eye on it, though. (or at least on eye on the NWS, who are keeping an eye on it!) More NWS details are at the end of this post.

What kind of name is Cosme for a hurricane, anyway?

We've had a really great day of sailing. Our 2A running kite continues to get a workout. We've gybed 4 times or so on sustained shifts with an eye towards a little more southing to stay in good pressure. We've seen 16+ knots of wind much of the day, allowing us to sail fairly deep angles. With puffs to 20, we've had a few good wave rides, too!

We're pleased with where we are, and think we're probably 3rd or so in our division at this point, on corrected time. (this is our estimate based on what we think will happen to the guys positioned farther north of us) The guys we think are "ahead" are only ahead by a half hour or so on corrected time... There is still a lot of race course - and weather - to jumble the mix. It looks like it'll be a boat race though!

I know Kevin and John have mentioned "settling into" a routine... At about this time, you get used to the minor unpleasantries of nine guys in 56 feet of space, shared with 8 sails below, personal gear, safety equipment and food stores. Baby wipe "showers" and cans of deodorant keep things civil! Food was again plentiful today, and downwind conditions made eating it quite pleasant. Rob's proscuito, salame and cream cheese wraps were a lunchtime hit. There were no complaints about the freeze-dried Beef Stroganoff and corn, either.

It's a great group - and mix - of guys aboard Cipango, starting with the Bartons. You wouldn't know they "owned" the boat - they never act as if they do - they're just part of the team. Both Bob and Rob go out of their way to do whatever they can to make life on board as enjoyable as possible. Rob takes on more than his fair share of cleaning and meal prep. Bob steps in whenever, wherever to do dishes, make hot water, spell someone on deck so that they can eat. He grinds at the pedestal as hard and fast as anyone on the boat.

We're heading just 10 degrees south of the islands on our present course... Enjoying 15-17 knot winds from 55-60 deg M.
Our position at 2115 on July 17 is:
23 25.29N 131 47.46W

(just cut and paste that lat/lon in Google Maps, if you don't want to bother with the race tracker.)

Before I forget, I want to thank my brother Steve and his wife Annie, who came down to Long Beach the night before our start and took me to dinner. It was nice to see them, and my nephew Samuel. It was great to have a chance to show him Cipango and all the other boats!

Hello and best wishes to my family, friends, and all those following Cipango across the Pacific.

Aloha!

Barry

.SPECIAL FEATURE...
HURRICANE COSME AT 14.5N 131.4W AT 16/2100 UTC MOVING WNW AT 10
KT. ESTIMATED MINIMUM CENTRAL PRES 987 MB. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED
WIND 65 GUSTS TO 80 KT. NUMEROUS MODERATE CONVECTION WITH
EMBEDDED ISOLATED STRONG CONVECTION WITHIN 120 NM OF CENTER.
COSME REACHED HURRICANE STRENGTH THIS AFTERNOON WITH A WELL
DEFINED EYE AND GOOD WRAP-AROUND DEEP CONVECTION SPIRALS...
NEVERTHELESS SST HAS DECREASED AND SYSTEM IS MOVING INTO A MORE
STABLE AND DRIER AIRMASS WHICH WOULD EFFECTIVELY WEAKEN IT
WITHIN NEXT 24-36 HRS.

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Day Five

Things are shaping-up with our Southerly route. A tropical depression strengthening to the South keeps the route in front of us a not-so-straight line. I briefly scanned the standings this morning and I see we're climbing the ladder "Exactly as planned" (wring your hands and use your best Monty Burns voice for that one). I remind myself to not get too attached to standings as we have lots of distance to conquer. A lesson for life, I suppose.

A little about what we're doing:

Everyone on board is on a "4 hours on, 4 hours off" rotations system. This goes on 24 hrs a day. For example, I get on at 2:00 AM and am off at 6:00 AM, then back on at 10:00, ... you get the picture. Every hour someone comes up from their bunk and rotates-in and relieves another. It takes about 2 days to really get into the swing, then it comes much easier. I won't say it ever becomes second nature.

Regarding roles, each of us has a general working knowledge of each other's position and could fill-in in a pinch but the idea is to generate routine, so we have very specific assignments. This is for several reasons, but not the least of which is to accommodate fatigue. During a gibe, for example, we can all do our roles half asleep because it has become so repetitive. By the way, when a maneuver is called for, its typically an all-hands affair and you're called out of your bunk JUST as you start to fall asleep -or so it seems.

My father used to say that every day you are on a boat it gets two feet shorter. This can be the case, but overcoming this challenge is one of the brilliant components of this sport. Aside from pushing hard from a physical and skills perspective, you find yourself tested as an individual on a team. Patience, diplomacy, diligence, kindness (sounds trite but hugely valuable)are always in play to keep the competitive edge. I have been on a crossing where it has fallen apart. I'm sure you can imagine.

Last night I slept for a bit in the forward section of the boat. I would call it the forward cabin, but accommodations have been removed to keep the bow light. There's really nothing up there but the shell of the hull and deck - no foam mattress, no gear bags, just hull. The noise of the water rushing by echoes intensely and one gets an eerie sense of speed. I put in some ear plugs, spent a few minutes with my new book "The Dalai Lama's Little Book of Wisdom" and replenish the mental stores for another day before passing out.

Others are looking over my shoulder now, so I'll sign off. Jay says to tell you all that there's no need to worry about us running out of food. Apparently we have Lot's of Pringles.

Currently: 80 degrees, a dead run in 18 kts breeze, mixed 3'-4' swell/chop, boat speed average 10 kts and hitting mid-teens on occasion.

All my love to Lindsay and Connor,
Kevin

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Naviguessing

Sorry about the lack of message output from the boat... Others promised that if I set-up the blog, they would write... Maybe in time ;-)

There hasn't been that much "news" to report... Although the weather and sailing has been unusually pleasant so early in a Transpac, we're all a little anxious about our routing... We think we've done a good job following the advice we paid for (forecast and recommended routing) AND observing and reacting to the actual weather! We think we're in a good position skirting the ill-formed mispositioned high, while trying to sail as few miles as possible. It appears that a tropical storm well south west of us could provide some benefit - but HOW MUCH FARTHER south to go?! We expect a gybe in our future, away from the high (painful to sail almost due South, though.

In the meantime, Sail, Eat, Sleep. Pretty much in that order of priority.
No complaints yet about the food program... Still have plenty of fresh fruit, fresh deli wraps made aboard(today's pastrami, swiss and cole slaw wrap went over well), and junk food. The freeze dried veggie lasagna went over well, too. The freeze dried ice-cream was more of a conversation starter than desert, though!\

Hopefully we see some gains in the daily position report tomorrow... (we expect that the northern boats - although closer to Hawaii, will begin to suffer).

Cheers,

Barry

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Sunday, Day 3

Hello Sports Fans,

Well it's Sunday and we are jogging right along headed south southwest at about 850 miles west of Mag Bay on the Baja Coast, for those of you with a map of the Mexican Peninsula. The race started with a "Rock Star" start. We nailed the start and led the fleet across the channel to Catalina with all the Paparazzi on the water and the (3) three Helicopters in the air taking pictures and filming us from all angles. We have been diving as far south as the weather routing suggests, although we are now keeping an eye out for the Galapagos Islands (ha ha ha).We have been settling in to our routines so far and doing well on the course. I know it looks like we are letting everybody get by when you look at the tracking map, but we have a plan. The weather maps are showing the winds to be way south and the northern side of the course is real light, so here we are going fast and far hoping that it will pay off and make us first to the Island.

Sleep is the thing the most in short supply here, we have plenty of freeze dried food (astronaut food), fresh fruits and vegetables, cereals and snacks, but sleep is the thing we all need more of. A typical day goes something like this.. there are four guys on watch all the time and every hour one of them goes off watch and one comes on. A typical watch consists of Trimming the sails for a half an hour or so then a half an hour on the grinder, then driving for a half an hour or so and we rotate the next four hours this way. when you go off watch you have four hours to eat, sleep and do what ever hygiene rituals you do. This all sounds fine until you factor in the ever present Gybe or sail change, which requires all hands on deck as we all have our own part in the maneuvers. These can be as fast as 15 minutes for a Gybe or as long as a half an hour for the sail change which includes repacking the spinnaker so it is ready for the next time you need to change back to that one. O.K. so imagine trying to sleep in a bed that is leaning to one side and keeps trying to throw you out.....now some one comes in and call out "ALL HANDS ON DECK FOR A SAIL CHANGE". Your sleeping in most of your clothes but still have to get on a coat and life jacket with harness and run out on to a wet leaning, pitching deck in the dark to wrestle up 3600 square feet of sail and then take down the one that is already there, IN THE DARK. When that is all done and the watch that was already on settles back into their routine you get to take that sail down below into the boat with the other four guys who are also trying to get their four hours and repack it into it's launch bag properly. O.K. now that your all done with that you can get back to whatever is left of your four hours to sleep so that you can be on deck at the correct time to relieve your counterpart and then he can try to get as much sleep as possible with his four hours. 11 DAYS 24 HOURS A DAY.

And that's all I have to say about that right now, I think I have used up as much of my four hours as I can spare for now. Stay tuned more to come.

John and Team cipango

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Naviguessing

Sorry about the lack of message output from the boat... Others promised that if I set-up the blog, they would write... Maybe in time ;-)

There hasn't been that much "news" to report... Although the weather and sailing has been unusually pleasant so early in a Transpac, we're all a little anxious about our routing... We think we've done a good job following the advice we paid for (forecast and recommended routing) AND observing and reacting to the actual weather! We think we're in a good position skirting the ill-formed mispositioned high, while trying to sail as few miles as possible. It appears that a tropical storm well south west of us could provide some benefit - but HOW MUCH FARTHER south to go?! We expect a gybe in our future, away from the high (painful to sail almost due South, though.

In the meantime, Sail, Eat, Sleep. Pretty much in that order of priority.
No complaints yet about the food program... Still have plenty of fresh fruit, fresh deli wraps made aboard(today's pastrami, swiss and cole slaw wrap went over well), and junk food. The freeze dried veggie lasagna went over well, too. The freeze dried ice-cream was more of a conversation starter than desert, though!\

Hopefully we see some gains in the daily position report tomorrow... (we expect that the northern boats - although closer to Hawaii, will begin to suffer).

Cheers,

Barry

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(no subject)

Day three, Saturday.

For those following along, we are on a Southern track conceding some distance to the finish in hopes of gaining favorable winds/angles later in the race. Not always an easy discipline.

Did Barry already post about day one and our Catalina rounding in rather dramatic (perfect lay-line from 26 miles) and rock star like (helicopters, chase boats, cameras) fashion? I suspect so.

Currently we're diving into a path that feels much more like day six than three - very deep angles, warm and steady 15 kt winds. sunscreen, big hats, etc. Jay Crum, our awesome navigator, is responsible for putting us in this (what feels like) favorable position. He has done this run more times than I have fingers and toes, so I am feeling good about it as well. Have you noticed that it's us and our friends on Kokopelli and Reinrag down at this latitude? ...Northern California representing.

I had better hit the rack.

Kevin

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Nice Exit!

Our fans up on the bluff (ok, so "fan" might be more appropriate) confirmed what we felt was a great start... There seemed to be quite a pile-up at the boat end of the line, and we felt the pin end was closer to the West End and that we would lay the West End easily. As it turned out, we were first around the "mark," though just a couple of lengths windward of the rock. Started with our #3 jib, and transitioned to our #1 when winds lightened.

Now moving nicely (2am) under Jib Top and staysail, with about 9.5+ knots of boatspeed in 15 knots of WNW breeze.

Hi to all, and thanks Mike!

Barry

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The LBC

Greetings from Rainbow Harbor, Long Beach. (the "LBC," the most diverse city in the US?!)
We escaped Santa Barbara's Harbor Patrol, and managed to get down here safely - WITH the boat.

Thanks to John Hayes, who joined us for the trip down.
I'm here with Barry and Jay. Once Kevin shows up, we'll head up to the Skipper's Briefing and the send off dinner. (first start is tomorrow - ours isn't until Thursday)

We'll get our delivery sails and gear to the Hawaii container tomorrow and do some provisioning.

The rest of the crew shows up on Tuesday for a light practice. Hopefully a quiet day on Wedsnesday, final fresh food provisiong and final calibration of our instruments with the help of Bob Congdon from B&G. Thanks Bob!

Thanks to Jeff Thorpe and Quantum Sails, Scott Easom and Easom Rigging, Gilles Combrisson and our entire crew for getting us to the starting line (at least close!).

-Bob