Whales up the wazoo & bat rays too!

Well we're here live and in person from the delivery crew of team Cipango. As I believe Barry has already introduced each of us, I will skip all that and say that we just finished a delivery of SC52 Lightning up the Sea of Cortez to La Paz where the sea life was spectacular.

The title of this message alludes to this, but since this is intended for family and crew of this boat, all my friends will have to wait to hear those stories at a later time. On our return to Cabo we found spring break in full swing and with the charter boats, jet skiers, lets just say we were glad to get out of there without a tattoo. Well it is 1720 now, but less than an hour out we enjoyed the entertainment of a mother and baby humpback whale fluking and breeching just like the Prudential commercial. We are off to a good start, moderate seas, 15 knots true, and making 8 to 8.5 knots of boat speed. Barry is getting ready to make quesadillas for dinner, what could be better than that. Current position 23 03.731N 110 09.017W. Until tomorrow Buenas Noches. Scott

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Return Tracking...

The return trip is being tracked from the FIS cruising site. Simply
go to one of our sites (http://www.fistracking.com

works just fine) and click
on the "cruising services" button. Then select the Cabo Return option
and select Cipango there and click on "Show Location"

That's where we are ;-)

(unlike the race, this data is much more current)

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And now, the return trip....

Hi all...

We departed Cabo San Lucas this afternoon, clearing the channel at about 15:00 local time. Aboard Cipango are:
Robin Jeffers
Scott Pryor
Jody Taliaferro
and me

Stay tuned for occasional position reports (apparently the tracker IS working.) You need to go to "cruising" section, however, not the race section... I'll post the link a little later.

We'll also keep you up to date on marine life, culinary feats and onboard odors.

Cheers,

Barry

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Second Place!

Hola!

Old news by now, but we're happy to report/confirm that Cipango finished third and corrected to second place, by a very close margin. If it had taken us a minute longer to clear that kelp, well...

So, hats off to the Bartons, Jay and Jeff (our watch captains) and the entire crew - all worked their butts off.

Thanks from the entire crew to Bob and Rob for providing us this great opportunity!

By the way - Cipango and Morpheus came together again. Fortunately, this time, it was off the water for a great dinner together at the "Trailer Park," following last nights awards. I'll refrain from reporting any more details...

Thanks to everyone who's been supporting us at home!

Regards from Cabo.

Barry

The last 150

O.K. sports fans, this race has come down to the last one hundred fifty miles. It has been a long and slow affair, with all the really low winds (when they could be called winds at all) keeping even the Big boats within reach. Cipango seems to be sitting in a very good position, if all the possible conditions fall into the right order, things could work out very nicely for this big blue cork (as my boss likes to call her) to take home some bling. Every night we run into some sort of situation that seems to set us back, at least in our minds, to some distant position in the pack. When morning roll call is completed and all the boats have been plotted for their position we realize that we are still in a place within real striking distance for first. The first day we jumped out of the blocks to take command of first position only to end up sitting in the calm with fifteen other boats from the next division up and couple from our own. When they all seem to get the wind before we did, we thought they had left us in the dust, only to find out the next morning that we were ahead of all but three. Every morning we think we have been passed by the fleet because of calm or even having to wrestle with what we call our "sea monster" (it was a massive kelp bed that we ran straight into in the middle of the night and had to tear loose from it by hand). This has all taken longer than we expected but should be across the finish line Sometime in the evening on Thursday, provided the wind doesn't shut down again. So the sprint is on and we may do better than even we expected, we will let you know how the drama unfolds.
Keep checking in,

Johnny T.

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Closing in

It's 2:30 and were reaching in about 8 kts of breeze and heading closer to shore to catch some compression and hopefully a favorable lift, then jibe to make gains on Blue Blazes and Valkyrie who are further offshore but on their way in as well.

The conditions have grown far more predictable in light of the new NW gradient. The sun is strong and it's wise to go below for a while during the day to avoid too much sun so here I sit at the keyboard.

The crew dynamic is particularly good and the topics have turned far more serious. Established now is "Who is hot" among our mutual friends, as well as the more effective ways to get a woman's attention.

We all need to do laundry. Desperately.

Kevin

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Sigmund The Seamonster

I keep assuming that those who are reading this blog - what little we've managed to get out to you - are also following the race tracker. I'm not sure how our 45 minute encounter with Sigmund is going to appear on the tracker - if at all. It was frustrating enough that we were ghosting along with just a whiff of breeze, which degraded to nothing. Sometime around 21:15, while struggling to keep the boat moving, we were optimistic of a puff coming our way. J.B. was on the helm when it started. Quite strange, really. The sails filled and the boat powered up just a little. Jeff repeatedly asked J.B. to head up to meet the puff, and increase our apparent wind in effort to get the boat moving. J.B. replied "I am trying, but I cannot. I do not know what is wrong." (say this to yourself in a French accent, for the full effect).

Jeff came back and took the helm, and expressed his frustration, eventually exlaiming "it feels like the boat is anchored!." I got a high intensity flashlight over the side of the boat on the starboard side and saw nothing. But, when I looked over the port side, I saw Sigmund. His tentacles were flowing aft, emanating from the keel of Cipango. Alongside the boat was further evidence of his massive size. We'd run into a kelp patty - island more like it - that should have it's own postal code. "Yep, we're anchored alright," I told Jeff. With an immediate "all hands" we struggled to pull and cut at the monster for 45 minutes, hauling what must have been hundreds of pounds of kelp forward, away from the keel and cutting it away. Jay was ready to dive in, but the thing was so massive, that it was unclear what someone might do in the water. (it also seemed quite possible to get thoroughly tangled in the beast). We finally freed ourselves from the monster. The time seemed like an eternity, but we were quite relieved - albeit exhausted from the fight - to be underway again. We sent J.B. over the side on a halyard to assure ourselves that we were freed from our captor.

It's 06:50 on Wednesday morning. After our visit from Sigmund, we were eventually treated to a filling West breeze, which we were able to enjoy through a terrific Tequila Sunrise (feel free to sing along). We're approaching, some 60 miles or so to the East. With the end "in sight," so to speak, we're looking forward to a round of beers or three and some fish tacos - hopefully by Thursday evening. IF the wind gods and the Sigmunds cooperate.

Hello to all,

Barry, on behalf of the crew of Cipango

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Update

Day three has come and leaves with a sunset almost as beautiful as the last. After some miserable drifting last night, we're now moving along nicely. It's a slower race than hoped but has had it's interesting tactical exchanges - particularly last evening between us, the DK and Blue Blazes. Now we're on our own with with no visual contact of others but we get the daily post of locations at 9 AM. So far, not in bad shape.
Right now is great. Without using terms like "inverted lows", we've got winds now from the west at 11 kts, water absolutely flat and we seem to be in a favorable position. The VMG kite is pulling well, Sympathy For The Devil on the box, the smell of beef stroganoff starting to heat. You get to know your mates now as stories exchanged to pass time on deck become more personal. Good times.

Now someone else can get you updated with all the technical crap.

-Kevin

PS
Hey Connor! Daddy loves you!

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Rob's Nasal Wind Instrument

Again, apologies for limited communication from the boat. See, the agreement was that I would set up the blog, and others would contribute. Two have expressed interest, but none have been more motivated to sit in front of the computer, than to lie horizontal when given the opportunity.

I'm eying my bunk, too, after coming off an 0100 to 0500 watch. Overnight we saw windspeed of zero for nearly hours, while the light winds that followed seemed like 20 mph gusts! (really only about 5-7 knots) We've been chasing the wind and have been willing to go anywhere, in any direction, to get into it. I'm sure the track shows us doing donuts south of Cedros Island and Turtle Bay.

Oh - the reference to Rob's nose - almost forgot. It proved to predict - with 100% accuracy - when we could expect NNE breeze off the land - no fewer than 15 sneezes in fact. (and the land is 30+ miles away)

Off to my bunk and pleasant dreams about chips and guac - and a cerveza or three. Not sure when we'll be seeing them :(

Regards to all...

Barry and the crew of Cipango.

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Sorry you haven't heard from us...

Hello to our families and friends.

Sorry that you haven't heard from us yet. Hopefully the satellite tracking service provided by the race organizers has kept you informed of our whereabouts. You likely know more about how we're doing then we do (as I write this at 9:30pm Sunday.) Today's roll call had us fifth in class. Not bad at this point, but not pleasing to us, either.

This has been a slow race, with ever fickle, ever changing breezes caused by the upper level systems, Santa Ana conditions and the sea breeze trying to have its say. More light air reaching than we would prefer and much less powered up downwind sailing than we'd like to see.

Our exit of Newport was pretty good. We initially led our class to the left side of the course, and were doing very well into the night. Sometime in the night, it appears we headed more offshore, and a few of our competitors crossed to the inside and made up time.

The light and fickle conditions have led to many sail changes. As the new kite goes up, the old kite comes down - which means it needs to be banded and packed to hoist again. It hasn't been uncommon to switch back, just as soon as we've finished packing the sail we just took down.

All of this is to say that we haven't been getting as much sleep as we'd like wait we're gybing.
OK, back... Another gybe in 4 knots of breeze - trying to eek as much as we can.

So... Lots of sail changes, a humpback whale yesterday, plenty to eat and even new culinary delights. Tonight Rob treated us to pot charred stroganoff - just fine with enough hot sauce, especially if you ate fast, didn't chew and ate downwind of Bob while he was smoking a cigarette. ;-)

We'll try to get back to you soon!

Barry for Team Cipango.

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