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

Cipango Transpac 2007

The crew is set and eyes are forward to this summer's 44th Transpac from Los Angeles to Honolulu.

Our start is scheduled for July 12.

The start is set off the cliffs of Point Fermin near San Pedro on the Palos Verdes peninsula. Leave Santa Catalina Island to port, sail across the Pacific and finish off the Diamond Head lighthouse just east of Honolulu, establishing a distance of 2,225 nautical miles.

See Google Maps

The course will be from the starting line located near Point Fermin, California, leaving Santa Catalina Island to port, thence to the finish line near Diamond Head, Oahu, Hawaii.

The Bartons have invited an outstanding crew to join them. The Team Cipango Offshore crew for Transpac will be:

• Owner: Bob Barton
• Skipper/Owner: Rob Barton
• Jay Crum (Navigator and Watch Captain)
• Joe Crum
• Barry Demak (Medical and Navigation)
• J.B. Louvet
• Kevin Moon (Watch Captain)
• Matt Siddens
• John Thompson
  

Hele On to Hawaii!

Divisons are Set

Still waiting for handicaps to be posted, but the division splits are here...

Racing against us in Division IV are:

VERIZON WIRELESS (ex-Stealth Chicken),Perry 56

THE SECRET, MacGregor 65

DELICATE BALANCE, Andrews 46

BOLT, N/M 55

RAIN CLOUD, J-145

RUAHATU, Concordia 47

LUCKY DOG, J-125

REINRAG2, J-125

Welcome

Welcome to Team Cipango. This is the place for public postings about the boat 'Cipango" and her crew. The boat, an "Andrews '56" is a lightweight "racer/cruiser" designed by Alan Andrews and built by Dencho Marine in the early 90's.

The boat is actively campaigned in San Francisco, competing in most "big boat" buoy and ocean racing events. Cipango competed in the 2005 TransPac and the 2006 Pacific Cup.

We will use this site (teamcipango.com) to post information for family and friends of the Bartons and their crew. When possible, we will provide information about the races we are participating in - including offshore postings from the boat via radio and sat phone, and links to the regatta web sites and the near real-time satellite trackers that are being used.

Big events for 2007 are the 800 nautical mile Newport Beach to Cabo San Lucas Race in March and the 2200+ nautical mile Transpac LA to Honolulu race in July.

More to come...