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I can tell already that Celia is going to be a real bitch!
Comment
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Notes from Boats July 8 cont...
Is there a SHTP2016 fishing derby? I followed Jim Quanci’s advice and used a small lure hoping for a smaller fish, but instead landed this 40″ male Mahi. He kicked the ethanol squirter out of my hand before I could use it, so I decided to trow him back. Also he had a number of chancy lesions and I remembered what Jim had told be about people getting sick from the big ones.
David Nabors
Olson 34 Temerity
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Noon July 8, 2016
false alarm. squalls went away and now I’m bobbing on a crystalline sea under bright sun . stunningly beautiful but we are moving OH SO SLOWLY!
Margie Woods
Catalina 34' Haunani
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Welp the ship is as clean as she ever has been. Ya know? It’s great being parked, you get all sorts of shit done. (warning you’re about to beat straight into a squall of sarcasm) Highlights include: * Spending the night sheeting the shit out of 2kts of tws. Hawaii here I come, lol. * Learning how to do a backwards 360 under spinnaker. Not enough wind to tack so I’ll just back her around, lol. * Trying to fly both a spinnaker on the prod and a genoa of the furler. Gotta get polars for that ya know, lol. * Passing the same piece of flotsam more than once. Wait a miniute didn’t I just pass by that milk crate 30 minutes ago, lol. Serously though, bad luck. A high of whatever developed itself above my mast and I can’t get out of this dang thing. Why won’t you just go away? I don’t like you. While it’s a weather high, and a sailing low. It’s times like these I just have to smile and remember how lucky I am. I’m having the time of my life. And you better believe when I see 10kts on the wind gauge, you’ll hear my hooting and hollering. I’m just worried I won’t be able to sleep anymore without the sound of slapping sails.
Brett Suwyn
Cavalier 39; Althea
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Yesterday the winds went light for me and a lot of other boats. Seems like the furthest west are still doing well. I spent most of then day changing spinnakers, .75, .50 and .75 asymmetrical. Must have done about five or six changes trying to get a working set up. On one set, I had an “hour glass” wrap. Had to drop and repack and set again
After much trial and error, seem to have found the right gear for the Life in the Slow Lane.
I run the .5 symmetrical spinnaker from late yesterday and all night (today too). When the winds are under 10 knots, I steer to apparent wind, about 92 degrees. That is not “pointed right at the palm trees” (stolen for Jim Quanci), however pretty close this far out, only 10-15 degrees off course. It keeps the boat moving rather than sitting still. When wind is over 10 knots then I steer “pointed right at the palm trees”. Its a lot more work to be on the palm tree course, as the wind does shift a lot.
So I am constantly trimming the spinnaker. Pole back, sheet in, sheet out, pole forward, reaching strut, fore guy tension on, reaching strut, fore guy tension off. You get the picture. That went on last night too, till about midnight. Then the wind was more steady, and lighter. I had several hours of under 10 knots going 92 degrees to the wind. Did not matter if it shifted, it was mostly in the right direction. Light again this am, and am 92 off the wind. Trying to go southwest to some wind. I should be there in 24-36 hours. Then straight to the palm trees ASAP, as I need to try and get in front of what was Hurricane Blas. If I do get in front, it will be Life in the Fast Lane
Vance Sprock
Cal 40' Seazed AssetComment
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I think you keep the mahi mahi regardless.
You already killed it, cut out the lesions and eat it.Comment
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Improved Tracker
http://www.pinnacletracking.com/live/Map.aspx?shtp
Now with grid lines and stuff!
And new division corrected leaders!Comment
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Celia Strengthens
TROPICAL STORM CELIA DISCUSSION NUMBER 12
NWS NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL EP042016
800 AM PDT SAT JUL 09 2016
The center of Celia is moving over warmer water west of the cool
wake of Hurricane Blas. In response, the central dense overcast has
become much better defined with cloud tops colder than -80C just
south of the center. In addition, recent microwave images suggest a
small mid-level eye is forming under the overcast. Subjective
satellite intensity estimates are 45 kt from SAB and 55 kt from
TAFB, and there was a recent CIMMS AMSU estimate of 80 kt. The
initial intensity is increased to 50 kt, and this could be
conservative.
Celia has continued to accelerate and the initial motion is now
280/13. A westward motion south of a building subtropical ridge is
expected to continue for the next 48 hours or so, followed by a
west-northwestward motion as the storm approaches a break in the
ridge. The guidance remains tightly clustered and the new forecast
track is near the center of the guidance envelope near the various
consensus models. The new track is a little faster than the
previous track based on current trends and the guidance.
Celia should be in an environment of light vertical wind shear for
the next five days, so the intensity forecast is dependent mainly
on sea surface temperatures. The cyclone is expected to move
over SSTs near 28C for the next 48 hours or so, and steady to
possibly rapid strengthening is expected. After that, the SSTs
gradually decrease along the forecast track until they are near 25C
at 120 hours. This should cause Celia to gradually weaken. The new
intensity forecast shows a faster intensification than the previous
forecast, with Celia becoming a hurricane in about 24 hours. The
forecast from 48-120 hours is unchanged from the previous forecast.
Overall, the intensity forecast is in best agreement with the SHIPS
model.
FORECAST POSITIONS AND MAX WINDS
INIT 09/1500Z 14.4N 117.2W 50 KT 60 MPH
12H 10/0000Z 14.8N 119.0W 60 KT 70 MPH
24H 10/1200Z 14.8N 121.4W 70 KT 80 MPH
36H 11/0000Z 14.8N 123.8W 80 KT 90 MPH
48H 11/1200Z 14.9N 125.8W 85 KT 100 MPH
72H 12/1200Z 16.0N 129.5W 85 KT 100 MPH
96H 13/1200Z 17.5N 133.5W 80 KT 90 MPH
120H 14/1200Z 19.0N 137.0W 65 KT 75 MPH
$$
Forecaster BevenComment
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Blas Weakens
TROPICAL STORM BLAS DISCUSSION NUMBER 27
NWS NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL EP032016
800 AM PDT SAT JUL 09 2016
Satellite images indicate that Blas continues to weaken. The
associated deep convection has been shrinking in coverage and
gradually losing organization during the last several hours.
Accordingly, the Dvorak T-numbers are falling and a blend of the
latest estimates from TAFB, SAB, and automated values from CIMSS at
the University of Wisconsin suggest that the initial intensity has
decreased to near 50 kt. Blas is currently over cool 24 C waters
and embedded in a fairly stable air mass. These unfavorable
conditions combined with a notable increase in southwesterly wind
shear during the next couple of days should allow the weakening
trend to continue. Blas is forecast to degenerate into a remnant
low in 24 to 36 hours and dissipate in 4 to 5 days.
The tropical storm is moving northwestward at about 9 kt located
on the southwestern periphery of a mid-level ridge centered over
northwestern Mexico. A gradual turn to the west is expected over
the next day or two while the cyclone becomes shallower and is
steered by the low-level trade wind flow. The NHC track forecast is
largely an update of the previous one and lies closest to the
consensus of the GFS and ECMWF models.
FORECAST POSITIONS AND MAX WINDS
INIT 09/1500Z 20.1N 132.5W 50 KT 60 MPH
12H 10/0000Z 20.8N 133.7W 40 KT 45 MPH
24H 10/1200Z 21.3N 135.5W 35 KT 40 MPH
36H 11/0000Z 21.5N 137.4W 30 KT 35 MPH...POST-TROP/REMNT LOW
48H 11/1200Z 21.2N 139.6W 25 KT 30 MPH...POST-TROP/REMNT LOW
72H 12/1200Z 20.5N 144.1W 20 KT 25 MPH...POST-TROP/REMNT LOW
96H 13/1200Z 19.8N 148.4W 20 KT 25 MPH...POST-TROP/REMNT LOW
120H 14/1200Z...DISSIPATED
$$
Forecaster CangialosiComment
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Notes From Boats July 10
In a very succinct text message received late last night , Chris on the J88 Ventus is reported hitting 5 objects. “so much stuff hit”. “Carried something along ED, now off, back at 8 – 9 knots”.
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Hey, I’m Racing Here!
The subject line is meant to be said with a strong Brooklyn accent and a slight hand movement…Boy, am I lucky. I’m 860+ miles into the Pacific on an amazing adventure. People pay thousands of dollars to do stuff like this. Hey, I paid thousands of dollars to do this. I’m happy and healthy and having an experience of a lifetime. The only problem is that I’m trying to race! For the past three days the wind has been between light and the sea state calm hardly conditions to challenge a crusty mariner. Tougher conditions would help weed out the fleet. These first timers may get the impression that this is as tough as it gets. It isn’t by a long shot. The task for me is to pay attention to the details. In light air, that’s what makes the difference. I lost a winch handle last night. I don’t mean I can’t find it, I mean it went overboard. It was a nice one. Not my favorite, but a nice one. I have two more.. At night I’ve been flying the Twins and flying the spinny during the day. The spinny is up now and I just had three cookies. I’ve gotten my sea legs. That means I can stand on the boat and automatically compensate for the rolling and pitching without holding on. When I get to Hawaii, it will take me a few days to get my land legs back. Getting back to being lucky,…I cried this morning when thinking about my family and friends. Having them with me in spirit supports the ‘lucky’ thing. I am at peace with them all (just had another cookie). There are a couple (not saying weather family or friend) that I could be closer to, but they are works-in-progress. Water, water, water. I have plenty but typical for me, I’m not drinking enough. Two days ago I woke up with what I believe to be was a sharp pain in one of my kidneys. That scared the shit out of me. Since then, I have bee drinking the stuff whenever I see it or think about it, like right now. It’s a little gross but my urine has transitioned from deep orange to pale yellow. I’m assuming that’s good. Got to go and attend to TAZ!!…later.
George Lythcott
Express 27 TAZ!!
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I slept most of the night to wake up to? well, no wind. To say the last two days have been frustrating is… well I’ll just leave it at that. I’m not sure what I did, but Poseidon defiantly had me in a timeout. The good news is I am moving again. Very interesting how your whole mood changes when you see 5kts and that time was just past noon. I stayed north, even loosing ground south to try to get to the stronger winds that were close. It paid off, at 17:00 winds shifted back to 40deg and shot up to 15kts. Althea is happy as can be and I’m pointed at Hawaii again. Giddy up. After detailing the interior of Althea yesterday; unable to sleep and lacking appetite, I was pretty restless. I read for a bit, but that didn’t work so I did something I have been curious about for a while. Can I code while at sea? Short answer is Yes. I wrote a sweet little computer program that takes the position reports Brian sends out and spits out all sorts of interesting stats and trends. I was so tied up in it that at one point yesterday that when I did move I didn’t even notice that A) I was moving, and B) it was in the wrong direction! lol. Lost 15 miles traveling north east. Safe to say I love coding, almost as much as sailing. I also took the opportunity to practice gybing the spinnaker. Inside and out. I will not be doing inside gybing. A wrap in 3kts is easily sorted, thankfully. Also learned how not to get the lazy sheet hooked under the boat. Glad I was prudent. Other tasks included refueling the portable honda generator. To give you a sense of the conditions, I chose to poor the gas out of the 6 gallon jerry, rather than use the syphon. Not a drop spilled. For Dinner: Salami Mushroom Penne Pasta Listening to: Grateful Dead – The Golden Road (yes, still! It’s a 16 disc box set.)
Brett Suwyn
Cavalier 39' Althea
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Duct Tape on Ventus: the sailor’s best friend
In the aftermath of spinnaker jibe during night spin sheet jammed between spirit and sheet catcher. Heavily loaded during one snap fill. Unbelievably strong stuff not to break. But to free sheet the sheet catcher was shortened with chisel and saw. Electrical tape and the installation looks good. Time to hoist
Chris Cartwright
J-88' Ventus
*********************
Noon today marked 7 days elapsed since the Start. Unfortunately, I am still almost 100 nm short of the halfway point. I had thought that a 7 day half would make for a 14 day race, which would be pretty good. Spoke to another freighter, bound for Peru, and he crossed in front of me with no need to divert. Wind now from 090, low to high teens, port pole, but with a very nasty short cross swell. Maybe from one of those storms or lows. I’m taking breaks from steering every hour or so to keep from burning out. Electrical issues seemingly under control, but I will have to hand steer more than I planned.
David Nabors
Olson 34 TEMERITY
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Life in the Slow Lane tuned into The Parking Lot yesterday. I thought the conditions had changed, was flying the .75 Asym going about 4 knots. Was writing emails, and could hear the boat speeding up. Popped on deck and were going 6-7 knot in the wrong direction (pilot was steering apparent wind). Looked about and the wind looked solid. Had to drop the chute and put up a white sail. Did that and about 15 minutes later the wind faded. Looked around more and noticed a squall to weather a couple of miles away After that it was light all day. Saw 0 on the speedo a couple of times, never saw that on the GPS. Must be a current pushing us to HI. Worked like a dog to keep the boat moving the rest of the and all night. Need to get south to some wind. Looks like today will be better
Vance Sprock
Cal 40' Seazed AssetComment
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July 10th SHTP Updates
As of 10:00, Sunday July 10th, 6 boats in the SHTP have crossed the 1/2 way point and several more
are knocking on the door. Domino, Ventus, Kato, Nina, Temerity and Pakala are now on the downhill
slide!
Tracker
The Corrected leaderboard shows who is wearing the mythical tiara in each division at this point!
In the distance covered competition we have:
Dave Nabors on his Olson 34' Temerity leading the Ku, 1,027 DTF and making 6.5 knots
Tom Burden and his Cal 40' Shaman in front in the Lono, 1.084 DTF and doing 5.9 knots
David King sailing his Westsail 32, Saraband out front in the Kanaloa, 1,318 DTF and making 6.5 knots
Jiri Senkyrik aboard the Olson 30' Kato leads the Kane, 914 DTF and making 5.9 knotsComment
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More Notes From Boats July 10th
Last night was a first for me, sailing with a chute up AND doing it solo. During the SHTP seminars they talk about “night Squalls”, I have heard stories about them and now have one to share. Its was a dark and story night, well sort of. It was dark the moon is barely a sliver the few times I saw it. Winds were blowing 11-13, pretty nice way to start my first night spinnaker run. About 0100 the winds were picking up, now peaking at 15. Time for the chicken chute. Hmm, its dark and kinda windy, lets wait 15 minutes, it might get better. No, it gets worse. 16-17, the 18-20, the boat is screaming downwind, huge bow waves, full of bioluminesce, white wake astern. Too late for the chicken chute, better just hang on and hope. Holding a solid 20, boat speed 8.5-9.5 solid, autopilot doing a fantastic job. Boat charging down the waves pushing upper 9 now, winds over 20, how long is this going to last? The wind peaks at just or 22, boat speed still upper 8s to high 9s. Then 10.0 flashes on the speedo for a fleeting half second. We still keep going and going, I am hoping it will stop soon. Finally wind starts dropping, 18, 16 the settles in at 15. I looked at the clock, 30 minutes! That was too much adrenalin for me, definitely an E Ticket ride on Seazed Asset.
Ok, this is supposed to be a SOLO race to Hawaii. Its time to confess that I have a passenger. In Castaway Tom Hanks and Wilson the soccer ball. Well, I have Arrow one of the worlds ugliest ties. He is tied to my SSB back stay antenna, just watching the waves go by, making sure I don’t screw up. Never complaining about being cold, no showers, no sun, too much sun, crappy food ( no complaints there thanks to Amazing Amy Meals) being stuck on a boat with me. All in all a great passenger. Arrow in it for the long haul to Hawaii and back, said he wants to see some of the world and do some sailing. Hey, that’s fine by me, so why not. I’ll post a photos of Arrow when I get to Hawaii.
Vance Sprock
Cal 40' Seazed Asset
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The wind finally came back..with a vengeance – smile. I flew the chute (spinny/spinnaker) yesterday in the new 12 knot wind and made excellent speed. Auto was able to handle the deep reach partly because he sea was relatively flat. At dusk instead of dousing it and flying the Twins, I kept it up. By 1:00 AM the wind increased to 20 with gusts to 25 and i felt i was on the verge of disaster but it was dark, very windy and the fore deck was pitching. I was in a line of squalls that did a combo of increase/decrease wind speed, drop the temp.and rain. It was too dangerous so I decided to stay up and hand steer. That worked until 4:30 when TAZ!! went into an accidental jibe. The chute was wrapped around the net,and the main was back winded (the “prevent” kept the main from slamming across the boat). and it seemed the flogging chute would self destruct. I had to go forward and douse. It took about 1 hr of work to douse, clean up the lines and get TAZ!! pointed even close to Hawaii.
The bearing to Hawaii was 242 and I was pointed at 170. I was tired, wet (sweat) and sleepy so i went below and crashed under main only. Its now 9 AM and i have to figure out what I’m going to do…so I wrote this blog input…it makes all the sense in the world. I think I’ll fly the shy Kite (small spinnaker). Note to The Race Committee. There Is No Moon!!! When I scheduled the race two years ago, I had two main concerns: 1) have enough Ebb to flush the boats out of the Bay and past he Farallones before nightfall and 2) make sure there was a full moon at mid race so the skippers could see the squalls. I like surprises but surprise squalls are no good. I’m getting cranky, I must need more water.
George Lythcott
Express 27' TAZ!!
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Day 7 Update: 33.40 – 133.50 c214 s2.5 DTF = 1518. Had a really beautiful but mostly windless day. super frustrating. my last 24 hour miles good was around 50 miles. s l o w. not getting regular radio updates with Patience but others can sometimes reach her on VHF. Jacqueline continues to remain in visual and was able to get back in front of her. glad she owes me time 🙂 with the light winds you can see the deep deep blue color of the water, its stunning. the sad part is 700 miles from shore, that there is so much plastic trash floating by all the time. out of sight out of mind, if people knew how much there was, i think there would be more importance put on education and of other resources to use because its not going away anytime soon. bottles, fishing gear, balloons you name it, if humans made it and its plastic, its floating around out here. There was a tv commercial when I was a kid, with the theme of not littering etc and it was scene of a native american looking out over a polluted/trashed landscape of litter from people or something of the sort (it was a while ago but I still remember the sentiment) and he was welling up with tears looking at what we are doing to ourselves. kind of felt like that yesterday. ok, off my floating soap box now. xoxo team tortuga
Randy Leasure
Westsail 32' TortugaComment
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Notes From Boats July 11
I had set my 1990 vintage Larson Sails shy kite on Tuesday at about 11:00 AM. Today, Sunday, with 960 nm to go to Hanalei, it came down. Last night was terrifying. The wind and waves had come up after dark, wind to the low 20s and short steep waves, and I just couldn’t deal with trying to get the kite down. Too many invisible things to get stuck and jammed, and the boat was lurching and lunging all over the place. All I could do was whimper in my bunk and listen to that AP drive scream. In the morning, I set out to prepare to bring her down. Seas were still steep , but the wind was in the teens. I hand steered and found it very easy. The main problem of last night was that the kite had been over sheeted (in light air) and when it started to blow in the low 20s there was too much pressure which kept putting the boat on its side. With better sheeting the balance was good, and much more upright. So, I figured, I’ll sail like this all day and take her down in the evening so I can get some sleep. It was cloudy. The wind grew from the mid teens to 20, low 20s. Still steering great. The daily position report had told me I was ahead of the E-37 and both Cal 40s boat for boat, and that made me greedy. Let’s milk as many fast miles as we can. Some raindrops fell. The wind picked up more. More rain. “Oh a daytime squall. Just like the one where we had the spectacular round-down on VALIS in 2010. In just about the same place, too.” Now it was about noon.
I figured the thing would blow through in a couple of hours, and I’d be in the calm area behind it. But instead, wave after wave of light rain and heavy wind came up. 27 kts. That’s a lot, but I was managing. After the first band of wind, I was dealing with the mid 20s wind and very steep seas, but could the A/P handle it? I needed to go all the way to the bow to take down the spin net, fiddle with a bunch of other stuff then go up with the jib to get the spinnaker. So, I started seeing if the AP could handle it. I cranked the gain, set it on and watched. OK, seems like it can. I was working on some lines or something when a nasty wave kicked us over, and the AP drove us into a classic round up. Or as least was not able to avoid one. BANG! The strap that held a spin sheet fairlead was gone. I eased the vang and spin sheet, and we got on our feet. I can’t remember who was steering, at some point I took over to avoid a round down caused by the mis-trimmed spin. Finally I was in some semblance of order, still unstable and out of trim, but under steerage.
Then, BANG FLAP FLAP FLAP FLAP. The sail was out flapping and low in front of the boat. Another classic, blown out spreader patch at the head. Well this is a 26 year old sail after all, for all that it looks good. “OK, well at least I know how she is coming down now.” A thin side stripe was still intact, so I was able to recover the spin halyard, half the sail went in the water, but I got it on board. Since it is supposed to still be windy for a while , I will be taking a spin vacation — my others are all either big, old, or light and flat. Maybe if I am stuck in the teens I will chance it. That shy kite turned out to be a super good weapon for single handing, easy to handle and while underpowered for light air, less likely to wrap or otherwise misbehave. All in all, compared to my last mid-ocean solo spin mishap (off Ano Nuevo in Windjammers a couple of years ago) far less traumatic. OK, now I am going to have a look at my tiny sailbag to see what the halfway items are.
David Nabors
Olson 34' Temerity
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899 miles. Starting to feel that I will get there soon. But then i realize that is still a lot of sailing. I guess I’m in the trades now. Water getting warmer. Wind very steady And. Strong 20 knots pretty consistent. Still working on keeping he boat going straight has I pitch roll and yaw my way down. The waves. It’s pretty peaceful and wonderful.
Chris Cartwright
J-88 Ventus
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The De Lorme tracker took not quite a licking but stopped ticking. Battery appears drained. I am making other arrangements to checkin at the appropriate time with my shore side contact or possibly emailing RC directly. Today, I ripped my most valuable engine, the twin head sails. I loaned these to Joe on “Archimedes” in 2014 and he will be quite upset because these took him to victory. Occasionally he asks to buy them and I reply “over my dead body!” The coveted V-twins will be repaired and stay on TAZ!!
George Lythcott
Express 27 TAZ!!
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Frustrating sailing as I have trimmed kite constantly in tough light air.Now have gybed south. Vance in Seazed Asset went the right way by going south. The forecasters did not catch that one so good on ‘ya mate, as the Aussies would say. Other than frustrating sailing have been fixing stuff like two Battcars for the mainsail, and replacing charging cable for Iridium Go. Yikes! The original cable failed and the battery went dead in the device. Luckily, the DeLorme inReach has exactly the same cable. Might have been pretty lonely without the Iridium system!
That is how life has gone, breaking stuff but nothing mission-critical, and still sailing hard and sailing well. Gotta escape from the dreaded high that is holding most of the fleet hostage.
Tom Burden
Cal 40 Shaman
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In less than an hour I’ll cross the halfway point of the SHTP. That’s quite amazing. Not so much that it’s been 8 days (I just realized I lost track of days and thought this was day 9), or 1100 miles travelled. But in the sheer amount of experience we’ve already had. And that those experience will only account for half of the story… That’s what blows my mind. Today experience was learning how to tape a spinnaker back together. You see, last evening I taught myself how to blow out a kite. I guess you could say I was over anxious to get back to racing after Poseidon’s timeout. I was expecting winds 15-17kts throughout the night, but instead as evening drew near the winds built to 20, then upwards to 23… to 25. At this point I’m at the helm, working the sheet. The autopilot is doing reasonably well steering, but the seas are confused. Mixed swell, short period, certain trouble. This whole time I am trying to figure out how the hell I’m going to sock the beast. I knew I waited too long.
I don’t think it could of ended any other way but to make a long story short, in an attempt to change the apparent wind speed, I squared up the kite and headed a bit too far downwind. This caused us to start pitching, and it was 1,2,3 and the 4th rounded us up and got us pinned down. I eased the sheet but not far enough (I guess I should of let it go). Flogging started as I tried to get us off our side and the next time I looked up there was a huge hole at the clew. I still had to get it down, so I let the sheet out and eased the halyard while pulling on the sock line to lead the head onto the deck. That kinda worked, half on the boat and half in the pond. In my excitement I started hauling the spinnaker on deck and just let go of the halyard. Whoosh, off it went flying to leeward. I just stared at it, pausing for what felt like 10 minutes wondering how I could be so absent minded. Whatever, deal with one problem at a time, Brett. Get the sail down the hatch and then take a moment to think through the halyard retrieval.
Thankfully, by the time I got the sail down the hatch the halyard had not wrapped around anything. It was still flying to leeward. I went back up to the helm knowing I had one shot to round up into the wind to get the halyard to swing back to the boat. I needed to snatch it or it would be tangled in the shrouds and spreaders. In a stroke of luck as I ran to the foredeck and the boat turned up, the halyard glided back and I was able to lean over the pole and snatch it. It’s still blowing a steady 22-25kts and I’m glad the kite is down. Perhaps next time I’ll do it a little more gracefully. Listening to: The Joe Rogan Experience
Brett Suwyn
Cavalier 39 Althea
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I spoke to George Lythcott on TAZ!! Express 27. He sandwiched his twins, reefed a main for some sleep, but awoke to wrapped twins around the forestay and spinnaker halyward. He tried a few things to unwrap, but realized that the twins have a memory built into their fabric, much like Nickel-Titanium Nitinol 😸. They have resorted to an hour glass shape from the wind and cross wave stress, much like a chute. It’s perfect for depowering and he may keep it this way to Hanalei. He reports good surfing on 10 foot seas, 25-30 knot winds. 2nd Reefed main along with a “depowered” twins seems to be the right amount of sail area for tonight. Tired but OK. -Joe B. Archimedes
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Tortuga – Wine & Cheese is over!
Day 8 update: 32.57 135.20 c 232 s6.2 DTF 1421. hard to believe its been a full week since i left. its all a blur of drifting, changing sails and drifting. What started out as an pretty windless day turned into becoming a gorgeous sailing afternoon cruising along with the Asym up doing 5-6 knots. there was a series of nice little squalls that provided good wind and added a better point of sail, the squalls up to this point have been super mellow and somewhat pleasant. just before getting ready for radio check in there was an upcoming squall that looked a little more dark than the others so we were cooking along nicely at 7 knots and i decided to take the reef in the main just to keep an easy helm when we got into it, but this one was different and picked up velocity really quickly and next thing I was almost laid over with a burst of wind, i was able to release the sheet right away and get the sock down over the sail with some struggle and effort luckily not getting it in the water, I already had a the double reefed main so I raised the stay sail and was blasting along the course at 6.5 knots. the wine and cheese part of this voyage is officially over. its been super blustery and a very uncomfortable sea state since then. its like we crossed the line into a different sea I learned at radio check in that the other guys that had kites up had similar situations, way too much sail up and then, uh oh! a reminder of who is the boss out here and its not us. had an amazing find in my book shelf, i brought a few new things to read and some classics i read years ago and wanted to re read. Opening up Lord Jim, I see an inscription from my friend Roger from years ago “To cure boredom on the high seas, Happy 25th Birthday” too funny! who would have guessed all these years later it would have found its way sailing across the Pacific with me. Thanks Roger! xo team tortuga
Randy Leasure
Westsail 32 Tortuga
Missed a Day
Hi Everyone.Yes, skipped a day. Sometimes the boat and other things take up the air out here. Yesterday we changed sails 5x. We started with the blast reacher, replaced it with the A2, 2 broaches later, we replaced it with the blast reacher again, then that came down for the Jib top, then the wind came down, so the A2 went back up, then 2 broaches later, all at 20+kts, btw, the blast went back up. Yikes, no wonder I couldn’t see last night. Blast reacher is still up since its been 20+ all night, just like now. We are tacking down a line from Hanalei, that I’m afraid lines up directly with the wind. But we can go up to 50% faster than following the line by sailing a hotter line. At least, that’s the theory. But it does feel better having the noise of the water as we surf these waves than being safe. If we wanted to be safe, we’d stay at home, not do this. Last night was chicken gumbo. Cereal for breakfast today with beef stew for dinner. This being Sunday and all, and because yesterday was yesterday, I already had a beer and p-nut butter pretzels. Damn, this surfing down waves has the boat doing all sorts of gymnastics. I got a straight leg working on a cramp, trying to keep me in the seat. I’ve been having a problem all of a sudden where my iPads & iPhone keep telling me that I am trying to use unauthrorized attachments that just “might not work”. I’m in the middle of the Pacific, and Apple has some time bomb on all my comms? These are chargers that have been on the boat doing their charging thing for like 2 years. Apple Store, in the Pacific, is not that close. Yow, the floor is wet down below and I almost went flying on one of those surf rides the midle of the last sentence. Going up on deck to see “what the hell are you guys doing up here”. Shit they did again. I gotta go.
Joe Barry
Express 37 PakalaComment
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July 11 Updates
July 11 mid afternoon update: With most of the lighter boats now past the 1/2way point, the anticipation
shifts more towards the finish and who will arrive 1st. Supreme Field Commander Boshma ran some numbers
earlier today, and expects to see the 1st boats arrive on the 14th or 15th. Jiri Senkyrik on the Olson 30 Kato
is currently the closest to the finish, 684 nm out. Following shortly behind, with 728 nm to finish is Chris Cartwright on the J-88 Ventus
and 30 nm behind her, Domino David Herrigel's Wilderness 30!
Tracker
Hurricane Celia is becoming less and less of a concern at this point:
HURRICANE CELIA DISCUSSION NUMBER 21
NWS NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL EP042016
200 PM PDT MON JUL 11 2016
During the past 6 h, the inner-core region of Celia has undergone
multiple evolutions from a banding eye into a large eye that was
more representative of an annular hurricane to what has now become
a 20-nmi cloud-filled eye. Subjective Dvorak current intensity (CI)
estimates remain T4.5/77 kt from TAFB and SAB, and CIRA and CIMSS
AMSU objective intensity estimates were 87 kt and 86 kt at 1435Z,
respectively. Since those subjective and objective estimates were
obtained, the inner-core convection has increased markedly,
especially during the past few hours, with tightly coiled convective
bands now concentrated within mainly 70 nmi of the center. Based on
the improved satellite appearance, the initial intensity has been
increased to 85 kt.
The initial motion estimate is 280/08 kt. As anticipated, Celia has
slowed its forward motion as it approaches a developing weakness in
the subtropical ridge. A turn toward the west-northwest later
tonight is expected as Celia begins to move into the developing
weakness in the ridge. The shortwave trough that is inducing this
weakness is forecast to weaken in 48-72 h and lift out to the north
or northeast. This will allow the ridge to re-strengthen and
gradually nudge Celia back on a more westward track in the 72-120 h
period. The latest NHC track guidance continues to be in excellent
agreement with very little spread in the models, and the new
forecast track is essentially just an update of the previous
advisory track, and lies along the southern edge of the guidance
envelope.
The center of Celia is currently passing over 25.5 deg C SSTs based
on reports from drifting buoy 43540, which is about 2 deg C cooler
than the SHIPS intensity model is indicating. Having said that, the
cooler water doesn't appear to have negatively affected Celia today,
perhaps due to the proximity to warmer water and deeper instability
to the south. However, by 12 h and beyond, Celia will be moving over
a large field of sub-26 deg C SSTs and into an extensive region of
stable stratocumulus clouds, and the decreasing instability is
expected to induce steady weakening throughout the remainder of the
forecast period. However, with the vertical shear forecast to remain
low, Celia is expected to still be a tropical cyclone when it
crosses 140W longitude and moves into the Central Pacific basin in
84-96 h. The new intensity forecast is similar to the previous
advisory, and closely follows the consensus model IVCN.
FORECAST POSITIONS AND MAX WINDS
INIT 11/2100Z 15.2N 126.2W 85 KT 100 MPH
12H 12/0600Z 15.7N 127.6W 85 KT 100 MPH
24H 12/1800Z 16.6N 129.4W 80 KT 90 MPH
36H 13/0600Z 17.7N 131.2W 70 KT 80 MPH
48H 13/1800Z 18.8N 133.2W 60 KT 70 MPH
72H 14/1800Z 20.5N 137.4W 50 KT 60 MPH
96H 15/1800Z 21.3N 142.0W 40 KT 45 MPH
120H 16/1800Z 21.8N 147.2W 35 KT 40 MPH
The leader board for the various divisions looks something like this:
Saraband leads the Westsails and is 1,114 nm DTF
Kato leads the Kane, 684 nm to Mai Tais
Temerity is in front of the Ku Klan and will have his 1st fresh water shower in 828 nm
Seazed Asset can think about dropping the hook in Hanalei Bay in 838 nm!Comment
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For the nerds out there, go to: https://www.jibeset.net/gpstrackshar...1_1_2075952431
to see some unofficial views of the progress of the boats + some analysis of the is going on. All time are PDT.Comment
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The 2nd half is always better than the 1st!Comment
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