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The Drum Beat of Ku
Day 13, July 1, “The drum beat of Ku”
Mars is usually the first object in the night sky to greet me, even before it gets dark. Last night, a bird came out of nowhere in the dark and circled around my mast. I wasn’t sure what kind of bird it was but it was not small but not as big as an albatross. I was worried about the mast hitting it because it was flying so close. After a few minutes, it flew away as quickly as it appeared. We are about a thousand miles from any land, I’m not sure where it came from or where it wanted to go. But another bird wished me bon voyage by pooping in my cockpit later in the day. I also saw a thumb size flying fish landed on my foredeck. It was dried and crispy by the time I discovered it. I did not think I would add it to my nori ginger soup in the morning.
There has been this new song that I hear the boat chanting to me, this song is more like a battle march with drum beats. Like people going to battle. My STHP race division is “Ku”, in Hawaiian means “God of War”. The way the wave hits the boat and caused the poled out jib to fill with a soft snap, that is the marching drum beat. The wind hitting the rig and from the ocean are the chants. It also reminds me of the music from “Game of Thrones” (Spoiler Alert) when Arya Stark killed the Night King in slow motion, while the rest of the mankind went into this epic battle with the White Walkers. The second half of this passage is more like a march, the condition is similar everyday, a deep broad reach with 15-20 knots of wind surfing down steep 6 foot waves (please see today’s photo). Sea Wisdom and I have a mission to march across the finish line of the race. Even though I’m in the last place of this race, I’m still marching on this personal battle to cross a major ocean passage solo.
In the meantime, there are a lot of things to do on the boat to keep our mission successful. Complacency brews unforced errors. I take care of Sea Wisdom’s every need. Twice a day, I go on deck and inspect every single shackle, line, pin, bolt, screw, block and every rigging under load and without load. Trying to see if there is anything out of ordinary and adjust accordingly. I put the lower companionway door up and shut the hatch when I go to sleep at night, just in case a wave comes into the cockpit snd inside the boat. Keeping Sea Wisdom clean and in tune is my top priority. I cleaned the head today, trying to keep it spotless. Keeping the boat in top shape keeps the morale up. Happy boat, happy crew.
Part of the good morale is to have decent food aboard. Today I started with my go-to comfort food, Chicken and Rice with lots of air dried tomatoes and sesame oil, and finished the day with a pouch of Indian Madras Lentils. My hands are hardened, chafed and worn like sandpaper. I’m losing sensitivity of my palm skin. I have to wear gloves when I go on deck. When I finally gave them some rest at night, I can feel a burning sensation. However, I loved it, it means I’m maximizing the effort to maximize this once a lifetime experience.
1) You can follow along via the satellite trackers for each boat. I’m Sail #42, SEA WISDOM.
https://www.jibeset.net/tv.php
2) Live tracking with weather information:
https://forecast.predictwind.com/tra...play/SeaWisdom
Signing off
Will
S/V SEA WISDOM
Singlehanded Sailing Society’s 2021 Singlehanded Transpacific Yacht Race update from Green Buffalo:
“Wind still picking up... zigging and zagging a bit to avoid the proto squalls (more dark cloud then squall but still with an uncomfortable amount of wind to nap thru... saw 24k this morning). Debating if I should go to the shy kite tonight.
Yesterday afternoon was the first real "blue skies". Glorious sailing with a bit of surfing. Chance to see how much power the solar can put out (a single 140W panel). In prior years, with a 50 year old engine, no solar, and a bit less battery storage, I would end up running the engine 4 hours per day... this trip its been closer to 1 to 1.5 hrs per day.
Had the quesadillas but I can tell the guac and sour cream are "one time use" (they only made it this far because they were sealed... no refrigeration on the Buffalo).
Still running down the rhumb line... jibing twice per day...”
“Day 13 Update From SV Aloha
Today is the first report I never hoped to have to type, at least not from a moving boat anyway. Generally, most predictions for a Hawaii race onboard a Hobie 33 have you finishing on day 12, not still being a couple hundred miles away (just under 350 as I type). But that’s not the case with this crossing, thanks to two adverse weather patterns that slowed the initial push away from the west coast with the "southerly surge" and then the very pronounced and unavoidable hole in the middle of the course.
Thankfully after all the trials and tribulations of the beginning parts of the course, Hawaii has finally delivered on the champagne trade wind sailing which we all sign up for these races eager to do.
Last night after MH spaghetti and meat sauce, I turned in early with an eye towards building winds throughout the night likely pulling me from my rack to hand steer when the auto would get overwhelmed by the winds and the waves. This did indeed happen not too long after midnight when the autopilot had finally rounded up after threatening to do so a number of times throughout the earlier hours of the evening.
For the rest of the night I was either standing by in the cockpit to take over at a moment’s notice and eventually just steering myself.
With winds slowly building into the low 20s, boat speed was good and the headers that I had hoped for and expected were beginning to roll down with them each puff of wind and squall pushing me lower and lower towards Kauai. Not too long after day break I saw the highest winds of the day coupled with the highest boat speeds with a velocity made good towards Hanalei bay of 15.5 knots in short bursts while riding down the face of some good Hawaiian waves. The size of the waves unfortunately is not quite large enough to really sustain extended surfing nor connecting of multiple waves to keep speeds up in the mid teens for extended periods of time, but it is always nice when the boat gets powered up and comes screaming down the face of a wave.
A couple waves caused me some issues as I plowed the bow into the backside of one while surfing the one behind it sending water all the way back to the cockpit and with the hatch wide open, quite a bit made it inside Aloha. Fortunately I had taken the time to move all the family heirlooms up to dryer areas of the boat as the companionway has been ground zero for water splashing in from any and every conceivable angle.
Around 9 or 10, winds eased up and i was able to do my morning breakfast routine of eating and downloading the latest weather files as well as getting the position information of the rest of the fleet. Not long thereafter the sun broke through and with the decreased wind speeds i felt it might be a good time to try to get some rest. Try of course being the opportune word as i lay in my bunk for seemingly forever without a wink of proper rest. That being said, any time horizontal when not consumed by worries of sail trim and heading are still considered quite restful in my book. Even as I write this email I am able to take my mind off of sailing, enjoy a snack of beef jerky and rest my mind if not my body. Again tonight I suspect an early dinner and more rack time to follow as winds will surely build through the night and keep pushing me ever faster towards a cold drink, warm shower and soft bed in Hanalei.
With that I bid thee farewell. Alooohaaa!”
You can follow the race here:
https://www.jibeset.net/gpswatch.php...
Day 13, July 1, “The drum beat of Ku”
Mars is usually the first object in the night sky to greet me, even before it gets dark. Last night, a bird came out of nowhere in the dark and circled around my mast. I wasn’t sure what kind of bird it was but it was not small but not as big as an albatross. I was worried about the mast hitting it because it was flying so close. After a few minutes, it flew away as quickly as it appeared. We are about a thousand miles from any land, I’m not sure where it came from or where it wanted to go. But another bird wished me bon voyage by pooping in my cockpit later in the day. I also saw a thumb size flying fish landed on my foredeck. It was dried and crispy by the time I discovered it. I did not think I would add it to my nori ginger soup in the morning.
There has been this new song that I hear the boat chanting to me, this song is more like a battle march with drum beats. Like people going to battle. My STHP race division is “Ku”, in Hawaiian means “God of War”. The way the wave hits the boat and caused the poled out jib to fill with a soft snap, that is the marching drum beat. The wind hitting the rig and from the ocean are the chants. It also reminds me of the music from “Game of Thrones” (Spoiler Alert) when Arya Stark killed the Night King in slow motion, while the rest of the mankind went into this epic battle with the White Walkers. The second half of this passage is more like a march, the condition is similar everyday, a deep broad reach with 15-20 knots of wind surfing down steep 6 foot waves (please see today’s photo). Sea Wisdom and I have a mission to march across the finish line of the race. Even though I’m in the last place of this race, I’m still marching on this personal battle to cross a major ocean passage solo.
In the meantime, there are a lot of things to do on the boat to keep our mission successful. Complacency brews unforced errors. I take care of Sea Wisdom’s every need. Twice a day, I go on deck and inspect every single shackle, line, pin, bolt, screw, block and every rigging under load and without load. Trying to see if there is anything out of ordinary and adjust accordingly. I put the lower companionway door up and shut the hatch when I go to sleep at night, just in case a wave comes into the cockpit snd inside the boat. Keeping Sea Wisdom clean and in tune is my top priority. I cleaned the head today, trying to keep it spotless. Keeping the boat in top shape keeps the morale up. Happy boat, happy crew.
Part of the good morale is to have decent food aboard. Today I started with my go-to comfort food, Chicken and Rice with lots of air dried tomatoes and sesame oil, and finished the day with a pouch of Indian Madras Lentils. My hands are hardened, chafed and worn like sandpaper. I’m losing sensitivity of my palm skin. I have to wear gloves when I go on deck. When I finally gave them some rest at night, I can feel a burning sensation. However, I loved it, it means I’m maximizing the effort to maximize this once a lifetime experience.
1) You can follow along via the satellite trackers for each boat. I’m Sail #42, SEA WISDOM.
https://www.jibeset.net/tv.php
2) Live tracking with weather information:
https://forecast.predictwind.com/tra...play/SeaWisdom
Signing off
Will
S/V SEA WISDOM
Singlehanded Sailing Society’s 2021 Singlehanded Transpacific Yacht Race update from Green Buffalo:
“Wind still picking up... zigging and zagging a bit to avoid the proto squalls (more dark cloud then squall but still with an uncomfortable amount of wind to nap thru... saw 24k this morning). Debating if I should go to the shy kite tonight.
Yesterday afternoon was the first real "blue skies". Glorious sailing with a bit of surfing. Chance to see how much power the solar can put out (a single 140W panel). In prior years, with a 50 year old engine, no solar, and a bit less battery storage, I would end up running the engine 4 hours per day... this trip its been closer to 1 to 1.5 hrs per day.
Had the quesadillas but I can tell the guac and sour cream are "one time use" (they only made it this far because they were sealed... no refrigeration on the Buffalo).
Still running down the rhumb line... jibing twice per day...”
“Day 13 Update From SV Aloha
Today is the first report I never hoped to have to type, at least not from a moving boat anyway. Generally, most predictions for a Hawaii race onboard a Hobie 33 have you finishing on day 12, not still being a couple hundred miles away (just under 350 as I type). But that’s not the case with this crossing, thanks to two adverse weather patterns that slowed the initial push away from the west coast with the "southerly surge" and then the very pronounced and unavoidable hole in the middle of the course.
Thankfully after all the trials and tribulations of the beginning parts of the course, Hawaii has finally delivered on the champagne trade wind sailing which we all sign up for these races eager to do.
Last night after MH spaghetti and meat sauce, I turned in early with an eye towards building winds throughout the night likely pulling me from my rack to hand steer when the auto would get overwhelmed by the winds and the waves. This did indeed happen not too long after midnight when the autopilot had finally rounded up after threatening to do so a number of times throughout the earlier hours of the evening.
For the rest of the night I was either standing by in the cockpit to take over at a moment’s notice and eventually just steering myself.
With winds slowly building into the low 20s, boat speed was good and the headers that I had hoped for and expected were beginning to roll down with them each puff of wind and squall pushing me lower and lower towards Kauai. Not too long after day break I saw the highest winds of the day coupled with the highest boat speeds with a velocity made good towards Hanalei bay of 15.5 knots in short bursts while riding down the face of some good Hawaiian waves. The size of the waves unfortunately is not quite large enough to really sustain extended surfing nor connecting of multiple waves to keep speeds up in the mid teens for extended periods of time, but it is always nice when the boat gets powered up and comes screaming down the face of a wave.
A couple waves caused me some issues as I plowed the bow into the backside of one while surfing the one behind it sending water all the way back to the cockpit and with the hatch wide open, quite a bit made it inside Aloha. Fortunately I had taken the time to move all the family heirlooms up to dryer areas of the boat as the companionway has been ground zero for water splashing in from any and every conceivable angle.
Around 9 or 10, winds eased up and i was able to do my morning breakfast routine of eating and downloading the latest weather files as well as getting the position information of the rest of the fleet. Not long thereafter the sun broke through and with the decreased wind speeds i felt it might be a good time to try to get some rest. Try of course being the opportune word as i lay in my bunk for seemingly forever without a wink of proper rest. That being said, any time horizontal when not consumed by worries of sail trim and heading are still considered quite restful in my book. Even as I write this email I am able to take my mind off of sailing, enjoy a snack of beef jerky and rest my mind if not my body. Again tonight I suspect an early dinner and more rack time to follow as winds will surely build through the night and keep pushing me ever faster towards a cold drink, warm shower and soft bed in Hanalei.
With that I bid thee farewell. Alooohaaa!”
You can follow the race here:
https://www.jibeset.net/gpswatch.php...
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