Another challenging day on the water. We had a very squally night, and I got caught in a downpour steering the boat in complete darkness (no moon, stars covered by clouds) in 25-27kts wind. Steering the boat in those conditions is pretty wild -- it feels a bit like flying the millenium falcon through hyperspace as the shadows wiz by in your peripheral vision and you are focused on flying by the instruments adjusting rapidly to small micro changes to prevent large turns and potentially dangerous jibes. I finally got the hang of it for the first time last night where I felt ahead of the boat, a combination of placing tape on the center of the wheel and holding the tape with one hand, feeling the heel, and shifting the rudder side to side in micro movements to feel in which direction it is biting.

Today we were fully prepared to shake out the reef in our main and hoist the spinnaker for the last kite run of the race to the finish line. Running under spinnaker is considerably faster than main and jib alone, averaging up to 10kts vs 8.5 or so on jib downwind. Spinnaker hoists can be hectic and prone to complications that can set you back hours if it goes wrong, but we had finally got ours down to what felt like something approaching a science. As we were hosting, Jeremy, who was jumping the halyard, felt a little more tension (but not too much more) than usual. Since we had the bag up high and had significant windage, the (strong) preference of the foredeck crew (that's Eric and me) is to get to the part where we fly the kite before we are launched overboard (only partially kidding). For that reason we've been focused on a quick hoist, and Jeremy pulled a little bit harder to get the kite up. Unfortunately, it turned out that the halyard had slipped and got lodged in the sheave, and that meant that the spinnaker was stuck up until we sent someone up the mast. With the rough sea state and the string of luck that we had had, we decided it was too dangerous to send someone up, and instead secured the spinnaker in the bag against the mast. Since our jib was nonfunctional, we decided to pole out the storm jib wing on wing with the reaching strut and make as fast of progress in the light winds that we had as we could. Not great.

We managed to fix and hoist the jib and are currently reaching towards the finish line at a manageable 8kts. The morale of the crew is significantly improved, and we have been joking and laughing back and forth. We're all looking forward to crossing the finish line and seeing our families soon!

-david

1700 PDT 7/27/24

Lots of epic sailing today. 18-22 knots, 10-12', just flying. But also some boat handling wins and challenges. Super busy taking care of all of the boat handling stuff. Worked harder taking care of the boat than ourselves today, so some of us are crashing now, after a gybe, not having eaten, rested all day. We're at 201.2 miles as I click <send>.

All good.

-- Jeremy --

After a very challenging past few days, we finally got a perfect day of sailing. A few late morning squalls passed through leaving us caught in the "windless wake" of the last one. After we pushed through, we finally saw the perfect sailing conditions. We had the kite up from morning to evening in a brisk 18-22kts of wind and were eating up the miles all day. The mood onboard was almost celebratory, and we are finally seeing the finish line on the horizon.

After dinner we challenged each other to see who could have the best 20 minute driving session, looking at stats like boat speed, apparent wind angle (how deep did you sail, deeper = better), percentage to polars (polars are the theoretical maximum speed for any given wind speed/angle combination), and percentage to max VMG (velocity made good, or the theoretical max speed component towards a destination, usually downwind or upwind since a sailboat can't ever sail directly upwind, and often can't sail directly downwind -- or downwind quickly -- either).

A few of us went to grab an hour of sleep (you take what you can get when it is available and you are off watch) before taking down the kite (asymmetrical spinnaker) for the evening. Eric and Jeremy were on watch, and woke up the rest of us around 9pm when they saw what looked like some squalls headed our way. We woke up and set out to take down the kite, which turned out to be very "exciting" (as it has tended to be) when we caught the control lines on the radar and could only bring the sock half way down. We ended up dropping the halyard and rescuing the foot of the sail out of the water before stuffing it down the fore hatch to pack it up later.

We're now on our before-last night of sailing, which has been extra challenging now that the moon rises so late. Once the sun has completely set, it is the deepest dark you have ever seen, with not even a horizon visible and absolutely no visible points of reference outside the boat. In order to keep sailing we have an instrument bridge in the line of sight of the helmsman, and you drive "by the numbers" looking at TWA (true wind angle) and heading -- particularly difficult when the waves and wind are shaking you in all directions and the boat bobs massively side to side in 25kts+ squalls, and you need to apply small (and sometimes large) steering corrections in order to keep the boat from jibing accidentally and potentially breaking the boom. The focus required is intense, and maintaining that focus while not getting disoriented for the 3 hour long watch is difficult. Luckily, we switch every 30 mins on watch, and as the trip has gone on and sleep and energy has continued to be in short supply, we've taken to setting a cushion down in the cockpit for the 2nd person on watch (but not driving) to get a quick nap while their watch mate drives (but being there if needed to help).

The positive to the darkness, if the cloud conditions allow, are the brightest stars and view of the milky way you will ever see in your life, mixed with rich bioluminescent flickers in our wake, and huge glowing patches in the waves that go by.

Every night since we started the trip we have each held watch for 3 hours per night. Typically you will have 4.5 hours to sleep (and actually sleep much less), are awake for 3 hours, and then have 5-6 hours off for more sleep (if you can, since sometimes that watch ends at 10am).

Suffice to say that we are all very much looking forward to a full night's uninterrupted sleep soon, but absolutely have enjoyed the trials, tribulations and joys of the trip so far.

330 miles to go!

-david

0924 PDT 7/26/24

We've enjoyed a series of squalls over the last 12 or so hours. Not to diminish their potential, but they have a pretty bad reputation. Yes sure the wind speed picks up markedly and may shift in direction as they approach. But not all squalls live up to the image projected into the mainstream by works like the movie White Squall. For the three I saw while on watch, I don't think I saw winds hit 35 knots when the steady wind was 16-22. They do bring rain, which, frankly felt great. The wind seemingly helped lay down the seas a bit too. We were seeing easy 10 footers, some of us estimating 15' in the afternoon. Anticipating the squalls, we reduced sail and now have up a reefed main (#1) and roller reefed jib (50%ish). There is a ship at our four o'clock, also headed to Hawaii. Same line, close enough, so we confirmed each has the other in sights as well as on AIS. I look forward to the squalls clearing so we can get that spinnaker working full throttle again.

All good.

-- Jeremy --

7/24/24 - 2030 PDT

Been busy.

By now, everyone has joined the 15 knot club. Keep in mind this boat is 50' long, 16' wide and has the below deck cabin and the deck, so is close to 1,600 square feet. That is bigger than some housing I've lived in. And it displaces 36,000 pounds, so is heavier than we have common a point of reference for. Getting this thing moving 15 knots is no small task. We were all pretty excited that each of us got it there. I was not going to be satisfied until we broke 16 knots. So when Craig shattered the then trip record of 15.7 with a ripping fast 17.2 knots, there were hoots and high fives.

Winds were up and we continued fast. But we saw some holes in the A4 spinnaker. We switched to the jib and changed gears into a more conservative mode. Of course downshifting incrementally entailed lots of boat handling stuff. Along the way we discovered some things that needed maintenance attention.

While in low gear, we celebrated the halfway point. Thank you to all families for the nice thoughts and nice things! Great to feel connected, when we're about as disconnected as can be.

We've been focused on lots of boat handing stuff and maintenance. Maintenance has been far ranging, from a spinnaker to a toilet to a watchband. (Thankfully, the toilet was the easiest to fix and was not as yukky as it could have been!). This work and the wave action has thrown off sleep so we have been conservative today trying to recharge. Meanwhile, right now while Craig and David are up dealing with changing conditions, I have to finish up the dishes from pasta with meatballs that Eric prepared and get some sleep before my midnight watch.

All good.

-- Jeremy --

0940 PDT 7/23/24

Last night I went on watch joining Eric and replacing Tracy at 0500 PDT. Tracy was spent. He had taken over for David who saw 27 knots of True Wind Speed, which is pretty rowdy under a spinnaker in 7' waves. We'll have to look at Boat Speed history for that stretch.

Eric took the helm, while I took the spinnaker sheet and got oriented. It was still cranking at 23-25 knots. If we pointed up above 150* True Wind Angle, there was risk that the rudder pressure would overpower the helmsman, and we'd wipe out to windward. If we fell off below 165* the kite would deflate, boat and kite would become unstable. 160*ish was a reasonable target to steer to, but was not easy to keep to. A wipe out to leeward could risk an accidental gybe - highly undesirable. The 5-7' waves kept trying to slap the boat around independent of the helmsman's suggestions. In those brief moments when concentration lapsed, we might roll 20* to either side, sweeping the mast through 40*. With roll to either side or heel, rudder pressure changes a lot, and the boat wants to turn in the direction opposite of the heel. Waves kick the transom sideways as they reach the transom. And if we caught the backside of the wave ahead, it would slow the bow before the stern thereby encouraging a turn. In this, wind speed and direction were each variable and not correlated. With roll and yaw covered, there's also pitch. When a 7' wave lifts the back of the 50' boat, the bow gets pitched downhill like a surfboard on a face. The boat surges forward accelerating in the surf. Apparent Wind Speed increases and Apparent Wind Direction moves forward. You want to ride that surge of speed for a long time and also point the boat in a direction to keep all of the forces from wind, waves and gravity in balance. The environment is highly dynamic. The steering wheel moves every second. Mistakes can be costly. Big errors get messy. Small ones require focus for recovery. And strength and speed is in high demand. Feet are wide, knees bent, hands flying fast all over the spinning steering wheel. The heart rate is up from the kinetics, let alone the situation. Meanwhile, it's as loud as a freight train running by. The simplest extracurricular comments/questions are ignored. Important comments are hardly audible. Focus is absolute. Let's go ahead and add that clouds were obscuring the horizon, moonlight and stars, so there were really no visual cues to key off of for frame of reference - literally as to which way is up, nor how far right or left we were turning. It was dark and Eric was flying by instruments. As our crew member with the least time at the helm on any boat in any condition, one might expect Eric would be outside of his comfort zone in this. Instead, he acknowledged the difference between Type I fun (something that is fun in the moment) and Type II fun (something that might be more fun in retrospect than in the moment), squeezed the wheel until his knuckles went white and crushed it. He did a great job, and stretched his comfort zone to new limits.

We reduced the nighttime watch time on helm from :30 to :15 and started to sail 3-up instead of 2-up. Maintaining this intensity is exhausting for the mind and body. Off the helm allowed for recovery. On my turn on helm, I set a new trip Boat Speed record at 15.7. I'm not going to be satisfied until one of us breaks 16, a target cited during one of our first sails together on Festina Lente. Back to recovery, when Craig's turn on watch came up, he pointed out the impossibility of sleeping in the environment. For this reason, when I was the guy on standby in the 3-up rotation, and when I was not in use, I just tried to sleep on the cockpit floor in my gear, 100% ready to jump in at any moment.

When day broke, we found a 3" hole in the A4 spinnaker. The repair was a 4-crew exercise that took :40 minutes and significantly reduced speed. We estimate it cost 1.6 miles. But we need this kite to keep us charging hard.

Some people wonder how this can be fun. On board, some wonder what is as much fun as this?

Now with 962 miles remaining, we passed halfway, and will have a celebration around dinner.

Recipients of time-released cards/pics from loved ones really appreciate those.

Some seabirds have circled us for a time. They are still outnumbered by plastic debris. And we've seen a number of flying fish.

All good.

-- Jeremy --

We hit the half way point at 2:25am today on an adventurous night flying a spinnaker with wind in the 18-25kts range and a touch higher in a couple of squalls. Very active and engaging steering/sheeting, and dealing with a couple of small equipment malfunctions. More to come tomorrow on our half way party! Also looking forward to our first gybe in the next 24 hours -- so far we have been on starboard tack since the Golden Gate Bridge -- that will have us pointing straight to Hawaii and eating up the remaining miles.

-david

2000 PDT 7/22/24 -

In the early hours today we had a moonbow, moonlight refracted by moisture in the atmosphere into a ring of color. I look forward to seeing David's photo of it.

We've had spectacular sailing for of the day with True Wind Speed of 20-25 knots from approximately 060* True Wind Direction. Surfing 5-7' waves. We're still on the A2 spinnaker in the pole and strut, with the spinnaker net and a boom brake. Tracy set the trip Boat Speed record at 14.6 knots, and Craig tied it. Just as I was about to hit "send" on this note, David met it again.

Sunny blue sky with 25% clouds for texture. It's warm.

We just devoured the carnitas with mash and tortillas. Lunch was turkey sandwiches.

We've got a Spanish windlass on the spinnaker pole mast track as a precautionary reinforcement. Craig tightened the steering cable as loads on the rudder are significant.

Eric is going on watch shortly, relieving David who is driving through these waves like a skier takes moguls. The waves make the action very dynamic and three dimensional. It's the right mix of fun and challenging, and the boat is eating up the miles.

All good.

-- Jeremy --

Many of us had no idea this even existed! Saw a full moon rainbow last night in the light of the full moon, reflected off of a squall in the distance.

1130 PDT 7/22/24 True Wind Speed (TWS) is up breaking through more often 20 now. The boat wakes up at 12, and becomes alive at 15, so now more frequently over 20 is great to hear. Eric and Tracy are up top keeping it fast and I heard someone call out that we just hit boat speed of 12.7. I'm just awake (and done with a some fruit and sausage egg cheese muffin) getting ready for a cycle in that fun. I was about to comment on appreciating the genius of earplugs, as they quiet the big acoustic drum that we're floating on, with sounds of the water rushing by, creaks, footsteps, winches, tethers being clipped/unclipped, velcro, but then Tracy mentioned that we had pulled the hydro-generator which is also a noisemaker. Like the water rushing by, this noise changes its tune as our speed improves so is something to listen to. With our speed coming come up in better wind, so has the power generation output, so we pulled it for a period to reduce drag.

Dress code objective now is solar protection.

All good.

-- Jeremy --

Before sunset last night in anticipation of more wind over night we replaced the A2 with the A4 spinnaker. The wind touched 21 knots, not more. Just a bit of rain The shrimp pasta was killer last night. Saw a couple of flying fish and a moon rainbow. Now we've got a full moon at our left, sunrise behind our right. 10% low clous coverage. Warm enough, but damp. TWD 050-060*, TWS 10-15. BSP 8s. Over the last few hours, we passed Cascade. We just dropped past 1200 miles to go. We're optimistic to hit half-way today. Craig's stories about from world travel in the superyacht world are hilarious, but I wish he wasn't so careful about keeping names of people and boats out of it. All good.

-- Jeremy --

1540 PDT 7/21/2024 1317 nautical miles to finish. But who is counting? 85% cloud cover. Hoping the clouds clear sufficiently to expose tonight's scheduled programming of a full moon. 75*F. Unless we see rain in squalls, we're likely done with heavy foul wether gear. With cloud cover, the sun has not been too tough... yet. True Wind Speed 11.7 knots now, to 16 True Wind Direction 054*, oscillating to 70+ Boat Speed 8.4, to 11 Pressure 1024 mb For performance metrics, see Yellow Brick. We're accustomed to the watch cycle now. Sadly, we've seen plastic debris floating as frequently as we have seen birds, since away from land. Other than those, we have not seen any sign life on the horizon in the last 24H. No competitors, other boats nor ships. Wind is expected to gradually increase, where by this time tomorrow we should be see a consistent 20 knots. This boat really comes alive in wind greater than 13ish, so that should be really fun. No new equipment issues. Everyone happens to be awake now for the 1600 watch change. Great turkey sandwiches. We had been talking about how much the world will have changed by the time re-engage with it, like time travel. And then we got the headline about Biden's decision to step aside. Big news! Many laughs and stories, some of which may be true. We all look forward to seeing our people, whom we miss. We also look forward to the shrimp and pasta dinner on this evening's menu.

All good.

-- Jeremy --

0920 PDT 7/21/24

For a long time now, winds have been oscillating from TWD 045*-075* and TWS 11-17 knots. Boatspeed is in the 7-11 knot range. Pressing the boat deep enough downwind into a strategic imaginary intermediate waypoint is tough when the wind is anything right of the left extreme of its oscillation cycle. If we go too low we lose too much speed, so we're cheating a bit right of that waypoint in reality. Going right at hotter angles yields better boatspeed, so there is a positive element in the tradeoff when we cut right of the waypoint, which in reality is still serving as a reminder to stay as low as we can without too much speed loss. We're doing well on our Polar/VMG targets.

Awareness from feel as well as routine equipment inspections surfaced a couple of items before they became issues: - steering cable was loose, maybe 1/8". tightened. - hub of starboard steering wheel was loose. tightened. - mast-track for spinnaker pole was showing stress from the lateral load created when the pole was far outboard/aft. repositioned pole vertically to be more towards center of track and swung pole foreward, so compression would be more aligned with the centerline of the boat and less aligned laterally.

The sky last night had still had a thin stratocumulus cloud layer at about 95% coverage. When the moon pierced through the holes, at times you could make out shafts of moonlight, which shone bright on the sea surface in spots. In the distance, it gave great contrast on the horizon. When it hit us, colors of the spinnaker came alive and it was bright enough to read by.

I'm just awake and am about to relieve Tracy to stand watch with Eric for a bit and then later Craig. David is asleep. I have not heard a recent competitive position report, but last word was favorable. The sleep last off-watch was good, as were last night's chicken tika masala dinner and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.

All good.

-- Jeremy --

Getting photos off the boat via the Iridium Go connection is next to impossible, but going to give it a shot anyway -- apologies in advance for the small size. The photos below are from the last 24 hours 600 miles offshore from the nearest land.

1200 PDT 7/20/24 -

OK so we're in the middle of the ocean and still can't escape IT issues. If this note posts to our blog timely, then the issues are solved. (Forgive if a few notes previously written post out of sequence at some future time.)

SUMMARY

All good.

Really nice family send-off. With participation by Traci/Eric's daughter Hadley and Brooke/David's sons Jack and Jamie, we honored ancient Polynesian traditions of: - tea leaf mounted on bow as aid to navigation. It is said that the tea leaf knows its way home to the Islands. Mounted on the bow, with the rest of the boat following it, this takes performance pressure off of David in the role of navigator. - salt from the Islands sprinkled on deck to ward off evil spirits. So we're all set now, with the evil spirits.

We won the starting! Tracy took the pin (South) end of the line, hitting it on time at speed, with clean air and freedom of movement. It was beautiful! We proceeded from the line on port tack towards the Golden Gate Bridge. We were higher and faster than Med Viking, who soon dropped back into our exhaust and faded behind. The only other boat of focus off the line was Translated 9, which started 25% down the line from us in had clean air with room. We had height and they had speed, so we both clung to the same ladder rung, climbing into the wind but with gauge opening. It was really fun to be in a two boat race right away with them. With growing separation and a waterline edge, they eeked just ahead and made it to the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge just before us. After the North tower, they tacked first and crossed us. We tacked to starboard before running out of sea-room, and have been on starboard ever since,a few days now.

Since exiting the protected waters of Bay we've had decent wind. We saw a handful of whales not far from land. Fortunately, we did not have to endure a near shore "glass off" of light air that occurs near land when evening brings cooler temperatures. Instead, we got offshore in good breeze that has held pretty consistently. By now, we've seen 9-25 knots, waves to maybe 6', now 3'. For the most part, it has been in the low teens.

After getting off shore under the jib, we moved into the code zero as the wind veered on us. We flew the code zero both with the jib partially furled as staysail, as well as with it fully furled. That code zero is a fantastic sail! Unfortunately, there came a point at which its halyard cover broke at the clutch. Good news is the sail stayed up as the core survived. Once down, Tracy fixed it, so we're not down a halyard, and will be using it as the last choice, if needed.

As we've continued, we've worked our way South of the rhumbline to avoid a higher pressure zone, and its lighter winds. We see by position reports and Yellow Brick that our division and many others are taking the same strategy.

For a few hours yesterday afternoon we had a traffic jam. Normally we have an uninterrupted 360* horizon, be during this traffic jam we could see three other competitors at the same time. It's motivating to see boats nearby. We saw a bird today.

With progress away from land, the wind has veered right, moving further behind us. At 0345 PDT 7/19/24 we put up the A2 spinnaker. It's on a pole set low that is backed by reaching strut with a 2:1 afterguy for mechanical advantage pulling pole outboard and aft. We've got a twing on, as well as preventer with a sacrificial fuse of light-weight line.

The watch schedule is, well, like clockwork. Eric and Tracy have discussed top 50 movies in every category, Craig has diagnosed and solved a bit of play in the starboard steering wheel. David has a solid process as navigator, which takes performance pressure off of the tea leaf. He's also got individual performance metrics stirring some internal competition to help keep everyone on task - and notes that nobody can hide from these KPIs as they are drawn directly from the boat's performance and correlate by time to our shifts at helm.

Just now @ 1340 PDT we completed with David at the helm, Tracy Craig and me: dowsed jib, removed battens, flaked, bagged and stacked jib, hoisted spinnaker net. The cycle took approximately :45. Eric is most recently off watch so is catching some sleep.

Menu highlights so far include: - Cindy's blueberry scones (always amazing thank you) - ginger, carrot soup with a chicken/veggie rice dish - asparagus gazpacho with chicken enchiladas - egg cheese sausage muffins - coffee at sunrise (nirvana)

If this message goes out, then we've solved our IT issues and you might expect a higher frequency of updates!

- - Jeremy - -

We just realized we've been sending regular blog posts, but they haven't been showing up. Stay tuned for a batch update tomorrow!

Exciting start to the race today. Good wind at the start and out the gate, picking up to 18kts before dying down to mid teens. We're about to lose sight of the coastline, so the only other objects we'll see now are the boats around us, which won't last long -- visibility to the horizon is only about 10 miles, a drop in the bucket of the vastness of the Pacific Ocean. Not too many different ideas so far on which course to take -- we're all headed SW towards the ridge crossing.

The fog threatened to come in but has since cleared, and it is a beautiful sunny day out. As I'm writing this we just spotted a whale and its calf about 100ft to starboard. So far the vastness of the trip hasn't fully sunken in... it still feels just like a Farallons race. I'm sure the length of the trip will start to hit us on day 2 or 3 when it'll feel like we've been on the boat forever yet still only at the beginning.

-david

The first four divisions (DoubleHanded 1 & 2 and PHRF 1 & 2) set off today between 10:20am - 10:50am in front of the St Francis Yacht Club. The weather forecast isn't ideal -- low winds at the start from the SW, dropping to almost nothing overnight. Because of the disrupted Northern Pacific High creating a big wind hole in the middle of the course, most will want to head south underneath it until the high consolidates, hopefully by the very end of the week. In order to start making progress south and because of the SW direction of the wind, most boats started off heading down along the coast, with several now breaking W to create some distance from the coast before the glass off at night (with wind and waves pushing them towards the shore).

We're up next, the second start of the day Weds at 11:40am. Almost there! 

Here’s the big picture of Festina Lente’s Pacific Cup entry right now:

THE RACE:  

The Pacific Cup (https://pacificcup.org) is sailed every even year.   First raced in 1980, it is billed as, “The FUN Race to Hawaii.”  The course is 2,070 nautical miles (2,380 statute miles) from San Francisco, CA to Kaneohe Bay, Oahu, HI. 

THE COMPETITION:  

Of the sixty four entries (https://admin.pacificcup.org/entries) in the fleet, just over half are from the Bay Area. The rest are from elsewhere in CA, as well as several other states (AK, HI, MN, OR, TX, WA) and countries (Canada, Jamaica, Poland, Switzerland).  Each has:

• met offshore safety at sea training standards,

• been inspected for compliance with offshore safety equipment requirements, and 

• sailed a 150 mile (minimum) open-ocean qualifier.  

For a time, more than 70 boats had entered, but some have withdrawn.  With so much planning, preparation and practice, as well as life’s competing priorities, some say that, “Getting to the starting line is the hardest part.” 

THE BOAT:  

“Festina Lente” (https://admin.pacificcup.org/entry/festina-lente) is a Hanse 505 built in 2014.  The 2013 Judel/Vrolijk design is reviewed here https://www.sailmagazine.com/boats/boat-review-hanse-505   Two other Hanse 505s placed 1st (finishing in 12 days 8 hours 07 minutes and 58 seconds, elapsed) and 2nd (@ 12:20:14:08) in the cruising division of the 2018 Pac Cup.  There is no cruising division this year, but their day-12 benchmarks suggest an over-under for us to finish on day 12.  An accurate estimate is difficult to give, especially weather forecasts are only now beginning to come into focus.

THE RE-FIT:

Festina Lente has always been well-maintained and is in great shape.  Building on this already strong foundation, the boat has undergone a substantial re-fit for the Pac Cup.   An illustrative subset of the many upgrades includes new / reconfigured / serviced:  sails, jib leads, spinnaker pole, reaching strut, navigation and communications equipment, instrument bridge, wiring, antennae, hydro-generator, stainless steel bob-stay, standing rigging, running rigging, winches, bottom, folding propeller, rudder, emergency steering system, life raft, …  The list goes on and on. The project has gone on for more than a year, but by now, the boat is ready.

THE CREW:   

We have 5 “souls aboard,“ typically sailing with 2 crew on-watch / 3 off.  The watch system rotates each of us through different positions (e.g., helm, trim, maintain, sleep, etc.), and phases of the day (e.g., sunrise, midnight, etc.). 

The team includes:

• David, (from France, now CA) the boat owner. David has sailed for 9 years and has had great formal sailing training.  He is about five years into owning Festina Lente and has only recently been seduced by competitive sailing’s siren song.  His characteristic ambition was on display in jumping into a 50-footer as his first boat, and is again with Pac Cup being an early race on his sailing resume.  Great news for the rest of us, the same attention he gave to preparing the boat, especially with respect to safety equipment, went into the meal planning!

• Tracy, (from Hawaii, now CA) the project manager, Tracy taught offshore sailing for 10 years, has his 100-ton US Coast Guard (USCG) captain’s license, has raced plenty on multiple boats that he owned and others.  He has raced in the Pac Cup 4 times (once double-handed), is an inspector for the race (checking compliance with the equipment standards mentioned above), and his boat was voted “best-prepared” among the fleet in the 2018 race. Between his experience and approach, Tracy is the right Pac Cup mentor for our team.  

• Craig, (from Australia, now CA) the maritime engineer: Craig started working on superyachts more than 20 years ago and hasn’t looked back. He now owns a business doing so all over the world (https://miropo.com).  If it exists on a boat and can break, he has fixed more of them than most of us have changed lightbulbs.  He has done 14 TransAtlantic crossings, 11 by sail.   He is putting his own USCG captain’s license to good use right now driving a VIP support boat at the Sail GP San Francisco event this weekend.

• Eric, (from Iran, now CA) the medical officer, If Eric becomes our MVP, we hope it is for his sailing talents, rather than his bonus skill set.  As if it’s not reassuring enough to have a teammate aboard who is an ER doctor, Eric specializes in wilderness medicine. His resume includes expeditions at Everest Base Camp, Aconcagua, and other similarly remote areas. (And if needed, we have GW Maritime Medical Access (https://gwdocs.com/specialties/emergency-medicine/wecc/maritime-services) available for remote consultation.)   

• Jeremy, (from Chicago, now CA) an unapologetic junkie. At the moment last July when the phone call came in inviting me into this team, I was actually both re-packing my gear after Crew Overboard drills done in preparation for my 27th Chicago to Mackinac race and streaming the documentary Morning Light (https://movies.disney.com/morning-light) by Roy Disney, whose boat won the 2022 Pac Cup.  Racing to Hawaii is a Bucket List to-do for many, and has been a goal of mine since I began racing at UW-Madison (1986).  

The Festina Lente Pacific Cup campaign has been top-of-mind for each of us since we joined together as a team almost a year ago.  And we know it will remain foremost in the minds of our loved ones until we tie-off safely at the docks of Kaneohe Yacht Club after finishing (and shower).  None of us could indulge in this extraordinary adventure without their boundless love, confidence and support, which we all appreciate.

THE START:

Festina Lente’s PHRF 4 start is on Wednesday, July 17 at 1140 PDT, just offshore from the race deck of the St. Francis Yacht Club.   And then it is… Game On!

TO FOLLOW: 

Historically not a spectator sport, technology will make available written, graphic and data updates of the race. If interested, you can follow the race as it progresses.  

- The “YB”mobile app presents how boats are doing against each other and against the 2070 nautical miles that lie ahead.  

- Our blog will give updates from aboard. If you want these posts sent directly into your Inbox, enter your email address.

- The Pac Cup web site has a News page and the race has a social media presence.  

Instructions are here: https://admin.pacificcup.org/entry/festina-lente. 

- - Jeremy - -

Here is the best way to follow along as we race Festina Lente from San Francisco to Hawaii.

YB Tracking Website
https://yb.tl/paccup2024
Note: To show the wind, make sure to click the wind sock icon, and then click Windy.

YB Tracking App
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/yb-races/id452193682
Note: To show the wind, make sure to click the arrow icon.

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https://pacificcup.org/news
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A few things to keep in mind for those that are new to sailboat racing:

Other than reading this blog, if you want to know how we're feeling on board, look at the wind and where we are pointed relative to it.

Wind speed: Wind below 10kt we will be slow and frustrated. Wind between 10-20kt upwind and 15-25kt downwind is perfect. Wind above 30kt means we are significantly reducing sail and working to manage the boat and avoid equipment failure, but still well within the zone we can handle. We are extremely unlikely to see wind above 45-50kt, but if we do, we will be on a rollercoaster ride.

Wind angle: Upwind (pointed into the wind) means more heel (boat leaning over), stronger apparent wind (the wind + boat speed, which is the wind that you and the boat feel), and typically more bashing into the waves. Downwind means lower apparent wind, less heel, and more surfing of waves.

Temperature: Combine those elements with likely temperatures -- the first third of the race will be quite cold, especially at night, the middle third pleasant, and the last third (a bit too) warm -- and you have a good idea of what life is like onboard.

We're about to kick the boat blog into higher gear as we're finishing up last minute preparations for our departure on Weds. More on that in a future post, but the boat is in great shape, the most major item being a somewhat last minute addition of a pole and the hardware and equipment configuration that requires. Otherwise, my focus has been on dialing in personal gear to stand up to the elements (cold and hot) and ease of onboard routines, provisioning (with our last trip for the most perishable items the day before we set off), taking care of personal items (emergency lists, work to be finished up), and, of course, monitoring the weather.

We've been keeping an eye on the weather and downloading model updates twice a day from as soon as they were available. For the GFS, that's 16 days out, and for the ECMWF, that's 10 days. Having access to data doesn't mean that it's in any way reliable that far out. The first forecasts were tantalizing, showing strong wind at the start, a stable Pacific High, and good consistent wind throughout the course. That has changed many times over the past week as it's bound to do. We've kept an eye on low pressure systems moving east in Alaskan latitudes and a potential tropical storm that threatened to move through the course (and as of now is no longer predicted to appear).

As of now, we are watching for possible lighter winds at the start, which wouldn't be great for a heavier displacement boat. The synoptic scale models might under represent land effects -- we will get a much better view from the higher resolution models like HRRR and PWG 24 hours out from the start. There is also a question as to where the H will settle and how consolidated it will be. Yesterday evening's run showed a large wind hole in the middle of the course, that filled in in front of us. This morning's runs show a much more consolidated H and steadier wind throughout the course, a positive sign.

Starting soon, we will have a lot more models to look at, and will also be able to start comparing the ECMWF ensemble models to see how consolidated the routing is for each component model to the ECMWF forecast. Consolidated routing means more convergence and agreement within the component models, divergent routing means that there may not yet be agreement on the conditions and the headline model is more of an average of disagreeing inputs.

One of our goals for this blog is to not only give technical updates or share the news of the day, but to also try to convey the mindset of what it feels like to be setting of on such a great adventure -- more to come soon.

T-5 days!

-david