Fleet Updates

[Aussie]

Check the Jibeset “estimated finish” for the best guess of when boats might finish - based on SMG and the DTG

 

[SailingJoy]

Congrats to all the finishers so far! It was super fun to "armchair" watch the race from home... starting to dream about taking this on myself someday!

 

[DaveH]

AKUMU Report 7/4-5

Friday July 4
Happy Independence Day
Lots of flying fish on board this morning, several tiny ones and a couple 4 inches.

Batteries are back down to 20% lots of cloud cover yesterday and looks like today too .
That swell is out of the south east and the north east and it all comes together, piles up and makes a big nasty hole in the water. Challenging to drive. The auto pilot doesn’t like it and I get tired after a few hours back on the helm. Got to get our way through this and on to Hannalei
Set first reef and have the number two poled out.


Saturday July 5
Batteries down to 9% this morning .
Shut everything down except for the AIS and hand steered until 9 o’clock this evening. Batteries are back up to 31%.

I think the heavy sea state is causing the auto pilot to use more energy and I hadn’t accounted for that plus the additional cloud cover.

Running with full main and number 2.
I don’t think I could carry a kite in this, I’m already stuffing the bow into the waves ahead of us.

Hand steered from nine this morning until nine this evening. Hove to a couple times to take a break and get some snacks.

I’ve seen lots of flying fish today actually over the last couple of days tons of little ones and quite a few big ones a foot long or so, they have reddish wings and backs.
Put a reef in the main for the evening, I think it balances the boat better for the autopilot.

Trader Joe’s, Tika vegetables, and rice for dinner.

 

[DaveH]

catching up a bit here -
FUGU Finished at 19:56:02 July 06

Before he finished Chris shared these photo's and this message with an account of his broken boom
(editorial sidebar - the emotions here are completely understandable - this kind of thing does have a tendancy to put you off your food for a bit - also noting that Chris rallied admirably, and finished with a quite repectable average of 5.7kn with jib alone after bending the boom)



I am questioning all aspects of my sailing, am I unprepared? Inexperienced? Push to edge to much, taking risks I shouldn't?
All yesterday late afternoon and AII night I was doing most of the driving, because the autopilot was acting up, plus squall after squall was rolling through! It started with 15 knots between squalls blowing 22-23 knots and at the end of the night 22 was the standard and 28 was the squalls!!
So I got the jib down and secured the the AP lost control, a jibe happened and the boom bent!

 

[DaveH]

RAINBOW Finished at 09:17:02 Jul 7

AKUMU finished at 12:04:39 Jul 7

and with that, we have finished the last expected boat
INNFALL will continue to be tracked, and overwatch provided, until he is safely in port (Heading to Honolulu)

 

[mpolkabla]

TOPAZ 7/1 Race Report
All is well aboard the good ship topaz. As you can probably tell from the speeds dipping down in the race trackers, we have entered a lighter wind zone in the race these last few days. This is both a welcome reprieve but also adds new stresses as the boat has been finicky getting into a steady gear where it can be left unattended.

Topaz is what is considered an “ultralight” and one area it definitely outperforms in is light air. However, when the seas are not perfectly flat, and the waves not all going in the same direction, she can have a tendency to bounce around a bit which makes it harder to keep the speed up. It seems the last few days we have been provided lighter winds, indeed! But this has also come with southerly ground swell leading to a sea state that has been tough to balance.

Add to this last night and into the morning I was visited upon by many squalls. While the boost they provide is definitely welcome, it’s a lot of work getting the boat in a running before the squall configuration and then back to the light air reaching configuration immediately after. This lead me to a sleepless night of constantly adjusting the boats trim and direction, only to be completely thrown out of wack by a passing squall, then left to start all over again.

Luckily, the squalls took a break around 11:30am and I was able to get 2-3 hours of decent rest in. Staying ahead of caloric intake and fatigue is definitely the main challenge now as my ability to get the most out of the boat deteriorates quickly as I start to slip behind the needs of my physical body.

And with that final thought, I will leave you all with a recipe I was given just before leaving for the snack I am now eating, “topaz tapenade”. Take one small can of black olives, and one can of anchovies. Mix in the oil from the anchovies but dump the water from the can of olives. Add a dash of garlic powder and a bit of lemon to taste. Mash it all together with a fork and eat atop saltines.

So long for now!

Topaz Tapenade huh...??? I think you are on to something there Loren!!!