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From the fat fingers of the racers

From Falk Meissner s/v Shark on Bluegrass @ 1238 062521

SHTP 2021 log Shark On Bluegrass
Transcription of my hand written notes.

Saturday 06/23
Nice send-off: Vanessa , Malina, Tom, Brian, Tibu thank you!
Windy sail to the start.
Light wind outside the gate, change to Genoa, moving at4-5kn.
Sleep in the evening to catch up on my sleep deficit from last week (a lot of work-work finishing and starting a project and the packing prep.)
Change down to #3, don’t want to get caught at night with the Genoa up. Expecting shift to north -which never came as the coastal south Eddie moved between me and the synoptic wind.
Saw a grey whale splashing his fin on the water. He must have been in love with the Shark. Crossing to the north of the north farallones. As predicted fleet split into north and south

Useful:
Solar cells seem to have plenty of power
Figured out some menu items on the chart plotter. -finally.
Seems I am using the chart plotter as primary navigation tool. INavX app only as cross check. Also keep the chart plotter running most of the time ( despite power consumption)
Dodger: just the way to the start was worth the hassle of getting it. ( overtime, really LOVE the dodger, it allows to keep the companionway open and gives a holding point.) - Thanks Thomas, Brian, Aaron.
Better: dodger with handles on the side and stiffer front. Aaron was right, the natural tendency is to grab the higher point and not the handles on the deck.

Sunday 06/20
Somewhat cold during the night, lucky I brought the additional blanket. Gloomy day, calm. Worried that solar cells do not charge enough, but they do, even on overcast day.4.5-5 knin7-8 kn of wind.
Put the Genoa up. Fast but more stress. Autopilot can’t handle the puffs. Worried to get caught in big wind. Genoa requires a trip to the foredeck to get it down. Big heavy sail. Spin can be doused from the cockpit. ( after a few more days I am now convinced that hanks are the better option for this type of sailing. Jib / Genoa comes down by itself while staying attached without the need to go forward. It’s a Safety feature in heavy wind or seas... Can put up second sail without the need to take the first one off as well)
Decide to keep direct route northerly seems plenty of wind. Find out later that this was the wind circling the hole bringing me dead into the middle of the anti clock wise Eddie. Well second most west boat for tonight, did not last long so.
Still seasick, all the pasta with tomatoe sauce is coming out again. Together with all the water.
Still cold at night , need blanket and sleeping bag.

Useful:
Additional light blanket (Delta ~ Westin business class blanket for the connoisseurs ) additional layer when needed or as light blanket for naps.
Sleep most of the time in the windward berth. Lee cloth work! Faster into the cockpit. Fore peak is for quiet nights w.o. Foulies, even has a proper sheet.

Monday 06/21
Sailed into the wind hole, the only way around is to gybe, go north and put the spin up.
Light winds, so mostly slept through Sunday and Sunday nights,still working off the sleep deficit. Turns out I don’t need the alarm to wake me up to check. I wake up when the noises change:
Bow wave splashing = speed
Trim = flogging sails
Balance = autopilot only working short bursts not long side to side moves
Overpowered = heel
Traffic - AIS beeping - this one works beautiful I am happy I installed the transponder after Long Pac
Well and once in a while take a peek around of course.
First sunny day

Useful
Buckets without flimsy handles. Took the handles off on both buckets and cut holes near the rim to pull string through.

Tue 6/22
Found the wind last night. Making 8kn on a beam reach with the spin up under autopilot, while sleeping!!!.
It got too windy so needed to take the spin down. Manage to shrimp it which tore one clew off the spin. That’s why you use old sails for this. This was a 2011 spin. RIP. Change to #3 as we finally got into the wind.
Slept 6 hrs straight, nice, woke up to a dead main battery. Switched to backup. Let’s see; over discharged li Ion batteries go into sleep mode, manual says solar charger will wake them up. Tried to “jump start’ with the second battery before .... bad idea cable got warm quick. Let the charger do it’s work. Measured the voltage as the battery , creeping up from 11,80 to 12,40 over two hours or so. Battery comes back to life. Nice to see theory in practice....
First sunny evening. Beam reaching, with cross waves. Not quite comfortable.

Useful:
tool box with voltmeter.
Buying the autopilot one size up ( st 2000 tiller pilot) able to handle a lot. Thanks Rufus for the recommendation.
Less useful: mast instrument, boat speed, and digital compass. I sail mostly after COG and SOG. So take them off the MEMA network to save 0.4A in the power budget .
Useful: camomile tea, no appetite for any of the sodas or power drinks I brought. Drinking lots of water from then jar. The Lee cloth really work (not a common equipment on an Olson 25) allows me to sleep near the cockpit. Also noticed that I am very diligent to keep the cabin and cockpit orderly and clean.

We 06/23
Made 70 or so miles over night on a beam reach at7-8 kn. Slept from 9 pm to 7am with few interruptions.
One AIS alarm. Build into my dream. DCA 1.4 miles in 20 min. Hail the freighter that I see him amd change course slightly to pass his tern more clearly.
Main battery all well at 12.6V in the morning. Once the backup is charged combine both solar panels to charge the main. Getting 6-8A out of 150W solar. Compared to 2-3A use, depending on what is running. Very happy with the solar set up.
Decide against going to Genoa in the morning wind is about 12-13kn. It’s getting lighter rapidly.... I am about 50nm south of the rump line. So the calm of the High is in the way. Keep.going South_West around 215-220 on a beam reach under spin ( my other older spin, likely 20 years old, came with the boat - 1.5 oz cloth so this should hold.). Don’t want to go even more south. The gamble is how much distance to add to go south. I have a short light boat so Minimize additional distance while keeping moving in lighter winds vs the bigger boat. Well see.... from the standings I am in the middle of the field.

Washday, head to toe wet wiping and fresh cloth - very nice - spa experience

Not useful: not bringing hand soap. The bottle I grabbed is shampoo plus conditioner - too oily. Socks; I am basically barefoot all the time. Except when I go forward I put the boots on.
Useful: the Spinlock harness, comfortable, and less bulky than the inflatable. So much easier to keep on all the time.

Ahh, officially managed 1/4 of the to go distance. Let’s s celebrate - freeze dried pasta in tomato sauce, check, apple check, bell pepper check.

Thursday 06/24
Good spin run yesterday evening amd last night. Wind calmed down over night. 5-6kn under autopilot in 7-9kn of wind - autopilot is able to handle it. So go to bed.

Found the Pacific high! It’s where the weather models say it would be.... contemplating or the last two days . Running SW at 210-215 for three days now. Going more south? I am not going to make 200n, to get into the strongest trades. From the position reports none of the competitors went that far south staying north see,s risky as the high sits there. Same conclusion, keep reaching amd keep the boat moving. Making 5kn in little wind...

Have been keeping up with the family amd friends. Amazing that the Sattelite modem works re;active;y seamless even for casual calls. I also opened the first messages in the bottle. A jar full of wishes from friends amd family. Thank you Vanessa f-r organizing. Thanks to all who wrote so,etching. Today I found messages from Fran amd the cousins...

Useful:
Knee pads - finally started wearing them all the time, who would have thought what a useful invention. Chafe control - probably a know. One to he experience sailor. Manage to nearly cut through a spin sheet rubbing on the life lines on Tuesday. Caught it early enough. Very careful now to keep everything separated

Despite the annoyingly slow progress, this is the first fully enjoyable and comfortable day. It’s warm. The boat does not roll and keeps a steady pace. Finally go to do some house keeping amd to type up my notes from the last days no promises I will keep that up....
 
1332 from John Wilkerson s/v Perplexity on 062521

This is the first 'race' report from Perplexity. I hope others have wind - well, not really! I haven't had it since I congratulated myself on having crossed the high without having to jibe south. Oops. I worked really hard to do that and then let my guard down when I thought I made it. Rookie mistake #12.

On the other hand, it is beautiful out here and I think I'll go swimming this afternoon.

The race itself has been a real adventure. The sail out the gate was marvelous and the first couple of days were also intense with so many boats in contact. The next few days were great in terms of ideal reaching conditions with a blast reacher, storm jib and reefed main.

Getting used to going with little sleep and taking an hour to change a sail because of all of the back and forth crawling on the deck were also new adventures. The light wind conditions since then have been less great -except I am no longer crawling and getting lots of sleep. But - yesterday 10 days to finish, today 10 days to finish.
Just checked my fresh water...

Big thanks to all of the volunteers who make this 'race' possible!

S/V Perplexity
 
1412 on 062521 from Jim Quanci s/v Green Buffalo

Whats up on Green Buffalo today Friday the 25th at 200 pm

Slatting, slatting, slatting.
With an occasional sail change and tack.

Saw Mountain on the chartplotter on and off (not sure why most entrants keep turning their AIS transmitter off... what's the point, its not like one is going to "cover them"... and two large ships have passed by in the last few days and I sure want them to see me).

Spinnaker hoisted and dropped 3 times last night as wind came, went, and came back again from a 90 degree different direction. So dousing chute in forehatch, waiting 10-15 minutes for wind to come in from other side, swapping spinny gear and poles, and rehoisting. Crazy? Yes crazy. Crazier yet, hoisted the #1 this morning beating to the southwest (had the #1 on deck for flaking so was pretty easy to just hoist it). But beating southwest going to Hawaii? Really?

Maybe another two days of this slatting/light variable winds to deal with before the High heads back north to where its "supposed to be"?

Finished last of tortellini for late breakfast, and then a sardine sandwich for lunch. Its getting warm in the afternoon... so maybe dinner tonight is cabbage salad with chicken (not use the stove)?

Chatted with Mary by sat phone... was good to hear her voice! And check how the tomatoes, peppers, and my "baby fern palm tree" are doing up in Napa (and what is up with the boys too). :-)

Cheers,
Jim
Green Buffalo
 
From Bill Stange s/v Hula June 25, 2021 @ 1425

Is it true that the most awesome vounteer SHTP race committee ever just got penlized 2 hours for not providing position reports?
 
1441 from Kyle Vanderspek s/v Aloha on 062521

unlike the current wind status for most (all?) of us, I am quite alive.

cheers,
Kyle.

PS I don't think anyone is getting these as every time i send one i get some sort of error about it not forwarding to Brian? if this is actually getting received could you confirm it? thanks
 
1512 on 062521 from Bill Stange

Mid ocean photo op with Sea Wisdom! I can't wait to see my near useless flopping spinnker try to wrap around the headstay!
 
from Robb Walker s/v Nozomi @ 1529 on 062521

Brian, recd postn report by SailMail. Pls add date reference to your reports.
thx
 
1533 from Bill Stange on 062521

The good news is my wife made a 600 song iPod for me. The bad news is if the wind doesn't pick up, I may hear the same song twice!!
 
All well on the shark. It’s “Shark On Blue Glass” right now. 57nm in the last 24 hrs. Who said during the skippers meeting “ the pacific high is not going to be in your way?”
Falk

from Falk s/v SOB @ 1215 on 062621
 
All is fine, so calm that I flew the drone for some area shot of the SHTP doldrum! Hope everyone is well. I think we should get wind soon. All the best, Will

from Will s/v Sea Wisdom @ 1218 on s/v Sea Wisdom
 

[email protected]
1:16 PM (38 minutes ago)
to A, Mary

Today mark's one week on the water... and with the slow going and expected high to head back north tomorrow... likely 8 more days in front of me (if not 9). Slowest of the 19 Hawaii races I have done. C'est la vie. Just be thanful I am not on one of the smaller heavier boats which are doing the math and being unsure if they will make it to Hanalei for the Banquet.

After 20 hrs of a decent run (a decent run is staying above 2k boat speed and not "triple zeroing"), the wind died this morning... 5 hours of slatting with no headsail up. Heard Siren call a freighter passing nearby as he wanted to be sure the freighter knew with so little wind he wouldn't be able to get out of their way.

Now slatting is good for something... a busy morning... flake and bag the #1, cut the jib halyard back 12 inches to remove a chafe point, and drum roll please... take a shower on the foredeck!
Yes after a week with two clothes changes but no showers, I was starting to smell myself. It was time. Pull out the SunShower, canvas bucket (salt water wash and fresh water rinse), and the Prell (which lathers great in salt water). Boy did that shower feel great!

What else?
I did make that cabbage salad with chicken yesterday for dinner. And had enough left to add some tuna and have for lunch today.

Cheers,
Jim
Green Buffalo


from Jim @ 1316 on 062621 s/v Green Buffalo
 
Dr. Frankenstein has successfully re-attached the head of the half ounce spinnaker. It's ALIVE!!!!!

From Bill Stange s/v Hula 1532 on 062621 and at 1548

and @ 1548: For those of you flying to Hawaii today, Hula is no longer bright pink, but neon yellow!

Note from RC: An Intervention May be Needed for This One
 
Last edited:
and here, @ 2000, from the iphone of someone named Brian Vanderspek, is a missive from Kyle s/v Aloha:

Not a whole lot to convey about the day and night as of right now. I’m not sure I mentioned it in yesterday's report, but it was up and down three or four times between the code zero and the A2. I climbed in bed at around 11 I believe, west coast time, with the code zero up as the wind had been tight most of the late evening, but not ten minutes after getting in bed the wind backed and I had to swap back to the A2.

With the moon as bright as it has been out here the last few nights, a headlamp was hardly necessary during the maneuver - lack of visibility is always the most difficult thing about sail changes between sunset and sunrise. Since then it has been all A2 doing its best to keep the boat rolling.

Most of the night from what I could tell we had fairly okay wind, but with the autopilot in wind angle mode, I did wake up to notice a lift had taken us all the way up to a heading on 300 which is quite a long ways off from Hawaii. So while I got ready for a gybe in the wee hours of the morning, the wind fortunately returned to its previous direction just as I was ready to throw the helm over.

Speaking of gybing, most of the morning was spent very much on starboard in a little bit of wind keeping the boat moving, however watching the plotter and my heading, I noticed the boat slowly heading up from about 235 the night before to about 270. With the autopilot in wind angle mode, this had indicated a fairly sizable shift which is what is expected about now on the course as we should begin to enter the trade winds. With that shift I decided it may be time to gybe over to port and start heading towards Hanalei with the filling trades wind slowly heading me down towards the ultimate destination. But, after maybe two hours on the port board, fate would kick in and the wind out of nearly due west would vanish in favor of the hole that we have been sitting in for the past few days out of the north west. So it was back to starboard tack on a heading of about 250 trying to keep the boat moving in the general direction of Hawaii.

Thinking postive thoughts and hoping to be out of the hole and surfing my way to Hawaii in a few hours. Almost halfway there, Aloha to you all. -Kyle
 
From Brian Vanderspek, Kyle's brother @ 2135 on 062621

Looking forward to seeing the video. Here are the other 7 reports from Kyle if anyone is Interested in reading them.

Day 1

ALOHA and good evening from Team Aloha. Day 1 of the 2021 Singlehanded Transpac. It was an emotional morning getting underway from Richmond Yacht Club at 9:00 it was nice to have great support from the shoreside team as I motored out the harbor into a freshening breeze. Wind was heavy inside the bay for our start off The St. Francis Yacht Club, we saw about 20 knots, I opted for my new Ullman number 3 jib because that’s all I have onboard, I made the game time decision to leave the genoa on the dock which, benefits my rating giving me 3 seconds a mile. Having had success on the mark end of the last two Hawaii race starts I opted for that technique again and was rewarded with the first look of the entire fleet behind me. Much to similar fashion in the Pacific Cup start I watched the heavy boys sail by me in the chop and breeze of San Francisco. It was a very noticeable difference today sailing for the first time in heavy breeze with my new Water Rat rudder, absolutely incredible instead of the boat rounding up it just pressed forward. The goal now is to battle hard in the chop and slop to stay close enough to attack when the WHOMPER goes up and we start planning. That heavy breeze in the 20s on the way out the bay have given way to much lighter conditions at 5 knots currently with a decent chop and swell indicative of the bigger breeze offshore. Just short of the Farallons the sun had tried to break through a few times without much luck making it for a somewhat chilly afternoon and what will probably be a cold and dark night under the layer of clouds. Its days like today that every penny of good foul weather gear pays off. I’ve probably seen at least twenty whales so far with four of five of them having come in real close for a look, most about 100 feet off, but I believe I startled one earlier when he barrel rolled out of the way about 10 feet to leeward of the jib, not sure who was more scared, me or the whale, but it was probably me. Hoping to see the wind veer to the west and then north as I pass through the southerly surge and into the synoptic breeze. Hard to say for sure when this may happen, but I’m very much hoping for it to happen this evening. At about 2000 I put up the CODE ZERO and built speed, hoping to pike into the header and get back to the jib later tonight. Just had a slice of deep dish pizza from earlier this week, can’t say why, but man do I love cold pizza. That’s about it from Aloha. Hoping for a pleasant first night. –Kyle



Day 2

Good evening All! After spending most of the day with the jib up the wind backed a bit further south and I was able to once again put up the code zero this time with some success pushing me along a course nearing 230 which is the rhumb line. I have been able to make good progress to the west without giving up too much room to the pack that’s pushing further south which I think is going to pay big dividends in the long run, (I wonder if the pros would agree with my decisions).



At the 7 oclock hour the backing wind had me attempt to put up the A2 spinnaker which was very short lived as the light wind and waves made it struggle to pull the boat nearly as well as the code zero was. On a side note For those of you who don’t know the first 150-200miles of this race are not Aloha’s favored conditions, as soon as we can crack off put up the spinnaker and start surfing we should be able to make nice gains on the heavier boat. So right now I continue to battle hard for every mile to stay close enough to make my move. So it was back up with the code zero in the diminishing evening breeze.



Though still not into the synoptic wind, I am once again looking to see the area of light wind pass (or more accurately me pass through it) to the building northerly sea breeze on the other side. From what I can tell on AIS, I am the most western boat at the moment and I hope to utilize that to be the first to poke into the new wind.



Everything Is working well onboard, occasionally the GPS drops signal for a few seconds, maybe 4 seconds an hour, but I believe its because of the new solar panels that are covering the gps puc. Once I get onto starboard tack I plan to organize the interior, it is absolutely insane the amount of equipment that is onboard this boat, I do not know how we ever did this race with 4 grown men down here. I wish all the Dads out there a very Happy Fathers Day.



That’s all for now from Aloha hopefully by morning the A2 will be up and we will be blasting to the finish line.



Day 3



From Kyle-As you all may have noticed, last night was a pretty big turning point in the race for most if not all of us out here. I began the evening firmly on port tack with the code zero up. Several times through the night the southerly wind attempted to die and give way to the synoptic northerly. for me this happened at i believe around 1 am PST when I slowly headed more and more south before committing a gybe to starboard tack that was taking me north at a heading of around 300. Not much later the wind went forward and i was able to continue on a course of about 250 as the wind slowly began to build.



During the night after the transition, I was very happy to have popped my head out and noticed some stars attempting to poke through the wet marine layer which had soaked the boat with a light drizzle for a few hours before the sun came up. At day break, the clouds persisted but were beginning to show signs far off on the horizon. Not long after, i made the decision to change headsails to the A5 spinnaker which is the smallest I have onboard. Though winds were not too high at the time, they were forecasted to increase as the day went on and this spinnaker would provide me the best opportunity to make good progress in the direction I want to sail without getting pushed too low.



With morning winds in the low to mid teens and the sun making an appearance in a blue sky, I was able to put together a few good hours of boat speed with the waves lining up well with my course and surfing waves from a steady 8 knots up to about 12.5. Noon time brought some lightening winds which although frustrating at times certainly could have been worse and as we ease into the third evening underway the winds from this morning seem to have returned. Not present however is the agreeable sea state that had allowed for surfing before, but now I am seeing a bit of a swell well forward of the beam making for a somewhat bumpy ocean.



Once again, the sun is unfortunately long gone, but the temperature seems to have gotten maybe a little warmer since yesterday and the night before so that is a small gain. Tomorrow will likely see the beginnings of the freeze dried selections as I intend to finish up the last slice of pizza for dinner this evening. For those curious, I haven't seen any whales since the first afternoon which has been somewhat pleasant as they gave me quite a few scares early on. I have seen a few jelly fish and a sun fish today along with a couple balls of discarded mooring or fishing lines.



Day 4



From Kyle- Today has been a trying day to say the least, full of ups and downs. To begin the day, we saw some good jib reaching into warming temperatures after what ended up being a fairly pleasant night. Good wind in the morning led to some lighter air in the low teens around mid day which threw me back into decision time as to if I could and should fly a spinnaker. After much internal deliberation I decided to go ahead and put one up, the wind had lightened and backed a little and the sun was shining, it was obviously the right call.



Again I chose the smaller A5 spinnaker which went up without a hitch, I bumped up the gain to the maximum on the autopilot and it had no issues holding with the kite today for about an hour. Unfortunately the wind had other plans as it steadily built and I had to continue to fall off on angle to keep the autopilot in control. This process continued until I reached an angle where I felt I had to take over to maintain some height. So I hand steered for a bit in some really good conditions through mostly sunny skies with a few of what I could only describe as mini squalls rolling through with dark clouds and more breeze.



After some time and still falling to leward of the course I wanted, I decided to take down the spin in favor of the jib. This is where things got a little sideways, the spinnaker came down without a hitch but unfortunately it brought down the shiv at the top of the mast with it (the shiv is a wheel at the top of the mast that allows the halyard line to move freely whiteout chaffing.) All 8 rivets had sheared and the turning block exited its hole and had decided it was done being up there. The only consolation is that I do have a spare spinnaker halyard, though it is somewhat undersized for some of the conditions out here and will likely only see use once the wind’s back and loads on the spinnaker halyard is reduced. Till that time I will be stuck with the jib hoping to make the best of it, and for the mean time, the jib is for sure the right sail (as I type surfing to 14 knots at a great angle). It’s going to be a good night. Aloha!



Day 5



After yesterday’s debacle with the main spinnaker halyard mast shiv coming out, the mood onboard between me, myself, and I had become a tad bit gloomy - due to the prospect of not being able to continue to run a spinnaker with a primary halyard and having to utilize the backup as a primary. But, these worries were cast aside as I was able to get a good night's rest last night running under the rather benign jib, and day broke on another beautiful day on the Pacific. Plenty of sun today made for a very welcomed change as winds slowly eased back behind us and are now pushing us along under the guidance of the trusty A2 spinnaker.



This morning I broke into my first freeze dried and jetboiled meal of the race, Mountain House breakfast hash was just the warm meal the doctor called for after a chilly night, seasoned with salt and pepper to taste and a dash of Cholula hot sauce it's as if it was fresh out of a gourmet 5 star kitchen. The biggest disappointment of the day came when I realized that all five of the avocados I had brought magically and mysteriously ripened at the exact same time, so lunch time called for an avocado with salt and pepper of course, some beef jerky and a little dried mango, not exactly your typical meal, but it sure hit the spot.



The afternoon and early evening consisted of lots of sunshine and hand steering to pass the time and the miles away. As some of you may have noticed, I spent a good portion of the day making progress to the south of the general track of the fleet and of rhumb line. My reasoning for this is that over the course of the next two days, a rather large hole of no wind will develop right in the middle of the rhumb line course between SF and Hanalei. By taking a dive to the south it is my hope that I can just skirt around this hole without getting sucked up into miserably light winds. I do suspect that over the next 48 hours I will come be into lighter winds, but I hope to power through them with the leverage that I have gained by making moves to the south over the last 24 hours.



Having officially passed over the quarter way marker this morning and noticing right now as I type how sunny it still is for 8:40 west coast time, I am actually feeling like there's some significant markers of my progress towards the islands. Of note as well is that I have now passed the lattitude of Aloha’s home port of Mission Bay with my current lattitude being 31* 50 and Mission Bay being 32* 45.



Additionally having passed a quarter of the way this morning, I was afforded the opportunity to open a envelope that contained a whole bunch of hand written cards from some of the MBYC juniors, mostly well wishes and some very sound advice including “don’t luff, ” “check for kelp,” “don’t drop your main sheet” and my favorite “pay attention.” Just the coaching I need as I cleated off the main sheet, threw on the autopilot and headed back inside for some lunch and time out of the sun.



The Simrad autopilot has taken over piloting duties while I rest and do all the other million things to do onboard when I'm not driving. So far using the apparent wind angle function, it has been steering pretty well under the A2, I sure hope this trend can continue as we progress forward.



Dinner this evening will surely be some mysterious yet-to-be-decided-upon freeze dried food and I must say I'm quite looking forward to it. Hope anyone reading this is enjoying as much as I am out here but I can't wait to make it to Hanalei. Until tomorrow, ALOOOHHAA!



Day 6



Today is Thursday the 24th, I only know that because I checked my phone three times while I typed it to confirm it, and life onboard Aloha is just as one might expect it to be if you have been following along with the last couple updates or have looked into the weather for the part of the ocean I'm currently sailing on.



For anyone interested, i would highly recommend the "Windy" app, i use it on my phone quite often when I'm back home and has a very good user interface to look into forecasts for anywhere in the world using some of the same models we use out here while sailing as well as other nifty features like looking into cloud cover or Doppler radar and such. If you happen to check on Windy with my current position (31* 05N 135* 55W) you might notice that there isn't a whole lot of wind out here. Happily I can say that I am not the only one in this boat when it comes to this rather large hole as its basically unavoidable for this fleet shy of sailing perhaps to the Aleutian islands or maybe via the equator.



With that being said, last night was a fairly calm night with the Simrad Autopilot following the dying breeze along its course and I was able to get a considerable amount of rest till about 2:15 (PST) when a puff came along and tried to round the boat up a bit, the autopilots reaction was of course to pull the tiller all the way towards it which in turn somehow made the lever of the auto pop off the little knob on the tiller, not a problem at all, but with the tiller and the autopilot no longer attached, the boat continued to steer as it pleased till i climbed out of bed and rectified the situation. At the time the wind was still a pleasant 10 to 12 knots and it was a beautiful night so I decided to hand steer the boat for a bit under a somewhat clear sky that was illuminated beautifully by a full or nearly full moon. A couple hours of hand steering led me into the path that i knew was coming of sailing slowly into dying winds.



As winds backed to around 6 knots, I decided it was time to pack it in and get some rest and let the autopilot do some more driving. The morning broke and mercifully there is a little more wind than i had expected there to be, almost all morning i have had around 8 knots of wind with puffs to 10 and 11. for the junior sailors out there, that may seem like plenty wind in your sabot, but having come off of 18 to 20 knots, and still having over 1300 nautical miles to go, I could surely use a bit more wind, couple that with it being nearly right on my transom, and the apparent wind speed is down to a few knots across the deck.



Brian had mentioned there was some curiosity about my water onboard as well as how i am getting electricity. For water, the race requirement was that we start with 21 gallons of water, this is far more than I could or would consume on a race of this duration with a pretty easy rule of thumb being or about a gallon of water per day. To satisfy this requirement in the most logical manner, I have two small tanks that have been onboard for previous races of 3 and 6 gallon capacities each, I supplemented these two with two Waterport tanks, one is a 5 gallon that is mounted on the stern pulpit and the other is the 8 gallon Weekender which is situated under the port bunk.



Both the Waterport tanks have hoses on quick connects and pulp caps so that i can pressurize them for onboard showering and wash down, and with the pulpit mounted one sitting in the sun, it gets nice and warm as an added bonus which we took advantage of upon finishing the Delta Ditch Run in Stockton two weeks ago, nothing beats a nice warm shower after a long day of sailing. For those of you interested you can learn more or buy yourself one of these great units at

thewaterport.com



Should I somehow run out of water, we also have an onboard water maker which runs off of 12 volt power or manually in case of an emergency, during normal racing, this would be employed to keep up with the larger water requirements of a full crew.



Electric power to power everything from the autopilots to the navigation system to the running lights and this laptop I'm typing on is all powered through a Watt & Sea Hydrogenerator. During the day when its sunny, two solar 100 watt solar panels feed juice into the Watt & Sea convertor which charges the batteries. At night when there is no sun, should I need to charge the batteries additionally, i can deploy the hydrgenerator off the stern, its hinged and looks a bit like a little electric motor back there and when deployed makes anywhere from about 50 to 300 watts of power depending on boat speed.



In addition to the obvious power it provides regardless of the cloud state, when deployed the hydrogenerator provides a nice whirling sound which is directly related to speed through the water and at this point I can just about gauge to within a half a knot what the boat speed is based on the pitch of the whirling, as far as drag is concerned, i have done lots of testing with it and have never noticed any speed differences although I'm sure there must be some minute drag. More later unless the wind happens to pick up. Think windy thoughts for me out here and let’s hope my five to the south pays dividends like I have planned. ALOHA!



Day 7



I really do wish that I could tell you today has been an eventful day of sailing, but sadly it really has not been, with that said, it has however been a good day aboard the good ship Aloha with some not particularly sailing related happenings to share.



The day started off rather early on in the evening as I was dragging the watt and sea hydrogenerator overnight, atop the power converter which convert the electricity to charge the batteries is a glowing pad which indicates the status of the incoming power when charging or when no charge is coming in it indicates the status of the batteries. If I recall correctly, the blue glow is used to indicate that between 100 and 200 watts is being fed into the batteries, however in my dazed status, I saw that the inside of the boat was glowing with a faint blue light and I thought "gee, it must be the morning, I feel like I just fell asleep, I can't believe I slept through the whole night!" after getting out of bed and crawling over to my phone on the charging pad, i realized that it was not in fact morning, but rather it was 1130 at night and between the very bright full moon illuminating the outside and the blue light glowing the inside, i had been completely fooled. Luckily however it wasn't long before i was able to resume my evening rest after a quick scan of the horizon and the chart plotter.



For those who may be wondering what the sleep/rest schedule in fact is, it's not a whole lot different from that. I have generally been doing my absolute best to set the boat up under the helm of the autopilot for the conditions which we are in at the moment and the conditions I expect to be in within the next few hours, then I will scan the horizon for any signs of anything and also check the chart plotter for AIS targets. If none are present, and there have been very few, I will rack out as best I can usually with a quick check of the chart plotter for speed, heading and if there are any contacts every so often till I actually fall asleep.



With the size and weight of Aloha, nearly any change in trim, heel, speed (by the noise of the water on the hull, or the pitch of the watt & sea) I can feel in my light state of sleep and will get out of bed and at the very least check the plotter or check sails and helm if need be. If all is satisfactory then it's back to bed. This process in not just exclusive to the night time, because rest is generally so short and interrupted at night time, I will try to extend this process after breakfast and in the early evening/late afternoon as well to maximize my rest hours.



Speaking of breakfast, this morning was consumed by Mountain House's Southwest Spicy Breakfast Hash, which is quite good if not very sneakily spicy! lunch consisted of my very first PB&J onboard this crossing coupled with a Fuji apple which made me feel like I was straight out of elementary school setting my PB&J on my knee while I take a bite out of my apple and drink my bottled water, all I was missing was the dried mangoes which I had for an afternoon snack. With the progressing time change as I make my way west, I can't quite say its dinner time nor do I have any idea what I will be getting after for dinner.



As far as the actual sailing has been today, it has been a mixed bag for sure. All night I had the trusty A2 spinnaker up and had done quite well with it for some time. Come about mid morning the wind had dropped some and shifted forward a bit and after heading down to a course lower than I want to be sailing, I dropped the A2 and put up the Code Zero for a few hours, this sail did phenomenal in the very light air which i have been dealing with all day and was generally able to keep the boat moving at very near the wind speed in much of the lighter 3 to 5 knot conditions when the wind was forward of about 130 degrees true wind angle. Then as of about an hour ago at 5 west coast time, the wind moved back aft and it was time to switch back to the A2. Not long after swapping to the A2 I decided it might finally be time to fold and bag the jib as I very much hope it won't be seeing any more action for the remainder of the race.



Winds continue to be very light and boat speed is still sadly quite low although on the bright side we are pointing in the right Hawaiian direction and there should be better breeze in the days to come. With that small bit of optimism, I bid thee farewell from the trusty Aloha.


Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 27, 2021, at 06:20, Jacqueline Philpott <[email protected]> wrote:


Too bad about the SSS Forum. It's a bit finicky. Ok. It's real finicky. Thanks for the reports. I have a video of the start with Aloha and the other three boats in his fleet. Will get that out maybe tomorrow on my vimeo account.

On Sat, Jun 26, 2021 at 9:14 PM Brian Vanderspek <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi Jacqueline,
I’m Kyles brother, unfortunately I am stuck at work in Europe but my parents, Hugh and Cindy will be flying out along with a few other friends from our yacht club for Kyle’s Finish. I will pass along your contact info to my parents. I have been trying to log into the shss forum to post Kyles daily reports but I have not been able to register. I will keep sending his reports to this email. Aloha!

Kind regards,
Brian Vanderspek

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 27, 2021, at 06:10, Jacqueline Philpott <[email protected]> wrote:


Thanks for this report. Are you Kyle's brother? Uncle? Will you be in Hanalei Bay, too? If so, call us if you like, come by Race Control Central @ Pali Ke Kua #203 in Princeville. My phone is 510.681.5440 - Jackie

On Sat, Jun 26, 2021 at 8:51 PM Brian Vanderspek <[email protected]> wrote:
Not a whole lot to convey about the day and night as of right now. I’m not sure I mentioned it in yesterday's report, but it was up and down three or four times between the code zero and the A2. I climbed in bed at around 11 I believe, west coast time, with the code zero up as the wind had been tight most of the late evening, but not ten minutes after getting in bed the wind backed and I had to swap back to the A2.

With the moon as bright as it has been out here the last few nights, a headlamp was hardly necessary during the maneuver - lack of visibility is always the most difficult thing about sail changes between sunset and sunrise. Since then it has been all A2 doing its best to keep the boat rolling.

Most of the night from what I could tell we had fairly okay wind, but with the autopilot in wind angle mode, I did wake up to notice a lift had taken us all the way up to a heading on 300 which is quite a long ways off from Hawaii. So while I got ready for a gybe in the wee hours of the morning, the wind fortunately returned to its previous direction just as I was ready to throw the helm over.

Speaking of gybing, most of the morning was spent very much on starboard in a little bit of wind keeping the boat moving, however watching the plotter and my heading, I noticed the boat slowly heading up from about 235 the night before to about 270. With the autopilot in wind angle mode, this had indicated a fairly sizable shift which is what is expected about now on the course as we should begin to enter the trade winds. With that shift I decided it may be time to gybe over to port and start heading towards Hanalei with the filling trades wind slowly heading me down towards the ultimate destination. But, after maybe two hours on the port board, fate would kick in and the wind out of nearly due west would vanish in favor of the hole that we have been sitting in for the past few days out of the north west. So it was back to starboard tack on a heading of about 250 trying to keep the boat moving in the general direction of Hawaii.

Thinking postive thoughts and hoping to be out of the hole and surfing my way to Hawaii in a few hours. Almost halfway there, Aloha to you all. -Kyle
 
1215 on 062721 from Falk on SOB: Wind finally picked up, 105 miles in the last 24 hrs. Nice tropical breeze....
falk
 
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