The crew rattled off a 100mile 12 hour and then did it again through the night. Jack hit what I'm sure will be the the fastest reported speed ever achieved by a Beneteau 411 at 17.7kts. The next fastest time is 15.3, so it's a pretty ridiculous number.
Most of the night was sailing a freight train at 10+, often it was actually very benign, an almost serene slow motion explosion. Other times it was near impossible, the wheel loads increasing to the point it was hard to hold on. . The sheet and the guy are steel bar tight at times, seemingly impossibly tight. Such are the forces required to tow us at steady 9.5-11kts. The day run was actually hindered by a spin sheet (yes it was taped) blowing off at 6am. The shackles show significant hinge degradation from the steel on steel friction, but should be good for a while longer.
Standby for further update if we can... naviguessing to do!
-----
At 7/14/2012 12:11 AM (utc) our position was 38°06.27'N 122°16.02'W
----------
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Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Day 3: Water World
All,
The race continues! The biggest change for us has been that we are clearly in the water world. Huge sky, vast ocean of deep blue, cloud structures all around and well into the pace of the watches, and life at sea. Everybody is comfortable and doing well. Crew dynamics are warm and jestful. The Chef continues to amaze, with great food and a devotion to the crews health. (i just looked at the table -Capresse salad with lasagne and wine! Awesome)(note later: it was fantastic!)
The boat has drawn first blood - Dennis cut a finger, and Travis hit his head on a corner getting into bed. Neither were smooth moves, but no real harm done.
Gotta Run for now: time to set a kite and see how it goes!
1915PDT- Kite is working.... We are down near 210M, but ok with that for now. Boat speeds are up to steady 8kts (9mph) after some slow periods at 6kts. For the last two days, we've not needed any help from the "standby" crew member. With the kite up on a tight reach, we will most certainly need more help on deck. Going to be a tougher night.
In the meantime, we are collecting weather fax and Dennis has the volume turned up pretty loud; He calls it "music". It sounds worse than a normal fax machine! The crew fought back, and we've now turned it down.
The two boats in front seem to be really fast in these conditions, we're going to work to reel them in a bit, time will tell.
We're back to sailing, task: sail into sunset!
-Bequia Crew
p.s If you want to send a few sentences to the crew, please email the people below: "<>"substitute for the thing... (prevents bots from spamming their address>
Becky Ronk <lastname>co@aol.com
Roshawn Bowers <firstname><lastinitial>@gmail.com
Nicholas Vetter <firstName>.<Lastname>@gmail.com (Still on honeymoon till ???)
p.p.s. current water depth, 15,300ft!
-----
At 7/14/2012 12:11 AM (utc) our position was 38°06.27'N 122°16.02'W
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
The race continues! The biggest change for us has been that we are clearly in the water world. Huge sky, vast ocean of deep blue, cloud structures all around and well into the pace of the watches, and life at sea. Everybody is comfortable and doing well. Crew dynamics are warm and jestful. The Chef continues to amaze, with great food and a devotion to the crews health. (i just looked at the table -Capresse salad with lasagne and wine! Awesome)(note later: it was fantastic!)
The boat has drawn first blood - Dennis cut a finger, and Travis hit his head on a corner getting into bed. Neither were smooth moves, but no real harm done.
Gotta Run for now: time to set a kite and see how it goes!
1915PDT- Kite is working.... We are down near 210M, but ok with that for now. Boat speeds are up to steady 8kts (9mph) after some slow periods at 6kts. For the last two days, we've not needed any help from the "standby" crew member. With the kite up on a tight reach, we will most certainly need more help on deck. Going to be a tougher night.
In the meantime, we are collecting weather fax and Dennis has the volume turned up pretty loud; He calls it "music". It sounds worse than a normal fax machine! The crew fought back, and we've now turned it down.
The two boats in front seem to be really fast in these conditions, we're going to work to reel them in a bit, time will tell.
We're back to sailing, task: sail into sunset!
-Bequia Crew
p.s If you want to send a few sentences to the crew, please email the people below: "<>"substitute for the thing... (prevents bots from spamming their address>
Becky Ronk <lastname>co@aol.com
Roshawn Bowers <firstname><lastinitial>@gmail.com
Nicholas Vetter <firstName>.<Lastname>@gmail.com (Still on honeymoon till ???)
p.p.s. current water depth, 15,300ft!
-----
At 7/14/2012 12:11 AM (utc) our position was 38°06.27'N 122°16.02'W
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Day 2: (close) Reaching for freedom.
1430PDT: We can no longer see the Farallon Islands! We continued to see seals out way past the islands- a bit of a surprise!
Multiple Sail changes so far this morning - trying to get the most out of the available wind. The swells are building, perhaps a early sign of some wind to come?:S
We have finally lost sight of any part of California. A big accomplishment in the conditions, and a sure sign that we are truly off on an ocean adventure.
2200PDT, 0500Z: The winds have filled in! We are now close reaching toward HI at a great clip. We've been 1-2 people on deck, just getting faster and faster as the night rolls on. The race optimization software has varied solutions based on tiny perturbations of the inputs. Classic optimization sensitivity. We are taking all this into account and will revalidate after the next weather download. The next roll call should be interesting; who got the wind first? Did everybody get it? How did they adjust their track based on info from yesterday?
It has been a really nice evening with wonderful food cooked by Mark, including excellent tomatoes and mixed green salad! 4 of us ate around the table, left Jack upstairs to single hand for a bit - he looked so happy. (and then happy again when he got to join in with dinner)
The ocean seemed big today - clouds WAY off in the distance, and a glossy sea. The swells were huge, but the gap between was also very large - seemed like long rolling hills as far as the eye could see. We have passed a few tankers/freighters, but have not seen our competitors since mid last night.
-Bequia Crew, blasting through the night
-----
At 7/14/2012 12:11 AM (utc) our position was 38°06.27'N 122°16.02'W
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
Multiple Sail changes so far this morning - trying to get the most out of the available wind. The swells are building, perhaps a early sign of some wind to come?:S
We have finally lost sight of any part of California. A big accomplishment in the conditions, and a sure sign that we are truly off on an ocean adventure.
2200PDT, 0500Z: The winds have filled in! We are now close reaching toward HI at a great clip. We've been 1-2 people on deck, just getting faster and faster as the night rolls on. The race optimization software has varied solutions based on tiny perturbations of the inputs. Classic optimization sensitivity. We are taking all this into account and will revalidate after the next weather download. The next roll call should be interesting; who got the wind first? Did everybody get it? How did they adjust their track based on info from yesterday?
It has been a really nice evening with wonderful food cooked by Mark, including excellent tomatoes and mixed green salad! 4 of us ate around the table, left Jack upstairs to single hand for a bit - he looked so happy. (and then happy again when he got to join in with dinner)
The ocean seemed big today - clouds WAY off in the distance, and a glossy sea. The swells were huge, but the gap between was also very large - seemed like long rolling hills as far as the eye could see. We have passed a few tankers/freighters, but have not seen our competitors since mid last night.
-Bequia Crew, blasting through the night
-----
At 7/14/2012 12:11 AM (utc) our position was 38°06.27'N 122°16.02'W
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
Day 1: Animals under glass
=All,
The crew got a great start with Ashley and Carly cheering us on from the deck of the St. Francis. Also, Stephen and Andy sailed down to Richmond on Tutto Bene Monday and out to the start line with us on Tuesday. It was nice to see her and have good friends and family there as we started this adventure. We moved quickly out of the bay escorted for a while by a dolphin. It is quite rare to see a dolphin in the bay - surely a good sign overall.
Sunset was classic, no clouds perfect gradation from pink to the deepest violet. Very nice view.
Soon after the gate, wind speed dropped. At the time I'm writing this (0400) we have cleared the Farallon Islands. We were becalmed for a short while, the rest has been just moving along at 0.5 - 3 kts. Which maybe the world knows just as well as we do with the new tracking devices. Yes, that track looks pretty funny but you will go to great extremes to find wind during a race. Luckily the wave state has been 0 or 1 (gentle rollers) so, we aren't slapping around too much. We actually set the 0.5oz bedsheet, have jibed twice, and are starting to get some momentum (we hope). As the night went on it got more frustrating as we would get a puff off our left shoulder and then on the right side of your face and then nothing....then it would start over with a different pattern. When you don't know where the competition is, you try everything you can think of to find something to push the boat.
We'll see where we are in the morning, 2-3 boats got a big jump, others took very different routes, we will have to work hard to catch them anytime soon. Again, though, you have better situational awareness than we do! (the link to the right of this blog takes you to the "yellow brick" plugin and you can select us, or our whole fleet,updates every 15 min(ish)) We only get position reports once a day on the other boats. The rest of the time we are guessing.
'The ocean is a desert with it's life underground and the perfect disguise above' : we have seen and heard large numbers of dolphins, whales, whale spouts, sea lions and birds almost continuously.
The bird calls are near and far add sound, sometimes like babies or cats. The eating must be good out here for them! One whale was within 50 yards of the boat - they are really huge. Other dolphins and sea lions have swum up behind us and we can hear them breath,close aboard, but can't see them. Erie, and cool!
We are all settling into the watch scheme and doing well. Dinner for us was grilled chicken. Sleeping has been easy, aided by various meds preventing mal-de-mare. Spirits are high despite the VERY slow start. Perhaps we can make it out to the high tomorrow - a full weather analysis will be downloaded shortly. Today is Mark's birthday! One more birthday in the ocean on Bequia.
This morning at 0800 we found out there was a hitchhiking chunk of kelp snagged on the rudder. Dennis thought of looking using a camera held underwater behind the boat.
Shawna handled those undersea duties. BTW, the water is 50+ degrees cold. Then Mark took off his shirt and grabbed the boathook. He poked around getting some of it off. Finally, Travis put on the goggles and stuck his head under so he could see it directly. Off it came. Film at 11 ..... days from now. Multiple avenues were explored before a diving mask was procured and we leaned over the transom backward and fished the kelp off with a boat hook. This was a great thing since the only other option was a very chilly morning saltwater swim!
The roll call reveals that our night of frustrations were shared by the whole fleet. Our "day run" of 38 miles seems short compared to our 150-200 mile runs later in the race. On the other hand, in a race, everything is relative. We are excited when the wind speed hits 5kts true. the whoops and hollers that just happened at 1100 hours were the first 5kts wind we've had in a long time.
From the crew, we wanted to say "thank you" to all those who have helped make this happen. It has been a bequitiful day.
-----
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
The crew got a great start with Ashley and Carly cheering us on from the deck of the St. Francis. Also, Stephen and Andy sailed down to Richmond on Tutto Bene Monday and out to the start line with us on Tuesday. It was nice to see her and have good friends and family there as we started this adventure. We moved quickly out of the bay escorted for a while by a dolphin. It is quite rare to see a dolphin in the bay - surely a good sign overall.
Sunset was classic, no clouds perfect gradation from pink to the deepest violet. Very nice view.
Soon after the gate, wind speed dropped. At the time I'm writing this (0400) we have cleared the Farallon Islands. We were becalmed for a short while, the rest has been just moving along at 0.5 - 3 kts. Which maybe the world knows just as well as we do with the new tracking devices. Yes, that track looks pretty funny but you will go to great extremes to find wind during a race. Luckily the wave state has been 0 or 1 (gentle rollers) so, we aren't slapping around too much. We actually set the 0.5oz bedsheet, have jibed twice, and are starting to get some momentum (we hope). As the night went on it got more frustrating as we would get a puff off our left shoulder and then on the right side of your face and then nothing....then it would start over with a different pattern. When you don't know where the competition is, you try everything you can think of to find something to push the boat.
We'll see where we are in the morning, 2-3 boats got a big jump, others took very different routes, we will have to work hard to catch them anytime soon. Again, though, you have better situational awareness than we do! (the link to the right of this blog takes you to the "yellow brick" plugin and you can select us, or our whole fleet,updates every 15 min(ish)) We only get position reports once a day on the other boats. The rest of the time we are guessing.
'The ocean is a desert with it's life underground and the perfect disguise above' : we have seen and heard large numbers of dolphins, whales, whale spouts, sea lions and birds almost continuously.
The bird calls are near and far add sound, sometimes like babies or cats. The eating must be good out here for them! One whale was within 50 yards of the boat - they are really huge. Other dolphins and sea lions have swum up behind us and we can hear them breath,close aboard, but can't see them. Erie, and cool!
We are all settling into the watch scheme and doing well. Dinner for us was grilled chicken. Sleeping has been easy, aided by various meds preventing mal-de-mare. Spirits are high despite the VERY slow start. Perhaps we can make it out to the high tomorrow - a full weather analysis will be downloaded shortly. Today is Mark's birthday! One more birthday in the ocean on Bequia.
This morning at 0800 we found out there was a hitchhiking chunk of kelp snagged on the rudder. Dennis thought of looking using a camera held underwater behind the boat.
Shawna handled those undersea duties. BTW, the water is 50+ degrees cold. Then Mark took off his shirt and grabbed the boathook. He poked around getting some of it off. Finally, Travis put on the goggles and stuck his head under so he could see it directly. Off it came. Film at 11 ..... days from now. Multiple avenues were explored before a diving mask was procured and we leaned over the transom backward and fished the kelp off with a boat hook. This was a great thing since the only other option was a very chilly morning saltwater swim!
The roll call reveals that our night of frustrations were shared by the whole fleet. Our "day run" of 38 miles seems short compared to our 150-200 mile runs later in the race. On the other hand, in a race, everything is relative. We are excited when the wind speed hits 5kts true. the whoops and hollers that just happened at 1100 hours were the first 5kts wind we've had in a long time.
From the crew, we wanted to say "thank you" to all those who have helped make this happen. It has been a bequitiful day.
-----
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
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