As a wise old sailor once said: “The pessimist curses the wind, the optimist wants to change the wind, the realist adjusts the sails and moves on”.  Pam and I are here in Hawaii being realists.  Perhaps a better explanation is needed …

The start of the Pac Cup for Bequia, our ride back, was filled with a bit of frustration, followed by exhilaration, followed by frustration.  The Pac Cup fleet was greeted by mostly zero wind right outside the Gate.  One of the crew, in exasperation, coined the saying “The fun race to the Farralons” which are about 15 miles out.  Finally, after two-and-a-half long days, the wind filled in and it was Game On for the crew of Bequia.  Reports were coming back about glorious sailing with high boat speeds and a shot at third place overall.  When sailing, problems sometimes aren’t recognized as such right off.  Apparently, the lack of steering ability on Bequia during this time was one such instance.  Innocently enough, I’m told the boat was quite balanced under the current sail plan and moving along nicely until it came time to gybe.  Let me set the scene:  The Gybe is the act of turning the boat with the stern coming through the wind.  A consequence of this is the sails have to be adjusted, in particular the Spinnaker can be a handful when its really blowing, which it was.  The timing between the driver, the foredeck person and the spinnaker trimmer is critical to pulling it off without breaking something or hurting anybody.  Unknown by anyone on the crew was the lack of steering due to a sheared bolt holding a steering cable pulley.  When it came time to gybe, the story goes the spinnaker overpowered the uncontrolled boat and ended up ripping itself to pieces.  I’m sure the deck of Bequia at that moment was definitely not G-rated.  Fortunately, nobody was hurt during all of this and things were cleaned-up and stowed away in time.  The sheared bolt however, was a tougher issue to tackle.  Ultimately, the choice to return was made and Bequia limped home under jury-rigged steering.

For us, we chose to fly out to Hawaii as planned.  Our dear friend Paul has allowed us to enjoy our time on the islands as a vacation rather than just a stop on our journey.

Fair Winds,

Pam & Roger

Do you remember reading about the adventures of Pam and Roger and their first Pacific Cup sailing adventure? Well, July 25Th they have the privilege of joining the crew of the Bequia again …here’s what they posted today;

Greetings all:

As many of you know, Pam and I are going to be crew delivering the racing yacht Bequia back from Hawaii after the 2010 Pacific Cup Yacht race.  The race itself has a staggered start beginning July 5.  We should be on the water for the return sometime around July 25.  Since this will be our second time making the return trip, I guess we we can’t use the excuse that we’re newbies when something goes wrong on the boat…  For those unfamiliar with the race, its run every even-numbered year from San Francisco to the island of Oahu.  Thats about 2300 miles straight line.  Anywhere from 50 to 70 boats compete in the race.  The boats range from 24 to over 70 feet in length and are “handicapped” using a complicated formula to theoretically even-out the field.  The event is billed as the “fun race to Hawaii” but don’t think for a minute that the skippers and crews are going to be lax on the sailing.  Its not uncommon for each fleet of 5 to 8 boats to battle each other at the start as if the race is just a short distance around the bouys.

The race organization has a terrific website www.pacificcup.org that you can track each of the boats individually or by fleet with background stories, pics and links to many of the participants’ websites.  The great thing is that a lot of the boats have the ability to send e-mail during the race that can be accessed on the website.  Fortunately, Bequia has e-mail and the race crew will be sending back regular updates (blogs) as the race progresses.  Of course, Pam and I will be keeping a regular blog on the return trip also.

Check the Pacific Cup website for the race crew blog.

Roger & Pam

We’re safely in port, having arrived on Friday, August 29 to a rousing group of friends, family and well wishers.  A surprising, and unexpected arrival party to say the least.  But I’m getting ahead of myself …

The last four days of our journey contained the highest of highs and lowest of lows so far.  It tested and challenged ourselves, made us question our motivations and verified our place in the natural world.

Three days out found us approximately 250 miles of the California coast in a favorable position for a beam reach to the Gate.  We were looking forward to finishing the trip and having a cold one with family and friends.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, the expected 30-knot winds were going to be difficult, but we knew we’d get through them fairly quickly.  Well, little did we know the full extent of our weather.  Yes, the winds were 30 + knots (actually, they topped out at 35 sustained with gusts to 37) but it was the combined swell and wind waves that made for the roughest water for the whole trip by far.  The swell was coming from large low-pressure systems off the Oregon coast.  These “rollers” were conservatively 30 feet from crest to trough (later in the bar I overheard the number had grown to 40 feet).  Throw another 5 feet of wind wave on top of the swell and you have the makings of a maelstrom that I hope to not repeat soon.  The sail configuration at this point had been reduced to a triple reef in the main and zero jib.  That is less than 20% of our full sail area.  Later, I learned that it was the worst seas the skipper had experienced in his 40 years … Needless to say, for two days life on board was difficult.  The boat was being tossed around like a cork.  The incessant howl in the rigging foretold more long hours of this torment.  Cooking was masochistic due to the motion.  Pam braved it all and delivered wonderful meals to some equally beat-up sailors.  Around this point you might have seen a deviation in our track away from the Gate, like towards Monterey.  This change was an effort to “run off” from the gale to achieve a safer, more comfortable ride and get into an area of lower winds to the south.  Around the latitude of Half Moon Bay things settled down with winds in the teens and diminishing waves.  By early Friday morning the seas were flat and we were ghosting along in 8 knots of breeze.

Being the rookie, the watch system was designed to sandwich me between the two experienced hands.  That way an overlap of sorts wouldn’t be too much of a burden for the skipper or first mate.  Hence, my 0200 to 0500 watch slot was pretty well established and something I loathed but accepted.  For those that know me, I’m not a late night person.  Early morning, say 0500 or later is just fine.  Well, for once I was thankful for that 0200 slot, as that early Friday morning was simply magic.  To set the scene, we had a sky that was absolutely filled with more stars than you can imagine.  The Milky Way was so bright that it created its own reflection on the water, like a full moon would.  Of course, the moon was nowhere to be seen.  Add to this the bioluminescence in the water that created its own “milky way” trailing behind the boat.  This phenomenon is a result of millions of tiny marine organisms that emit light when excited by movement.  While I was perfectly content to ponder the meaning of life in this environment, the arrival of a pod of dolphin simply bordered on surreal.  They were like torpedoes, trailing bioluminescence through the water, diving under the boat, riding the bow wave and occasionally breaking the surface with their exhalations.  They were gregarious, with their squealing dolphin sounds and their seeming invitation to come out and play in the neighborhood.  Pam and I watched them for hours, feeling a connection to the sea unlike anything we have experienced the whole trip. 

By the time the sun rose on the horizon before us, the Farallon Islands were in view and we were motoring with zero wind.  We still had approximately 35 miles to the gate, so with the fog closing in around us, it was all hands on deck to keep watch for other vessels.  Soon the foghorns of the headlands north of the Golden Gate Bridge led us into the bay with Pam having the honor of driving the boat under the famous span.  The fog lifted enough to provide a postcard view of the City and enough wind to carry us through the bay without the motor.  Closing in on Vallejo, we were faced with one last trick from Murphy.  While the cell phones were getting warm from all the non-stop activity, the wind diminished to near nothing.  We needed to motor the last few miles.  No problem, just fire up the motor like we did countless times.  Unless it’s the last time.  Turn the key, hit the switch.  Nothing.  Silence.  No time for a beer and cigar, even if we had them!   After some discussion about a solution (which included a tow from a yacht club boat) I relied on the old hotwire method by shunting the starter solenoid with a screwdriver.  It worked!  We motored in to Vallejo Yacht Club to a surprisingly large reception.  Those first few steps on the dock were a bit difficult, as there seemed to be a permanent motion going on, although nobody else seemed to notice it.  I’m also convinced someone secretly placed gimbals on the house foundation while we were gone as it too seems to have a permanent motion that only Pam and I notice.  Hmmm.

In closing, I came up with three things I learned from this trip:

1.         Hawaii is a really long way from San Francisco.

2.         You hear people say all the time what a small world it is.  I’m convinced these same people are not offshore sailors.

3.         As much as you may feel alone out there, the cruising community is a surprisingly tight-knit group.  One of Pam’s responsibilities was helping the skipper with the evening “roll call” of returning boats.  Her 12:00 midnight shift consolidated the position and condition information for a handful of boats.  This information was then sent via e-mail to the Pacific Cup organization for posting on their website.

Fair winds,

Pam and Roger

ps: There were many, many more wonderful and interesting experiences that do not appear on these pages.  If you want to learn more you’ll have to buy us a drink.

Pam Burns…Ready to set
    sail!
and Roger Hunter…Ready for
    the adventure!

Bequia (Beck-we)… Ready
    to go!

Skipper Dennis…..Last call to his wife!

RH, hard at work

Beautiful Moon over the Pacific Ocean

Happy Anniversary!

Tres Amigos…

The Hitchhiker

The “Cookie”

Through the Gate!

Our engine overheated this morning again, so we are currently dealing with that, but we think we can just do what we did before.
 What we’ve learned in the past two days has rounded out our whole experience.  I believe there are some bets going on at the yacht club as to when we will actually hit the GG Bridge.  As for Roger and I, this has been another epic experience for the two of us.  With 160 miles to go, give or take a few, we are certain there will be winds, just hopefully in the direction we need them to get us back to land.
 Love to the fam.  Pam

Go to http://www.pacificcup.org. Next, click on the link that says “Satellite Tracks for Returning Yachts“, click on Boat Selector and the arrow that say’s Return 1. Check the box next to Bequia and click on Boat Selector again…..you can zoom in and see the tracking right off the coast of San Francisco.

Here are the links to the location as well;

8-28-08

 They should be home soon now!

Pam and Roger