Subject: Cayenne Update
Date: 09 Jul 2002
After our miserable start yesterday (mostly my fault), we managed to catch a few boats as we went out the Gate. But it was all down hill after that, as the wind shut down about 45 minutes after we got to the real ocean. Boats that were lighter and could point a little higher were able to make their way slowly offshore where there was more wind. Once they were there, they disappeared over the horizon. Not only were we left behind, but we managed to do three 360 degree turns as the sloppy sea conditions grabbed the bow and turns us back towards home. I can only presume that Cayenne was homesick already. Needless to say, the conditions were not pleasant for those inclined towards seas sickness.


HAPPY CREW
Once we escaped the clutches of Ocean Beach and Pacifica and got further offshore, the Weather Gods truly started to smile on us. The wind picked up to about 18 to 20 knots and Cayenne started to show what she could do. As night fell, we were treated to an incredible array of stars, with no moon to dilute their brilliance. This is extremely unusual for offshore California. In addition to their beauty,it makes staying on course so much easier. The stars were augmented by points of luminescence in the water too.

The wind has held throughout the day today too as has the clear skies. So we are making good progress. We have covered about 130 miles in the first 24 hr. While this is less than what we need to make Hawaii in 14 days. we are quite pleased given the 6 hr we had with little or no wind after the start.

>From a living aboard perspective, life is challenging as we have found that Cayenne leaks, not such that she'll sink but annoying little drips when you are trying to sleep. This will get better once we are able to sail downwind. The beam reaching we are doing makes steering and moving around difficult too. But compared with whyat most boats doing Pac Cup get for their first few days, this is heaven!

Hopefully, we'll have more good news in tomorrow's report.

Tom

----
The boat she rock and she roll in the beeg weends. This is what they promised us last race. Now, I am not saying anybody felt queasy, it is just part of our diet to have only a breakfast bar and an orange all day. And I shared the orange.

But things are working well. We have a few deck leaks, so we are mildly soggy, and a batten popped out of the main, so we have a 14 foot long spare fiberglass rod in the cabin.

Tonight dinner will be pasta. Tomorrow, chicken. Yummy.

Michael

p.s. did gracie have her kid yet?

--------

>From a groggy Jeff: "Hanging in there. I am feeling it a bit, but at least we are having brilliant sailing conditions."

Spencer is asleep. Michael C is staring glassily at the small breakers that surround us.

We are in not-first place, so we must now go and make boat go lickety-split.

Love to all
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Subject: Cayenne Update Again
Date: 10 Jul 2002
As Michael undoubtedly mentioned in his earlier update today, we had another great night of wind, stars and reasonably warm weather, helping to achieve an excellent 24 hr run. The wind is lighter today but our speed is still pretty good. We must be getting somewhere worthwhile, as the temperature is in the 70s or low 80s. I sure wish that California offshore weather was always this good.


SPENCER
It seems ironic that we have a boat load of good food, but are subsisting on Balance Bars, Cliff Bars, NutriGrain Bars, and fruit. Anything else just seems like too much work with the boat bouncing around the way it has been Even less incentive to cook much with too many people being too sick to want to eat too much. But last night, four of us managed to feast on three cans of corned beef hash. It was the first I have had for years and it was great!

The only real disappointment so far has been the lack of wildlife (other than the crew)...no whales, porpoises, turtles, seals, etc. Not even any birds. Hopefully, this changes over the next 12 (or is it 10?) days,

bUT NO TURKEYS OR DODOS EITHER, so that is all for the good.
Hi. Michael here. It has continued to be lovely all day. We sent work parties around to tape up leaky windows, re-set the inmarsat antenna, and generally fix stuff that needed fixing. The bottom of our favorite sail is fraying, too, but it only cost $500, so we are not anxious. As Tom said, it would be nice to eat our good food, but at least we can eat at all. A few of the crew cannot do even that.



Subject: Cayenne. July 11
Date: 11 Jul 2002


JOHN WARREN AT 2 A.M. WATCH
It is Thursday and we are almost at the trades. The spinnakers are weaving their spell on our right brains, just begging to be put up. Our left brains, having consulted the polars know that we must wait another day. So we sail on, just on the edge of a run, pointing the boat straight at Oahu and waiting for the wind to move behind us.

We confirmed that the watermaker works, so many crew are celebrating by taking showers. I feel that I had better try this, or I will be one lonely captain.


MIMOS



LITTLE 'O'
these images from http://www.pacificcup.org

We are six guys sleeping in shifts in four bunks. There has developed a pronounced hierarchy of berths. The quarterberth, being dry, secure, and quiet, is generally reckoned to be the best place to sleep, with the port (leeward) settee a close second, since it is all cozy with pillows and gearbags THe starboard settee is next down in favor, as most of the crew do not care for the leeboard that keeps one from falling on the cabin sole. Finally, the vee-berth, at the bow (pointy end) of the boat, is generally lowest in preference. Known variously as the Hell-hole, Purgatory, "Oh God Not There" and marble-in-a-shoebox. Michael C, the Prince of Peristalsis, has been known to skip an entire off watch to avoid sleeping there. Some of us, however, in an overweening display of manliness, profess a preference for the Bunk of Doom. "Just sleep on your side" or "Get under a sail."

We are using a ton of electricity each day, much of it related to the bilge pump. We are getting water in somewhere, and we do not like it. But it is no problem that we cannot overcome.

We had an interesting time with squalls last night. around midnight, we came upon a line of black clouds lined like pickets across our path. Imagine fluffy black monsters with lightning claws. These beasts steadily marched across our path, exhibiting lightning strikes every five minutes or so. The only advice we could recall about lightning was (a) unplug the computer and (b) try not to be there. We sailed between two of the squalls, but one seemed to follow us, flashing strikes closer and closer. We altered course to the north to stay clear, and this strategy worked, after a tense hour. So we continue on, charging the batteries in more traditional ways.

A few boats have had to turn back. One had general electronics failure (Little O), and one lost its rudder (Mimos). Both had no injuries. Little O should be home by now and Mimos is in communications with the Coast Guard to assure they get home safe.

When it is clear, we can sail by the stars, instead of the compass. On tuesday, our course lined up with the Milky Way. Not quite, actually. Our actual steering directions were "First star on the right, and straight on till morning."

Aloha from Cayenne.
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Subject: Cayenne Vignettes
Date: 12 Jul 2002

Michael M:
We spend alot of time on the radio because we are the comm boat. Either the fleet will find our particular sense of humor endearing, or we will find ourselves sitting at a table by ourselves in an adjacent Denny's. One of the sobering tasks Cayenne has is to help coordinate emergency information. One boat turned back with electronics problems, and one was actually abandoned. Several others have effected repairs underway (e.g. Coyote's lost headstay) and are carrying on. I am impressed by the seamanship displayed by the skippers as they face their duties.


JOHN WARREN
On the more cheerful side, we have grovelled into third place, and we can see the second place boat less than six miles ahead. And they owe us 5 hours!

Tonight, Lasagne!

>From Tom Thayer

Well, the wind's a little lighter today, so we are not making nearly as good progress. Seems like each day is a little slower than the day before. But things should pick up again in the next day or two. We are pleased with our continued progress in the standings. and believe that at least one of the lead boats is poorly placed for the future.

Last night was partly cloudy with a few sprinkles. We were able to leave the chute up all night and ended up with both the progress and our new position relative to the fleet. The temperature wasn't too cool last night and it's shorts and T shirts as I write this. In fact, I haven't had to wear my Speedwell fleece at all.

The big news was a boat that lost their rudder. This happens enough that all of us are required to carry an emergency rudder and steering mechanism. Today, this boat's backup system failed too so they finally decided to abandon ship (they were picked up by a nearby freighter). Seems a shame because the ship was otherwise in good shape with plenty of food, water, radio communications, etc. They were 500+ miles from shore so I guess a towing vessel was too expensive.


CHOCOLATE FROM HOME
I wanted to check as to whether you have been getting all of my e-mails. I sent one personal one early on, two yesterday, and one the day before. I have also composed most of the first two general news messages. That's the reason that you got those early. Since I wrote them I made sure that your address was on them (so they didn't have to be forwarded). I have asked Michael to put your address on future ones too.

The treats that were so popular were like little gumdrops. They were red and green. The green were green (sour) apple flavor and the reds were sour cherry, I think. Today's Jelly Belly's were also a hit.

This morning, I had a few hours to read and listen to music. I'm well into my second Harry Potter book now. Both activities were very enjoyable. I have Spyro Gyra playing on the boat stereo now. John and Michael C are fishing, but no luck yet. But we still have lots of preprepared entrees, including an excellent beef burganeon (sp) last night.


Subject: Morning on Cayenne, July 13
Date: 13 Jul 2002

It is morning on Cayenne. I have just recorded our 8 am position. We ran 172 miles in the last 24 hours, which is a nice, if not remarkable, pace. We have had the spinnakers up for several days now, flying, in turn, the heavy "shy kite" the 1.5 ounce general purpose, and the brand spanking new never-been-flown .75 ounce GP.



CAPLAN DRIVES
An "ounce" means an ounce per sailmaker's yard. A sailmaker's yard is much like your yard, except that it is littered up with old sewing machines and junked sports cars that they just got tired of driving and simply bought a new one.


So, the crew put up the .75 for the first time. I had never even seen it and was down below. It went up and began to draw nicely. "Oh man!" exclaimed Jeff, "Kame really screwed that up" "Yeah," chimed in Tom, "it looks like he didn't even run stitching along there, it's just coming apart at the seam" "We gotta get this thing down"

Well, I boiled out into the cockpit to see what abomination had been perpetrated on unsuspecting sailcloth, only to find a nicely-made chute merrily pulling the boat along at 8 knots. Crew laughter. Oh well. I guess it's time to redo the watch schedule. Some people clearly have too much time on their hands.


Dinner last night was a nice lasagne with a Pedroncelli Pinot Noir. All in good spirits after this. We have a high variety of food. The crew was somewhat dismayed at the limited stock of beer (30 cans) and the large amount of pre-packaged chocolate pudding snacks. There were dire rumblings, and an open statement that a racing yacht's pudding-to-beer ratio should never exceed 1:1. We will find a way to manage this, perhaps the sacred bottle of Turley will assuage the dogs.


The vee-berth ("purgatory") has become even more disliked by the crew. I like it though; i just crawl under the sailbags and am snug as a bug. I suspect, however, that this stratagem will be less pleasant after we reach the warm tropics.



Wildflower
this image from http://www.pacificcup.org

It has been getting warmer day by day, and the sun stays up later. Because we are keeping the ship's time as Pacific Daylight, the effect of moving across the longitudes becomes quite pronounced. Before our last day, 8:00 dinner will take place with the outside world looking like 5pm.


Last night, we passed a boat. We had hoped it was Total Eclipse, our close rival in the race. Passing her would have moved us to second place, since she owes us a time handicap. Most likely, however, we passed Wildflower, a doublehanded Wylie. Wildflower, skippered by Skip Allen is leading her fleet by a good margin and is currently projected as the #1 boat overall. Passing her is nice, because it is fun to pass anyone, and being near her suggests that maybe we are not so stupid as we think. But to beat Wildflower, we must not only pass her, but beat her by one day, ten hours and fifteen minutes. Since we are pulling away from her verrry slowly (we can still see her), we are not certain of this. Based on a projected arrival around 4 am Sunday, we would need to put five hours per day between us and her. That's maybe 30-40 miles. We shall see.


Still no fish caught. There is a little less boasting about fishing prowess than before.


So we sail. We sail and we type. And we fix things. And, today at least, we eat pudding.



Subject: Cayenne, July 14, News from the front
Date: 14 Jul 2002


CAYENNE OFF THE WIND
It's one o'clock in the pm.

Today is Half-Way day. Sometime today, depending on whom you believe, we will be equidistant from Hawaii and California. This is apparently one of the remotest places on the sea, being over a thousand miles from land in any direction. (Yeah, yeah, we are never more than five miles from land at any time...)

Last night was a bit of a cock-a-whoop. You know when you are sailing at night, and the spinnaker repeatedly pops open because your course is not straight? Bang, bang, bang? Well, sometimes it goes "Bang, bang, POP." Just like last time, the shy kite came a-fluttering down as something on the mast gave way. Well, I headed up so as not to run over the chute and we called everyone up on deck to recover and re-hoist.

Turns out the bail welded to the top of the mast had gone POP. Not a terribly important fitting unless you had desired to keep a spinnaker flying. Which we had, and I moderately resented losing half an hour sailing the wrong way at only 5 knots. But what a great darned crew, we got the spare rigged, and put the sail back up, and nobody called me a ham-fisted moron. So that was good.

Interestingly, we had the best distance run of the entire B division. THis has projected us into first place, which caused us to abandon any pretense of sportsmanship and do the "we da man" bunny dance of joy.




Tonight, for dinner, Cassoulet and a lovely Turley red which we compelled John W to bring along.


ARRRRGH!
The SECOND bail broke. We have no spinnakers. But we are still in first place. Must investigate. How is this possible? Do we not need them?
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Subject: Cayenne, July 15,
Date: 15 Jul 2002

9pm.


S.V. MIRAGE AT SEA
Well, we figured out a way to put up the spinnaker; we hang it from the spare jib halyard. This causes a boatload of chafe, so we inspect every two hours.
Except at night, when we have been dropping the spinnaker and flying wing-and-wing.Which really confuses our competitors, because, as it turns out, we make excellent time straight to hawaii like this. They accuse us of "sandbagging" but we will keep this our little secret.

We are cautiously doing math. things are looking pretty good for our finish Maybe Sunday. Woo Hoo!


YUM.
So there we are, in the middle of the squall, and we look over, and what do we see but another boat. Mirage, an Express 27 sailed by the Cobbs, father and son, of Sacramento. We raised them on the radio and had a nice chat Rather rare to see another boat. Cool, though. We took their picture.

Lasagne tonight. I opened one of the cans of Vienna Sausages for a snack. Ummm, no. And we have 18, now 17 cans.

Did i mention I am soaking wet? Squall came thru, so we sailed and sailed and sailed. I did not put on foul weather gear. I figured, if God wants to wash me, I should let Him.

Ok, here comes the food. Must go. Love to all.

Michael
--------------------------------
MICHAEL DRIVING




Subject: July 17. The one that got away.
Date: 17 Jul 2002 19:03:00 -0000

Fish on!
Michael C finally hooked a fish. A little Mahi Mahi that he reeled in to the stern of the boat when it finally shook free of the hook and swam away. Oh well.

Similarly, Cayenne had been enjoying a set of FABulous runs, actually making it to a projected first place. Well, first the starboard spinnaker bail blew and then, less than six hours later, the port one blew. No bail, no spinnaker. No chute, no scoot. Except that under wing-and-wing Cayenne's speedy Passport 40 body runs at 7-8 knots dead downwind. Guess what? that is better than alot of the leaders were doing with their fancy downwind gybes. So we held our bullet for a couple more days.

And we rigged the spare jib halyard to carry the spinnaker.

So we sailed and sailed toward glory, until the jury rigged spinnaker block nudged the jib halyard shackle open. Down came the jib.

Not good.


SPENCER AT TOP OF MAST
After a rousing game of "not me" Spencer volunteered to go up the mast to (a) get the jib halyard and (b) tie some blocks up there for the spinny. Which he did. But it was hard. Mighty hard. So he came down, and we flew the spinnaker from his block for maybe 6 hours when the tied-on fitting went goodbye and the spinnaker came down again.

THe mast maneuver left us sailing bare-headed for maybe 4 hours, and we still had a good run of 154 miles. Maybe we can recapture second, but we remain in third, which is respectable for a boat that just wanted to finish and have fun with its radio. Still, if Bequia used up all its speed on its southerly run last night and maybe has just a *little* spinnaker wrap, we might have a shot at the goodies.

Steak for dinner last night. A little wine to go with it. Very nice.

Tonight, no fish = hot dogs.


ps. There is another fish on the hook....



Subject: 7/17/02 Cayenne - Comm Boat

1. Shenanigans - what happened to her ?
She reported that she had lost all of her fresh water. As she had no watermaker, she opted to turn back for Berkeley. Several members of the fleet offered to rendezvous with Shenanigans to transfer water into her so she could either continue to Hawaii or head home in comfort, but Shenanigans' skipper declined. He said that he did not want to interfere with another boat's race, and that the 26 liters they had remaining should be adequate. She is due back in Berkeley thursday or friday.
She had also suffered some minor damage near the start, broken vang and ripped out spinnaker track.


2. Mimos - detail on why they abandoned the vessel ?
This is a very sad tale. Mimos noticed first that the boat would not turn well to one direction. Inspection of the cables and quadrant showed nothing wrong. After a gybe, there was a loss of control turning the other direction. No control in either direction = no rudder. Mimos' best guess was that the rudder was pivoting on the rudder post. Her emergency steering setup was not responding well to the wave conditions in the open ocean, and alternative methods (drogue, steering oar) also were not working. Mimos instituted a call schedule with us and with Coast Guard. Coast Guard offered to arrange for commercial tow service, and also offered to divert commercial traffic to pick her crew up. After spending a night with absolutely no control of the boat, they accepted the "take me off the boat" offer. Mimos' skipper left the lights and bilge pump on, and left the engine on and idling, to prolong battery life, and streamed a drogue made of sails, so that the boat was drifting SW at about 1 kt. Coast Guard would not let them leave the EPIRB on board. THe Freighter Rickmers Hamburg picked up the crew and took them to shore. Last heard, the crew had headed out to try and find the boat.


I don't know anything about the construction of the emergency rudder. I view it as a pernicious form of cruelty to ask someone in distress "how did you get yourself here?", and leave that practice to journalists (which I am not) and lawyers (which I am overcoming being).


3. MProject - details ?
It hurts to go from first place to the casualty list (we did that last night). After some great runs, M Project had rudder problems and was forced to turn home after July 14. I do not know more, though she checked in regularly with us for safety.



Moonshine
this image from http://www.pacificcup.org

4. Moonshine - did she lose mast ? Current status ?
MEN OF STEEL AWARD. Moonshine was dismasted about 6 feet above the deck when a broach stuffed the pole and then, one may only presume, REALLY BAD things happened, no injuries, though. Moonshine made her radio call on time, and informed us that she planned to rerig and continue racing. Which she did. She may not be winning, but I would petition PCYC for a revised rating based on her new "short-mast" configuration. Her crew has promised to tell the story at the bar, and did not want to dwell on it on the air. I don't blame them, but this is a great story.
The breakage does make a good story. Most of it seems to have taken place in the "windy reach" portion of the sail. Once we got offshore, conditions could not have been more ideal. Moderate seas and breezes steady enough to blow the masthead bails off a Passport 40. I am sure you will note some of the great performances, such as that by Wildflower, and the pretty close clustering of the boats together near the rhumb line. Bequia really made hay with her rhumb run, though Cayenne hopes that her southerly dive last night was her last burst of speed.


Cheers. Must go prepare for this evening's limerick festival.


Michael Moradzadeh
Cayenne



Subject: July 18 Somewhere in the Pacific

We caught the Mahi. An absolutely fabulous dinner. Michael C is now known as the "Scourge of the Fishy and Finned Things"

AND we have renewed the spinnaker jury rig. We fly wung out (take that, spellcheckers) at night and we fly the chute during the day. Today, we ran 160 nm directly toward an imaginary spot near Hawaii.

Given that Hawaii is pretty much an imaginary spot, creating another imaginary spot seems pretty much redundant. My navigator, however, assures me that this is a good idea.


Maria Cha III
these images from http://www.pacificcup.org

The ETA-meter says we will arrive at 6 am on Sunday. This is pretty good. Last time, the ETA readout on the GPS mostly read "- - - - " which means "you never gonna get there" so this is much cheerier.

Jeff, a Ph.D. Biotech researcher, has become a specialist in wrapping leather around rope and analysing chafe on rope.

So, we are back in the hunt. Beware Bequia! Look out Total Eclipse! Stay back Alcyone! Cayenne is coming to town!

We are pretty sure we are on the right track, too, because we keep seeing other boats. Mari Cha III, the 147' giant whose crew graciously showed us through her at KKMI, sailed by at a distance of 2 miles yesterday. Dang does she look good with her spinnaker up.

Well, time to go and take roll call. We have not had more fleet damage, and you could not ask for a cheerier fleet. Last night, there was a guest appearance from Martha Stewart ("place a lilac-scented towel over your pillow so the next off-watch will not notice the drool") as well as perennial pest Pacific Rose. Much of the fleet participated in a limerick festival, and virtually all who fish are catching Mahi mahi.

Life is goood
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Subject: July 19: The fix is in

Perhaps the most aptly-named boat in the race is Entropy, for entropy sure happens out here. Of course we have had the very notable ones: two masts, a bundle of rudders, several lost radios, loss of water, and one whole lost boat, but there have been no injuries reported apart from a finger mashed on MariCha III.


THE DONKEY TAIL
Here on Cayenne, we have fought the battle against disorder with a vengeance. We have responded to the failure on both spinnaker bails by rigging a heavily chafe-protected block on the spare jib halyard to hoist the spinnaker. (We check it every two hours). WE have filtered diesel through coffee filters, we have rewired the engine, we have replaced the vang --- four times. We replaced the boom-brake line once.

In many ways, the race is as much about who breaks least and fixes best as it is about who makes boat go fastest. Look at Zephyrus V. Gazillion dollar boat takes an hour penalty because their radio did not reach us. Umm, wrong. They probably spent more on titanium sheaves to save a fraction of that time than they did on the radio. But that is part of the game: figuring out what part of your systems will fail you, or betray you, or just embarass you. And if you don't have a plan, even if you are a very quick thinker, it will cost . . . you . . . hours.

That's what happened with our spinnaker bails. Here was the plan: If a spinnaker halyard comes down, we will use the other. We put that plan in place. I had only a vague thought of using the spare jib halyard for the spinnaker if that should fail, and fail it did.

Well, now we spent 5 hours planning and executing the backup plan. Oh well We have sails now and, except that the wind is awful, we are back in the race.

We have ample electricity as well, fuel supply problem fixed, so we are no longer in "battery conservation mode"

looking forward to Kaneohe

Oh yes
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Subject: That's one small trip for a boat, one giant passage for boatkind.
July 20, Neil Armstroing Day


152 miles to go. We sit tall in our cockpit seats and sneer at the ever-declining distances like young toughs dissing prison sentences. "300 miles to go? Huh. Less than a trip to Santa Barbara, I can do that in an afternoon."

We are very satisfied with ourselves, and would fail if we tried to hide it. The boat performed far better than we had hoped, and the crew has well exceeded my expectations. As long as we had wind, which was most of the time, we really flew. Had we not lost both spinnaker halyards, we would have been in serious contention for first, and even as it is, we are looking at some sort of pickle dish, we think.

We have become adept at division by 6.5, as we perform the arithmetic that tells us we are ahead of Alcyone and (arrrrg) behind Bequia and Total Eclipse. A very light night held us in place, but the light wind did not apparently extend to Bequia and Total Eclipse, who made their normal day's runs, placing them all but out of reach.

We are all tired. The two-on, four-off Swedish watch system probably gave us the maximum sleep possible, but even so, when the skipper wraps the chute, everybody gotta wake up. We do manage mostly to contain any nascent crankiness, innately recognizing that civility and camaraderie are critical to teamwork. This was the program I laid out at the very beginning:
Priority 1: Safety.
Priority 2: Cameraderie
Priority 3: Performance.

We have done very well on all three, I would venture to say.

Some thoughts:
100 pounds of dry ice are enough to keep 10 days of food frozen for 10 days. You would have a couple of pounds left over to throw in the water for the amusement of small children.


THESE ARE NOT FOOD
Just don't bring Vienna Sausages. No matter what you remember from childhood, these are not food. Mistrust those who claim to the contrary.

Most of our fresh food lasted quite a while. But it is best to avoid hanging in a net where it gets abraded, as that will make food rot. Michael C is currently shot-putting Jicama into the Pacific, as we cannot bring fresh fruits and veggies into Hawaii.

Chafe, and shock-loading, will conspire to destroy your vessel and sink it. Think like the forces of disorder and have a plan for dealing with them. Blocks, halyards, attachment points. All gonna fail.

Polish your fuel. Know which tank has the fuel in it. Write that down, because you will forget when you are tired, and look foolish. Remember to bring spare filters.

Lavac Head. It's a good thing.

Iridium Phone. Now that is way cool. We were able to make half-way calls that cheered all up who got thru.

Canvas bucket. John Warren is pouring buckets of water over Jeff. Jeff is very happy.

Bring a whole bunch of random items. Lines, blocks, hose, leather etc. Jury rigging is the name of the game.

According to the other boats, crew named Eric are the most valuable. We have no Erics.

Catching fish is fun. If you don't like seeing them cleaned, look the other way.

My crew has been willing to maintain a fairly neat and orderly boat, under the circumstances. This has made for a much more comfortable passage.

What is with all the rudders? Lotsa boats lost them. I sure looked at mine carefully before we left, but what's to see? I shook it, I turned it, I looked at the cables and the bearings. I had Sven's inspect it 2 years ago. But what I really want to know (Note to Rob and Paul and PCYC) is what happened to each of the failures, and what alternative schemes failed (e.g. Mimos, Alakazam)?

We know what takes masts down. I continue to applaud the crews of Fast Reorg and Moonshine for rerigging and carrying on.

Using little tupperware containers as dishes is pretty clever. Plates are less clever underway. Food gets cold and/or spills.

Dodger is good. It is a windscreen, a sunscreen, and a downwind sail.

Well, we are in in less than 24 hours, so that is it for now. There may be more coming, or I may sleep.

Lest I omit it anywhere else, thank-you's to:
Jack Bieda for storm sails and rudder
Phil and Debra Stolp for invaluable shy kite
Peter Hogg for advice to "take that thing off the transom" (and if only we had heeded his suggestion to have more messengers on the mast)
Jim and Sue Corenman and Stan and Sally Honey for general and specific contributions to nerds at sea
Kame Richards for making the perfect 3/4 ounce chute
POA for advice and support
Cliff Donoho for taking over CYC Race Committee
ANd most of all, our families for supporting the dream.

Cayenne



Cayenne at the Finish

Unofficial Finish Time: 21/06:35:06



these photos by Lisa D. Niemczura from http://www.pacificcup.org