2022 Great Pacific Longitude Race!!

[Daydreamer]

Welcome to the 2022 Great Pacific Longitude Race!!

Also known as the LongPac.

It serves as a qualifier for the Singlehanded Transpacific Yacht Race but is an achievement in itself.

Serious boat and skipper prep goes into a successful adventure.

Let's use this platform do discuss things LongPac
Who is planning to race?
First time or repeat?
Who is ready?
What projects are you working on?

The archives are a fantastic source of information / inspiration and will be referenced often!

[JimQuanci]

The Buffalo hopes to be there... nothing like a long reach in and out in gale alley for an old heavy boat with a stumpy rig. :-)

[Philpott]

Drove over to see the boats off, arrived JUST in time to do that. Here are some photos. Steve Saul on s/v Kalia is not being tracked, don't know why. He does things the way he wants to do things. You might notice that s/v Shark on Bluegrass is not on the water, either. That's a story for someone else to tell. He headed over to the start, then headed back home to Berkeley.

Walked up to the small gaggle of people to find Will Lee walking a rescue dog, Brandy. Here everybody is:

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Will Lee, Joe Balderrama, Brian Boschma, Valerie Saul and David Herrigel. Valerie has sailed all around the world with Steve, so she's no stranger to strange men standing on shore watching boats. Weirdos, every one.

Here are Riff Rider and Kalia at the start:

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Below: Galaxsea and Eos. This is Eos's first Long Pac. He completed the most recent Farallones and is obviously ready for this one.


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And, they're OFF!

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One last photo of the smiling Race Committee chairs and our SSS Commodore: Brian, David and Joe

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[Submarino]

Thanks for posting, Jackie. With only 4 starters, it truly feels like the Secret Society, but they have our exclusive attention and for me, much more than Pac Cup of course.

From the Race Committee:

Yesterday July 6 @ 8:00 ish a.m. Sharks on Blue Grass hailed us on VHF to report that he was hit by a fishing vessel somewhere in the vicinity of Alcatraz (approximate location we think) on the way to the start. All souls OK and fishing vessel was taking SBG back to port.

Today, July 7 @ 6:30 ish a.m. From Steve Saul aboard Kalia: "I discovered some issues with my mast and rigging so I have withdrawn from the race. The boat is back at her dock in Sausalito."

Crystal Ball says Race Chairs are chewing the cud on a Late Long Pac to coincide with Day 2 of Half Moon Bay Regatta.

[Submarino]

About 9 a.m. on Friday, Charles swung the compass 180 degrees for the second leg and return home.

About 9 a.m. appears that Ruff Rider has roughly 75 miles to the Gate. Maybe 12 plus hrs. Hopefully the runway does not power down at the entrance.

Galaxsea is on his port quarter about 20-30 mile behind.

EOS at 125.32' is almost at his turnaround point of 126.40' longitude.

Would be nice to greet the 3 finishers.

[Philpott]

Would really like to greet the aboard DM, but I am at anchor in Georgiana Slough

Not a bad thing, but several bridges too far away

[Intermission]

Would really like to greet the aboard DM, but I am at anchor in Georgiana Slough

Not a bad thing, but several bridges too far away

Think of the commute time you could save with one of these!

http://www.northwing.com/

Also available in amphibious configuration...

[DaveH]

As of 1130, all boats are inbound!
As of noon RIFF RIDER has checked in 57nm from the GG...
at present, that looks like around 10pm, but that doesn't account for dying breeze, and a big ebb starting at 2000.
We'll keep monitoring and make a call around 6pm to sync up.

will post an update here...

[Submarino]

Time stamp: 8:30 ish p.m. Sat night - Congratulations Charles Casey for first to finish the Long Pac ocean race!!

Dave H. our Chair reported that you finished under ideal conditions - Sunset on a dying flood.

Time stamp: 7:45 a.m. Sun morning - Daniel is hauling the bacon at 6 knots with a building ebb and very well inside Pt. Bonita and almost abeam of Pt. Diablo. Also, Mike of EOS, is roughly 125 miles out and equally rough estimate of a Mon. a.m. finish, 8-noon.

If you need a quick link from earlier posts:

https://www.jibeset.net/tv.php

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-122.509/centery:37.812/zoom:14

Brian and Dave, our two chairs on station.

Joe at home on Lazy Boy.

[DaveH]

Photos from RIFF RIDERS finish last night
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and GALAXSEA this Morning

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RIFF RIDER finished at 20:27:24 on Saturday
GALXSEA finished at 08:19:14 Today, Sunday
From the looks of it, EOS will finish sometime tomorrow morning (Monday)
EOS reports all is well, heavy seas, wind 25KnG30

[Submarino]

Another Long Pac completed! Stories to be told and good memories to cherish, or not so pleasant ones to soften a bit.

Mike our determined last finisher crossed between the X buoy and Brian's suv at 9:25 this morning. The less than 5 knots of breeze between Farallones and GG would try anyone's patience after 5 days on the water. Congrats Mike, we hope you have beautiful Hanalei in your sights next summer.

Thank you to our cast of directors and characters:

Participants and finishers Riff Rider, Charles C. 1st. Galaxsea, Daniel W. 2nd, EOS Mike S. 3rd.

Bob M. at GGYC for the use of the Sea Wall.

Race Chairs David H. and Brian B for walking in their sleep.

Our inspectors George L. and Brian B. to ensure sailors were prepared the SSS way.

Jackie P. for good photos and appropriate captions.

Ray I. at Jibeset for the tracking tools and tweaks.

Wed's start interesting note, dredgers can relocate the GGYC X buoy and place a floating anchorage mark in its place.

Today's interesting note, Brian says that if you stay in one spot too long, Marinetraffic's software will tag you as a Stationary Navigation Aid.

RC out!

[Philpott]

I have not read anything about Eos's return to the bay. Or is he still out there? And how about the awards ceremony? As I recall it is slated for Sunday July 24 @ 7:30pm. Will it be in person somewhere?

[GBR3068]

I'm here! I have been sleeping for about a week. Thanks for asking! I made it back OK. I was very slow but had lots of adventures. Breaking stuff, mending stuff. Dropping stuff overboard. Breaking stuff while mending stuff. Losing stuff. Losing the stuff to mend stuff with. Fiddling with electronics, batteries, solar panels, connectors. Messing with chafed ropes, busted sail slides and bolt ropes, broken furler. Lots of wind, too much wind, no wind. Fog. Sun. Wind always from the wrong direction. Big tankers with lights and AIS and great captains. Big tankers without lights or AIS. Whales. Too many whales. Friendly whales. Too friendly whales. Scary whales. Running away from whales. Small waves. Big waves. Too many waves from too many directions. Running over stuff. Scary noises. Breaking more stuff. Fixing more stuff. Stuff getting stuck where it shouldn't. Gale warnings. Zero wind. Sailing backwards. Wind holes. Currents where and when there shouldn't have been currents. All with no sleep. But all good experience. A great experience.

[Philpott]

Great response, Mike! Let's fill in the details, shall we?

Long Pac Debrief: https://vimeo.com/350520523

[DaveH]

Thanks for the pre-covid convivial memory Jackie!
That was a fun evening.

With Charley (RIFF RIDER) off to Tanzania (?) until the first, we decided to defer an already small gathering.
There is active planning for a mid-season awards gathering - yes, in person, like the video - to distribute.

Failing that, I would like to have some sort of a group debrief, probably on the zoomy thing.

DH

[BobJ]

Snapped a pic on the way by, for old time's sake...7636

[Submarino]

Those numbers bring back memories Bob, thank you! It's a strange experience making a U-turn tack miles out. A lot of solitude, space and a great sense of accomplishment! In 2017, about an hr or two after making the turn, I saw crazy rhythm booking his way to the turnaround point. Nothing better than seeing your compadres in that sea of desert.

[BobJ]

The most surprising thing about that photo was that I was able to post it here. Perhaps 4,500 nm of sea travel for my laptop shook some sense into it.

It was a long delivery back, not so much in days (17) but due to a lot of difficult sailing. When we passed 126 40 it meant two things: We were "half a LongPac" from being home, and Surprise! was once again covered on her boat insurance!