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Thread: Long Pac Progress

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Posts
    3,484

    Default Long Pac Progress

    Last evening Daniel Willey wrote that the seas are "lumpy" out there. Anyone looking at the weather forecast can see that it is dark orange, red red red and then it is not. Getting through that red must have been harsh, because the following boats have retired: X Dream got out the gate only to lose her autopilot; Stephen Buckingham on Starbuck hung in there a long time, but is safe in harbor now, and Tiger Beetle is returning, too; Crazy Rythm lost her autopilot, too, and John Simpston got smacked around when the boat "fell off the back of a wave" or something like that. Max Crittenden's Solar Wind lost her rudder in last week's Farallones race, and Nathalie Criou's Elise didn't start, either.Tortuga retired and Randy Leasure hasn't given a reason yet. Mirage and Even Keel did not check in last evening at 8pm. We are waiting to hear from them this morning between 8-8:30 am..
    Last edited by Philpott; 06-20-2013 at 07:12 AM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Posts
    448

    Default

    hi jackie, tiger beetle here

    conditions were pretty good when the wind stayed below 25 knots, the swell was down around 3 or maybe 5 feet with 4-5 foot wind chop on top of that. the unpleasant part was when wind would climb back up to 28-32 knots and the boat started to get knocked around. we were reaching with 3reefs in the main and about 1/2 half the 120 genoa rolled up (the sail was made to handle those conditions) boat speeds 7.8-8.5 knots.

    we were trundling along off the continental shelf headed on course 240 true, humpback whales were feeding and breaching, albatross were winging around, sun was out and visibility was really good - quite beautiful out on the water.

    the forecast called for building conditions into the evening and we were already loaded up. forecast then had much more pleasant conditions out past 125 west, which would be nice... and then on friday it would be stronger winds where we were to get back into the gate - so we had a discussion in the cockpit (amid big chunks of water careening down the sidedeck and into the cockpit!) and decided this was going to be hard on the boat and hard on us - sso we waited for a flat spot to turn around and sailed in back towards the farallones. saw tufted puffins on the wing, more whales, lots of feeding birds.

    hi spots: ais transponder worked great (vessel traffic called us and asked us to make passing arrangements with a smaller inbound tanker, very nice of vts!), autopilot steered super, mainsail reefing works very well with the new smaller antal 2:1 halyard block, using the ipad at night to relay the belowdeck laptop's nav data up to the cockpit, and target beanbag chairs on tethers are nice to perch on!

    low spots: a leaky foredeck hatch seal let in enough water to wash out my clothes in their bags, my micro-bilge pump gave up the ghost, and i want to get better sea boots.

    overall conditions were certainly not boat-breaking, but not a lot of fun. it's rather nice to sit here at CYC's guest dock and not have spray flying over the boat!

    rob/beetle

  3. #3
    Join Date
    May 2009
    Posts
    429

    Default

    Starbuck here. Compared to the Farallones race this year conditions were not as bad. At least out to south of the Farallones. Which is where I turned around. At that point the seas were flattening out somewhat and the boat was sailing well with double reefed main and #4. But the autopilot was malfunctioning. It was like it was getting a bad compass input as it would continue to make small inputs to the helm as the boat slowly went off course. Frustrating as it's a new X-5 and had been working great. Then the laptop was just dead. Also frustrating as it had been working great running macENC with AIS and xgate emailing and pulling in gribs through the sat phone. That was my check in plan and I hadn't figured out how to text from the phone by itself.

    But another really good shakedown. New simplified reefing system worked great. Express 27 #3 makes a good #4 on Starbuck. Lots of things to work on. Leaks, leaks and more leaks. Even my boots leak.

    Good luck to all still out there.

    Stephen

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Posts
    50

    Default

    Hi Jackie. RC here. Matt has posted this morning's positions onto the map. One vessel is unidentufied, I believe that to be Mirage since all the yachts are named. I don't recall Mirage testing here position reports prior to the start. Autopilots were just not the crew expected, Tortuga replied to my email with, "Fun =0."

    Matt has some logs to post. VTS called frequently at first but by this morning everyone seemed up to speed on the reports.

    Lucie

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Berkeley
    Posts
    112

    Default

    Hi Lucie,
    where will logs be posted?

    Thanks,
    Tony

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Posts
    97

    Default

    Logs are now posted. I didnt' get a lot from the racers but what I did get in email is posted now here: http://sfbaysss.org/longpac_2013_log.html

    Still haven't heard from Mirage.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Posts
    3,687

    Default

    Great job Matt.

    Those guys to the south need to put their boats up on the wind. Probably hard for Galaxsea and Rainbow but the others can do it. The GRIB's show they'll get headed farther out = don't make 400 miles into 480 miles - VMG baby!
    Last edited by BobJ; 06-20-2013 at 04:40 PM.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Posts
    50

    Default

    Funny, at 0800 Galaxsea reported hoping to round in 2 hours from now or so!

    Yes, I do want to chat!

    Lucie

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Berkeley
    Posts
    112

    Default

    Did any one make their spot tracker info public? It would be fun to see more detailed tracking.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Posts
    97

    Default

    Mirage sent an email last night 2AM

    I was again unable to control seasickness and one of its effects was that I couldn't operate my SatPhone. Every time I looked at the buttons I started to throw up. Back to the drawing board. Mirage and I are fine and back on dry land. Thanks for putting on the race, despite not finishing, it was fun. Terry Cobb Mirage

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