A Half-Way Bag is something your friends and family fills for you before you sail away across the Pacific. What if you are a singlehander and have no friends or family? Well, there will be at least one thing in your sail bag that will be a Half-Way surprise. You are supposed to wait to open your Half Way Bag until your gps or dead reckoning indicates that you are half way to Hanalei Bay.

Keeping in mind that everyone wants a loved one as considerate as Connie, your Half-Way Bag prolly won't be as good. That said, I asked Bob Johnston (Transpac 2006, 2008) about his own Half-Way Bag experience, and here it is:

Ragtime!
2008.07.21
1725 I've been a bit occupied with racing a sailboat and haven't had a chance to post. During the past three days I've managed to break an autopilot drive unit, a whisker pole (twice on the same pole), nearly chafed through a spinnaker halyard making it unusable, busted a tie-down on the dodger, had computer problems and otherwise had a simply grand time, eh? ("Eh" is courtesy Haulback.)

Last night at 2030 I passed the half-way point (1,060 miles to go). I missed the turn into the Half Way Barge so no hot shower or Starbucks for me until Hanalei. But I had a great half-way party aboard, thanks to the big package prepared by Connie and the kids. Besides a crazy talking "Congratulations" card, there were four packages inside, labeled "Something to Wear at Your Party," "Something to Eat at Your Party," "Something to Do at Your Party" and "Something to Read if the Party Gets Dull." Connie's creativity is always bubbling just beneath the surface so I knew this would be good.

"Something to Wear" contained a pair of "party pants" and beer glass sunglasses. These might get modeled at a Hanalei Tree party. "Something to Eat" included brownies and half a box of my favorite selection of See's candies. The "half a box" means that each piece was sliced in two and half was removed. An enclosed note stated that I had to sail the other half of the race to get the remainder! "Something to Do" included a fishy paddle ball, harmonica and a small photo album.

Finally, "Something to Read if the Party Gets Dull" was a Motor Boating magazine. No doubt Connie anticipated that a true sailboater would never read such a thing - she had carefully glued the cover to the latest issue of "Mental Floss" magazine. So there you go!

It's still a bit early but if Ragtime! is any example, on-board calculators are whizzing with ETA calculations and PCR allowances, trying to see where each boat stands. It appears to me that (no surprise) Wildflower has a nearly insurmountable lead, Polar Bear is second, and Alchera and Ragtime! are neck-and-neck for third. But believe me, my brain is running on deep reserves and I could be off a bunch.
Best to all!