Keeping an eye out for the halfway barge
Hula, 11:29
Went to night school last night and took a 3 hour class in spinnaker sockery and wraps. It was taught on the bowsprit. Holy Crikey– what a mess!!!
Siren, 12:06
Siren Is ready for the second half.
Northern Star, 12:24
Northern Star Daily Report, 28 June. All good aboard Northern Star. Jamie is alive, well, and in great spirits.
Wishing the race cmte safe travels tomorrow to Kauai.
Jami
Mountain, 12:53
Mountain soldiers ever onward!
Shark On Bluegrass, 13:11
All well, light winds, still made 134 miles in 24hrs. Crossing half way point today !
Falk
Green Buffalo, 13:46
More of the same… 10k-12k wind from astern. Sun, blue skies and white clouds. Saw 16k of wind a few times last night – but mostly a very relaxing last 24 hrs.
Siren called this morning… just 3 miles or so ahead on the opposite jibe. So for fun, jibed to stay near her.
Its nice having a bit of company for today’s “half way party”. Though I must confess I have cracked into some of the half way stashes already. A few folks dropped off half way “bags” in the “leaving the dock rush” – and in some cases leaving me unsure which bags came from who.
Now the bag with the Christmas Card from 2016 was close to the heart (Mary, the kids and I at our nieces wedding in Washington).
The race… its a drag race now… maybe jibe once or twice a day running down the rhumb line.
Mac and Cheese… one full Kraft package goes a long way (with tuna thrown in for a bit more protein)… for dinner, breakfast and brunch… its all gone now… what to do for dinner tonight?
Yesterday afternoon’s music was a bit of Bowie, Ga Ga, and Neil Young. Maybe Springsteen and Diana Ross, with a bit of Puccini this afternoon? Saving the Stones for closer in to Hanalei.
Cheers,
Jim
Green Buffalo
Aloha, 14:03
its Monday and i a still with us on this side of the ground. Sure do hope the autopiilot keep on kicking as well.
cheers,
Kyle
Forewarded from Brian,
When I had embarked on this adventure, I surely never expected to be composing a day 10 update with this many miles yet to be covered, and yet here I am typing with in the vicinity of 870 miles left. For those who aren’t familiar, that distance still represents well over a third of the course yet to be tackled, and while that task may seem daunting given the circumstances of the last week, it is with great joy that I can officially and honestly say that we are into the trade winds and what remains should be downhill sleigh ride to Hanalei.
Such is my confidence in my noble steed Aloha that I have taken the time to dig up the coordinates for the actual finish line and keyed them into the chart plotter as the GO TO waypoint rather than the arbitrary position in about the middle of Hanalei Bay that I had been using before. Changing those two positions made almost no difference, shy of maybe 100 yards, but boy does it feel good to have a finish line in mind rather than just a proposed general destination.
In the evening yesterday, Simrad autopilot was finally mercifully removed from his duties at the helm as he was struggling to cope with the three or four different cross swells that were pushing the boat in different directions whilst trying to steer to the set wind angle. In his place, the Pelagic autopilot was put back in the game. Though this autopilot is not currently integrated to the wind instruments, I felt that its quicker response and better ability to adjust to the waves and movements of the boat might make coping with the increased wave action easier. To drive this point home, i also got out the Pelagic Autopilots secret weapon which is its small key FOB sized clicker which I can use to adjust the course from anywhere on the boat, including but not limited to my bunk. With this feature engaged, I was able to cope with changes in wind direction and sea state and make the appropriate steering corrections without having to get out of bed, a huge improvement from the way i had been operating up until this point.
The night passed with relative ease albeit short and limited sleep as the ever increasing sea state and wind speeds that are associated with the tradewinds make for a somewhat uncomfortable ride on a boat this small and light. As morning broke, the winds were as forecasted in the 12 knot range which allowed yours truly to take the helm for a few hours and enjoy some good sailing before the sun would begin to cook all things on deck to a crisp. Before long though it was back inside to escape the blistering sunshine and let the tandem of autopilot and solar panels keep this perpetual motion machine moving.
For breakfast I enjoyed some mountain house breakfast hash spiced up with Cholula hot sauce and some salt and pepper. I should also say that for dinner last night to cap off the day’s halfway mark celebrations I indulged in a crowd favorite of the freeze dried meals which is the mountain house beef stroganoff followed by some leftover raspberry crumble, what a meal that was. All that was missing was a glass or two of wine with dinner and a nice port to accompany dessert, perhaps in a few days time we can rectify that need. With the time zones as they are, I have not yet indulged in lunch, though i suspect it will be a standard affair of a PB&J and perhaps a Chocolate Chunk with Sea Salt Cliff Bar to top it off, mixed in with the occasional hunk of beef jerky and a slice of dried mango. the cuisine onboard has been nothing too fancy, but plenty of flavors to keep at least some parts of the voyage from being too monotonous.
With temps and humidity beginning to climb onboard, I suspect today might be the first usage of Aloha’s secret onboard air conditioning to keep the place nice and “cool” (2 small 12 volt fans), between that and trying to rest during the day as much as possible should I need to be up and monitoring or driving through the night, hopefully the miles will keep peeling away with the islands seemingly just over the horizon. That’s about all from here, I will try to provide an evening update later today should the wind and wave not pick up too much. Aloha out.