The Trophy
Trophy Presentation by Miss Hawaii
The Shark Story
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Day Twelve
The finish line is just within reach! 132 miles to go and the weather has turned warm.
Crew is now out in shorts and sun hats, slathered in sunscreen.
We have a very difficult approach to make as we do not have a good downwind kite for heavy air, just for reaching. . .and Hawaii is almost straight downwind. We put up our large running kite but had to take it down within 15 minutes or else it would have shredded. So, we continue to use the reacher. . .This means that we are doing quite a few gybes and unnecessary miles to be able to keep the kites we do have working. Long story short, the fleet has gained big time on us and we may be out of contention. Our average speed is still high, but the velocity made good is quite low. Quite the bummer after such a tough race. However, there is still a chance so we press on.
Nobody is starving yet. There appears to be a speciation occurring: Skillsaw is mowing down the peanut M&Ms, Sloth is on dry cereal, Skipper hordes the Oreos, and Icemans tapeworm eats everything (of course). Left to unlimited supplies and a long enough genealogical period, evolution would be at work. Iceman would grow an extra stomach compartment for long term storage, Skillsaws ear wax would come in varied hard coat colors, and Sloth would begin lactating.
Three watches left and then into port!
Thanks everyone for following us.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Day Eleven
Only 341 miles to go ! ! !
Yesterday we had a pretty poor sailing angle so most of the fleet gained on us. We are also pulling back just a little bit to keep from making errors. Today, the wind angle is much better and we are set for a nice final approach to Hawaii.
Crew is in good spirits, although tired, and we are subsisting on what may be a teenagers dream diet: Oreo cookies for breakfast, oranges and jerky for lunch, then dinner are tortillas with Norwegian tube cheese. Oh, and all you can eat Snickers bars and jelly beans. Who needs a stove anyway?
The boat is a bit drier (meaning only soaked instead of saturated) but as we are continuing to surf we need to keep most hatches shut. There was a peculiar odor in the starboard bunk this morning- and it wasn't Sloth for once. Instead, a flying fish had managed to lodge its way into the air screen, then slowly ferment. We barely detected it over all the other nasal assaults that are occurring.
Now that the water has turned to that amazing blue and we see stars at night, the sailing has become much more enjoyable. Last night we saw our first jets since leaving the US, a sure sign that civilization (if you call flying on airlines now days civilized) is on the horizon.
Tonight we will listen to a Tiki drum collection from Iceman.
Aloha all!
Friday Morning a short note from Mike
It is Friday morning and we just finished roll call. We do not receive position information, but we do know where the other boats in our class are and we think that we are in ok position. We would like to be a little further west as we are having to run very deep and thus not at 100%. Unless there is a major change in conditions we are on our final approach into Kaneohe. We have 372 miles to go as I write. Hope everything and everybody is ok.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Day Ten
The fun never quite ends on Urge!
Strong wind last night but we could not use all of it to point to Hawaii. So our distance made good was 220nm but we sailed closer to 250nm. We are still trying to place ourselves in front of local storm cells to catch the forward wind, but all we usually get is more rain. Interestingly, the double-reefed main formed a pocket that collected about 2 gals. Very useful.
Iceman's tapeworm has had second thoughts about leaving the boat after yesterday's shark episode, so has quieted down as long as it is fed Cliff bars.
Skillsaw continues to amaze us with his culinary skills. Last night he made us grog with fresh lime juice. Wow! But today he caught the stove on fire trying to boil water. Not a real emergency but enough that they grabbed the only dry towel on board (Skippers), dowsed it with water and set it on the stove-where it promptly began to smoke Luckily, Skillsaw not only has excellent culinary skills, he is also a volunteer firefighter. After determining the towel was properly cooked to order (green on one side, charred on the other), he grabbed a CO2 fire extinguisher, aimed it at the base of the alcohol stove with a mighty "Pffffffftttt" put out the fire, promptly causing the cabin to be evacuated.
the stove on Urge
Sloth continues with his excellent navigating and has adorned the port cabin by hanging his floral patterned boxers to no only dry, but to brighten the mood.
Chris (Sloth) at the Nav Station on Urge
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Day Nine
Another wild day on Urge...757 miles to the finish. Lat N 29 46 625 Lon W 147 15 282
Top speed 26knts, Avg speed on distance sailed 9.1 knots per hr.
We made the decision to not overstand the layline to Hawaii to avoid the potential low wind area. However, that decision had a serious price attached to it as we spent one half day with very little VMG which allowed the faster boats to make time on us- and they did. However, we are now on a safe layline into the finish and expect that all boats will converge to make it a drag race. Expedition routing is calling for Urge to finish at appx 0800 on the 18th.
The key is to keep the boat and crew together and minimize mistakes. Take the extra minute to do it right rather than do it fast and make an error that will cost an hour. We shredded a Code 6 reacher last night and Chris and Mike spent the morning trying to repair it. We have our second Code 6 up right now and are blasting right along.
The crew is in good spirits. A few tempers have flared but that is pretty normal when you take four type A guys and stick them in a 30ft by 8ft room for 10 days. All are hydrated and now that the sun is out, we can dry out the boat.
We are seeing a number of squalls now, and keep trying to position ourselves to be ready for them to take advantage of their forward wind. So far though, not many have punched with any wallop but we have had some beautiful rainbows to view.
Today has also been bath day. We are close enough now to use some of our spare water to wash up. Nice!
(Cabo Race 2010)
About two hours ago, we were moving right along when there was a THUMP on the keel. What the heck? Not what you want to hear any time, and especially when you have 700 plus miles to reach land. Then, there was a second louder thump and a flash of brown went by about three feet under the water. We were being attacked by a shark! It was about 8ft long. It turned around and made another strike, this time at the rudder. Urge has a transom hung rudder so Skillsaw got to see the full effect as he was driving. For us, that was too much. Believing it had the potential to break the rudder (although it may have been suicidal to do so) we got the boat hook and prepared to lash a knife to it. Meanwhile, Sloth was heading below to launch a chemical and biological attack from the head tank. Luckily, the shark must have had time to realize the full potential of the biological munitions that four grown men subsisting primarily on dried fruit and dehydrated meals can generate, and decided to call it a day.
Now it is time for another very dark night of driving.
(Sent Wednesday, July 14, 2010 4:57 PM)
Day Eight
Has been a wild 24 hours! We set a new boat speed record of 26knts- the water flies up vertical from the hullsides and a rooster tail pops up and then a harmonic sounds from the keel and rudder. Urge is alive and loving these conditions.
The water is much warmer now- so getting soaked is not so bad. Just like a lightly warm bath. We finally have a bit of sunshine so are taking the oppty to dry things out. Right now we look more like a floating laundromat than race boat.
Today we must head further north. The grib files are showing very light air south of Hawaii and if we try to go through it may take a week to get there. Instead, we will go north and add an extra 200 miles. New ETA is the 18th.
Roll call this morning on the SSB confirmed that many of the northern boats gained on us as we came up. We are still in second boat for boat, but well in first place for corrected time.
We also heard that a boat in our class, Rhumb Boogie- had broken a backstay and was now sailing to Hawaii with a double reefed main and no spinnaker. That would suck as it took place almost exactly in the middle of the Pacific. My guess is that it will take them two weeks to get into Hawaii. We wish them smooth sailing- we met them at the dock in San Francisco and they seemed like a very cool crew.
Update: Have not seen any boats or planes the last six days and now there is one converging with us! Hope that it is Andromeda. Appears to be a very large boat. Would be very cool to race them to the finish line. We will gybe and follow them- they are about a mile in front of us.
(Sent Tuesday, July 13, 2010 11:26 PM)
Day Seven Update
Our nuts are soggy. . . but more on that later. . .
This was a mixed day on Urge. The update that we were in second boat for boat was very welcome news and cheered everyone up to get through another very wet day.
Around 11AM we decided to shift from our reaching spinnaker to the largest one (Code 2) even though the conditions were not perfect for it- too much wind and a wicked sea state. However, we knew that we were going to get massacred on time as we now needed to move north and back up to the rhumb line. The launch went fine and we flew it for about four hours when we launched down the backside of a square wave. Understand that during the day we had mowed over many waves, but the square wave was different and I have only seen one before. . . essentially, this type of wave has no back to it- it is almost vertical. Urge plunged down what is essentially two to three stories and popped back up fine, but the Code 2 was shredded when the boat came back up. Bummer, but we did pick up a few miles with it (albeit expensive ones). We have one more Code 2 but decided the conditions really did not warrant it and went back to the reaching spinnaker. Cost us about 20 minutes time.
Soggy nuts. . . the saga is really quite sad. All the food bags stored on the port side were ruined by bilge water, even though they were double bagged. We managed to save three meals and are then on unlimited supplies of jerky, soggy nuts, and about a billion Snicker bars. . We wont starve, but I think a nutritionist might frown.
So by 1700 we were really hauling the mail and in the middle of the Pacific quite literally: 1000 miles or so to Hawaii and the same back to San Francisco. . . when the boat quivers and the rudder begins to vibrate. Ah crap- we hit something. However, after a few seconds we started moving again, but much slower (10 knts- down from 15). Brian and the crew put the boat into reverse using the sails (not easy in high winds) and up floated a large green net. . . darn, a fishing net was wrapped around our keel. I got the boat hook and Mike and I pulled up yard after yard of net then dumped it on the deck . . . aha, we finally got to the end of it, turned around and spun off again. Thankfully no one had to go swimming to untangle it. Total time lost: appx 10 mins.
Everyone is safe, but a bit wet and starting to really want to get to Hawaii. Uhm, the boat smells bad. Really bad.
The next few days will be very interesting indeed. . . a local low pressure area has set in around south Hawaii and we must decide whether to punch through it or head further north to get around it.
(Sent Tuesday, July 13, 2010 11:11 PM)
A message from Urge
The race committee has notified the fleet that many boats have tracking units that are failing. Not sure if ours is, but if our position hasn't been updated, then it has.
All is well, we're headed south directly towards the finish 774 miles out.
-Chris
All is well, we're headed south directly towards the finish 774 miles out.
-Chris
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
Day Seven
Another wild night- massive pacific rollers (avg 15ft and a couple quite a bit larger) had us launching Urge into valleys and canyons. No breakdowns other than a broken sporke and the
video camera.
Tomorrow morning we will celebrate with a halfway party. Heading back north to consolidate with the fleet. Very eager to see the results from today.
The boat and crew are in a good rhythm- picked up on all the fleet yesterday and hope to do the same again. Still using a double-reefed main and Code 6 spinnaker_ makes for a great combination of speed, safety, and durability. So far the offwatch crew has not had to be waken for any emergencies so we are getting adequate sleep. We had a 252 mile day yesterday and we anticipate blasting that wide open through today with a potential 276 miler. 252 miles is the all time high for Urge. So far the top speed attained on this race is 20.3 knts.
All of us are envious of Brian's drysuit (even Brian due to the new gasket). The interior appears to be one of the few dry places on the boat. To add a further insult, besides all the water coming in due to waves, it is now raining as well.
Continuing to eat well- Skillsaw cooked up the Chicken terriyaki with ginger and pineapple. Yum- all of it gone in seconds. Probably no weight loss on this trip. The key is to be able to push the next two days and keep the fatigue at bay.
Sloth is doing an excellent job of navigating and to a large part, that is how we have gotten this far.
Time to sponge the sole and pump the bilge.
James
(sent Monday, July 12, 2010 7:19 AM)
Day Five
This will have to be a short note as the action below deck is rather lively due to the sea state.
All crew are fine but quite tired. Made our move yesterday to commit to the Southern route and have been hauling all day and night flat out- spinnaker and double-reefed main sail. Large seas (appx 9 ft waves) and strong wind (25 knts). We will be setting a new record with Urge - probably 250+ miles the last 24 hrs. Everything is soaked below now as green water is routinely crashing over the bow and spilling over the trimmers and drivers. A bit refreshing at 0200. Oh, and it is raining lightly.
Food is moving more to snacks that are available as it is very difficult to work below.
We are eager to see the standings today: who pushed it and who pulled back.
Good times but all of us really want to be in warmer climates and out of these wet foulies!
James
(sent Sunday , July 11, 2010 7:12 AM)
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