Wednesday, July 14, 2010
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)
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Day Four
Dawn: Spinnaker Up!
We have finally caught the tradewinds. Bashed to windward more yesterday then broke off into a broad reach. The seas are in a lumpy state though so there is much water coming over the bow and into the cockpit.
Now we are cruising along at 11-13knts with the shy kite (aka chicken chute). We delayed setting it last night in the dark as a chaotic mistake would have cost us far more time than the downwind speed.
We also got out of the cloud cover last night so we were able to steer by the stars. Should be a nice sunny day.
The feeding frenzy has diminished but it is expected to pick up as the real work begins now. Constant trimming and hard driving.
Last night's dinner was voted a 7.5: Tomatoes as a starter, then dried greenbeans, followed by chicken fettuccine with two slices of bread. Despite the ranking, there were no leftovers.
We understand that the fleet has split into a Northern and Southern, and that Urge is in the middle. This is according to plan as it gives us more options. The only real question is how much the other boats gained on us during this waterline contest. Now that we are downwind we think Urge will hold its own.
Expedition is still calling for an arrival on the 18th or 19th.
On corrected time, we owe Rhumboogie 7 hrs, while Por Favor owes us 2 hrs and Jamini 5 hrs.The Synergy1000 owe us approx 14 hrs. In the downwind portion of the race, we have to get 70 miles ahead of Rhumboogie and stay within 140 miles of the Synergies.
The crew is doing great- we even have proper head (toilet) etiquette worked out!
That is it for now- time for a rest.
James
Friday, July 9, 2010
Day Three
Hello from Urge on Day 3 . . .Has been a steady bash to windward the last 24 hours. The boat continues to be dry, no broken equipment, and plenty of food. So much that we cannot eat all of each days menus and so we are getting a small pile of candy bars, oatmeal, and breakfast bars. We have convened one court of the Uncontrollable Urge Water Justice Board where one of the crew was found guilty of not consuming his daily allowance. The member pleaded for leniency, offering multiple excuses and stories. The court was not impressed and sentenced him to one carrot as a first offense.
Brian's tapeworm continues to be the happiest crew member. We hear rumors that it may procreate due to both the wealth and variety of food it is being fed.
Interesting topic of discussion during the late watches: Would you eat an orangutan if it was farmed: what if it was shot in the wild?
Had some more friendly visitors last night (dolphins) and saw quite a few whales.
The skies continue to be grey and with no moon there is no horizon or stars to drive by so the vertigo is intense. You feel like you are steering in circles.
Expedition routing is now projecting us reaching Hawaii on the 19th. Hard to say if that is accurate as the weather system is a mess.
We are very happy with our course and position after Day1- by distance to Hawaii we were 6th, but only 3 miles behind the leader. Not bad for doing all upwind work and with time corrected, we probably would be in first place. However, that will change today as the rest of the fleet waterlines us. It looks like the fleet start on Friday will have excellent weather and will catch us within just a few days.
James
Friday Morning
If we had wanted to spend the first four days to Hawaii sailing upwindin chop we would have done TransPac. Pac Cup is supposed to be one dayof reaching and then downwind from there. Oh well. We held our own onday one somehow able to sail upwind with the larger boats. We don'tthink that we were that lucky last night. We do not expect a pleasantroll-call standing this morning. Our time will come. It looks like weare about a day and a half from finally setting a spin and headingdownwind. We packed approx. 4000 cal worth of food per person per dayexpecting to work it off trimming downwind. Instead, each one of uscould probably win Nathan's by the time we get to the islands.The boat is running well, the new instrument placement makes driving atnight much better. The weather is cool but not too wet. Heavy cloudcover and we don't expect to see the sun til Sunday.
Michael
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Day One
We are just finishing the first day...so very little wind that at times we were just drifting, but it was a bash out out of San Francisco. Once we turned the corner though, the wind went away. We saw one whale yesterday, but have heard a few blow during the night. Last night I also saw a dolphin coming straight at us at high speed- it looked just like a torpedo as it was leaving a bioluminescent track. Very cool though and they like to come up and play just under the bow. It was fairly cold last night, causing some shivering and many thoughts of warm Hawaii.
Crew is in great spirits and we have tons of food- even Iceman's tapeworm is happy!
Oh, and don't even get me started on the water. One gallon of water each makes for many peering boys.
This morning has dawned grey and we see four boats from our division around us. We have decided to give them pet names... Por Favor is now "Oh Please". Rhumboogie is slightly red so it is now "Tickle Me Elmo".
- James
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Monday, July 5, 2010
Preparation Continues
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