So action this morning right after dawn…

The call came from the cockpit that a glass fishing ball float (the ones that were historically used by Japanese fishermen to keep their nets afloat) was spotted. The timing could have been better (we has a squall bearing down on us), but we soon had the trophy aboard… and it was a big one… beach-ball sized, made of hand-blown lightly tinted glass, and home to a couple mussels and crabs (sorry guys!). Who knows how many years and decades these things have been floating out here?

Anyway, our charge north continues. We are about 600 miles from Hawaii as I write this at about 2am on the last Friday of July. The going has been pretty mild… some boats have been complaining about too little wind (we have seen lots in the 10 knot range), but the Hula Girl loves this stuff, trucking along at 8 knots in 10 knots of breeze.

We had a problem with the Single Sideband Radio yesterday. In fact, it hasn’t seemed to be as clear as it should be, and has acted erratically a couple of times. Two days ago, we couldn’t check in with the net of boats sailing from Hawaii to CA. Then the unit just clicked off, and stayed off. Well, after digging around a lot, it seems the the culprit was a loose wire in the new distribution panel yours truly installed in CA. Whoops. A quick fix, and we were loud and clear, “5 by 5” at this evening’s position report!

ANyway, that’s about all the exciting news (and boring details) from out here in the middle of the night, in the middle of the Pacific. The Moon is up. It’s quiet and aboard, with most sleeping. Barry is on watch with Madeline driving. 10 knots of wind from 080 and we are scooting across a glittery surface at 8.2 knots, heading 030… northward bound. I love this stuff.

Talk to you all soon… right now, I’m going to grab my iPod and park it in the cockpit for a while…

Wayne Zittel and the Hula Girl crew…

Our Spot tracker page is: http://tinyurl.com/hulagirl

Our plan was working…Until it wasn’t. 165 miles to go… We’ll know tomorrow how we did. Enjoying the ride for now on this fast, fun but sweaty, hot and stinky boat. (as opposed to the wet, cold stinky boat it was just a few days ago)

Doesn’t appear that our lot is increasing during this port tack drag race to the finish. More headers than we’d like to see. Hoping to claw back the hour or so lead Deception gained yesterday, but expect it to be challenging. No matter the outcome tomorrow, this is an AMAZING charge to the finish.

If you don’t like this, you don’t like offshore sailing.

All good aboard “The Girl.”

Apologies for a pretty lame blog. Nobody stepped up to take editorial responsibilities away from me. The coaches have been busy with regard to our watch schedule, driving, navigation and the more mundane shipboard duties of housekeeping, sail repair, kite packing, food prep, dishes, etc.

The J/World customer participants on our team have settled in and stepped up in all areas, from spinnaker peels, banding and packing, trimming and grinding, hanging on while the boat slides sideways after a sheet (the “Sully”) gets fouled during a 30 knot “puff” from a squall, filling drink bottles with various color and flavoring substances, indulging in a endless potpourri of snack fud, determining the most appropriate hot sauce of the three for specific freeze dried meals, (Cholula on most, but definitely Tabasco on the Polynesian Chicken), crafting various nicknames for Kevin (a.k.a. Sully, Deck Ape, Looney Tunes, Bow Monkey, Monkey Boy, Curious George, Curious Jorge, Jorge Curioso, JC, and Boots, so far.) – even driving this great boat!

Wish us luck on our final 165!

Thanks to all who have supported us in this effort: J/World Partners, and the spouses and significant others of all aboard. We appreciate this great opportunity.

Aloha!

Barry, Wayne, Geoff, Kevin, Mark, Tom, Rick, Vern, Bob

Official race tracker is: http://www.ionearth.com/2010/pacific-cup/
Our Spot tracker page is: http://tinyurl.com/hulagirl

2010 Pac Cup, Pro Forma Summary.

Start on Starboard, Tack to Port ASAP
Port board to Mile Rocks layline, Tack
Sail approximately 1220 nautical, Gybe onto Port
Sail to Finish

Truth be told, we put in two extra tacks before Pt. Bonita to stay in touch with our Division…
And, 823.6 miles out, who really knows what lies ahead. But, at present it looks like you could have sailed this Fun Race to Hawaii tacking twice and gybing once.

So, today’s first big fun was…
SHOWERS!!!

All needed them, but not all took them. (ick)
We have a fresh water nozzle at the stern, so there are few acceptable excuses.
Stronger suggestion may be required tomorrow!

Next big fun was the gybe. Everyone was experiencing the strange phenomenon whereas it seems one leg is decisively shorter than the other, so we decided to gybe and start sailing towards Hawaii. The left leg will have a chance to rest, now.

We had a chafed sheet that needed to be changed, so Sully got to leave the boat for a bit of fun. Once we sorted out the choreography in the relatively tiny cockpit, it went pretty smoothly. But, after the gybe, we noticed a small tear in the kite. We did a pretty quick baldheaded drop, fix, band, bag and relaunch. So much for that freshly showered feeling. In the end, we figured this was better (and probably a whole lot less to botch) than two peels.

Chile Mac with Beans was a big hit for dinner. Hopefully no significant downside to that…

We’ve put a lot of faith in NOAA’s 96 hr surface forcasts… Hoping our routing keeps us in fresh breeze, where others may stumble into some light stuff. Fingers crossed.

(and if anyone from Horizon is reading this, I may or may not be bluffing)

822 to go!

Official race tracker is: http://www.ionearth.com/2010/pacific-cup/
Our Spot tracker page is: http://tinyurl.com/hulagirl

A 245 mile day is a pretty good day, by any stretch. Though scored in 5th so far, our remaining 1315 miles could mix things up a bit. We’re sailing the boat pretty conservatively, so unlikely that we’ll be able to catch the experienced programs who are dialed-in for this sort of thing. (and unlikely that I’ll be able to claim a bottle of Mt. Gay sitting at the KYC bar for the first to finish between Horizon and us.

Wind looks like it could go light, south of the rhumb line as the High ticks north and east and some influence by what seems to be a low energy low to the south of us.

Had a reef in the main for several hours today, as winds were consistently over 25. Pretty much held the same speed with the reefed main, gen staysail and blast reacher. 17 is the top speed recorded so far…

Spot should be updating as I send this. Hopefully the blog is, too. (as I had reports that it wasn’t)

On a positive note, all aboard took part in tonight’s main course: Lasagna with Meat Sauce. That’s a good sign!

Spot should be updating as I write this.

Best to all!

Barry and the Hula Girl Boys

Official race tracker is: http://www.ionearth.com/2010/pacific-cup/
Our Spot tracker page is: http://tinyurl.com/hulagirl

Due to user error – Blog Posts were sent to the wrong address.
This was sent on night one:

Life is good aboard Hula Girl (HG from now on).

We left San Francisco is 14-16 from the West, #3 and full main… Went for a non-aggressive, STBD start, footed under Condor for clear air, and exited the Bay on port, until a fat layline towards Mile Rocks.

We talked back to the shipping lane to stay in touch with our division, and finally decided we’d had enough sailing AWAY from Hawaii. So, off to the Great Circle, direct route… well to windward of Condor and apparently more South than the others… Saw a few pods of Humbacks passing south of the Farallones. Nice for all to see the wildlife! I enjoyed the view from afar, too.

We changed up to our #1 jib for a while, and then our 3, and finally tucked a reef in our main as the wind has stayed up and gone right more, and earlier than forecast.

Trucking along doing 8.5, staying in touch with a great circle route.

A big thanks to all of the people and partners who helped us in our preparations for this race: The Waterfront Hotel, Miss Pearl’s, Spinlok, Mclube, West Marine (and particularly Dan and the gang at the Alameda store), Expedition. The Dominos gang did great getting us pizzas at 0945. They were meant to be dinner, but were pretty well consumed by 1400. Sandwiches from Autobahn Cafe in Oakland made for great dinner! (hopefully all remains well in Oakland)

Off to check the weather forecast and get back on deck.

Cheers from HG,

Barry, Wayne, Geoff, Bob, Sully, Mark, Vern, Rick and Tom

Official race tracker is: http://www.ionearth.com/2010/pacific-cup/
Our Spot tracker page is: http://tinyurl.com/hulagirl