2000 – 2001
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Pacific Cup Updates
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July 19, 2000 |
San Francisco, CA |
Rage update, 1/2 way to Hawaii!
So last night, after our watched pulled our 8-12 a.m. shift, things got exciting. The wind had been steadily picking up and the waves were becoming a nuisance when steering. We were making good time, generally pretty close to our desired heading, considering the persistant windshifts.
The watch on deck (Bill, John, Jay, and Campbell) were yukking it up as they usually do around 2 a.m. when the discussion turned to the spinnaker up at the time, our “whomper”… Campbell had just exclaimed: “Dudes, I think we’ll have this baby up till the finish,” when there was an explosive BANG. Those of us below were rudely awakened from our respective nightmares and rushed on deck to see the entire 4,000 sq. ft spinnaker floating mostly in the air alongside us. The halyard had broken (why didn’t I replace that one?!), and so the whole thing was dangling from the pole tip.
Miraculously, we pulled it aboard without a single tear or scratch,albeit soaking wet. The luckier crew were wearing only their skivvies and didn’t get their clothes all wet. It took a few minutes to sort things out and then we set the 1.5 oz. fractional kite. Since the wind had picked up, the smaller kite was almost as fast anyway. At dawn Steve went up the rig and ran the replacement halyard. Turns out that the old halyard was fine but had been munched by a sharp spreader base. I went up the rig myself a couple of hours later to tape things up.
We sailed hard but on the morning check-in, Pegasus had really been moving to the south. They averaged a knot & 1/2(!) faster to take an 8 mile lead on us. Ouch. Hopefully we’re in the same breeze now and we can see how a drag race shapes up.
Tactically, if there is a header (we are both on port jibe), they’ll gain big. If there’s a lift, then it will be a bonus for us. In the meantime we are heading straight at Kanehoe at 13 kts.
Today was our halfway party!! We opened surprise gifts and had a special pizza made by or master chef Oliver “Cookie” Coolidge.
No one seems to grab the camera when we are pulling the sails out of the water.
Rage Parties On!!
Bruce
Special thanks to our Pacific Cup Sponsors!:
Doyle Sails Alameda: Official Supplier of sails to Made in America
Titan winch handles: Makers of the superlight “Viper” carbon winch handles
Forespar Mfg: Makers of our badass 32ft “Turbo” spinnaker pole
Samson Cordage: Suppliers of “Amsteel Blue” running rigging, the strongest and most durable line
MAS Epoxies: Suppliers of Epoxy resin to Made in America
Nobeltec: Providing World-Wide charting software to Made in America
Complete Cruising Solutions:
Waypoint: Knowledgable dealers of Navigation and Weather software, charts, and books
HF Radio on Board: Experts in Marine Communication