Chapter 2 - Days 1, 2 and 3

Chart of all the Division D boats for the first 3 days.

When we last left our heroes, they'd just managed to get Synge across the starting line to begin their 2070 nm journey from San Francisco to Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii on the island of Oahu. And before I forget, another round of thank you's to my wife Sally and my sister Linda for all the great pictures of the start!

A quick note of explanation: During the race we were sailing around the clock, and we had to report our daily position at 9 am each morning. On top of that, each position report (all of which I've included) shows our progress for the previous 24 hours (9am to 9am). Between those 2 things, it can get confusing to talk about "what day" something happened. So to hopefully minimize confusion, I'm going to divide the story into natural days, meaning it's a new day when the sun comes up, which is what we're all pretty used to. That way I can talk about what happened on Wednesday and Wednesday night, even if some of those things actually happened early Thursday morning (from midnight to dawn). This also means that during the description of any given day, you'll see the position report for the previous 24 hours, since we transmitted and recieved the reports at 9am.

Before we get into more stories from aboard Synge, let's talk about the competition in our division. The Division D boats are listed in the table below. The PCR column lists each boat's rating, the lower the number the faster the boat. The difference between any 2 numbers is the number of seconds that the faster boat must beat the slower boat by per mile. Synge and Sapphire are the same model boat, but Synge owes Sapphire 3 seconds per mile because Synge has an outboard that we pull on deck during the race while Sapphire has an inboard engine and must drag their lower unit and folding propeller through the water all the time. So over 2070 miles Synge racks up a 6210 second penalty vs. Sapphire (about an hour and 45 minutes). It works like a "spread" in sports gambling - if we beat Sapphire by an hour, we'd still lose. We'd have to beat them to Hawaii by more than 105 minutes in order to win. We are about in the middle of the fleet ratings-wise, which is a good place to be. Some boats owe us time, and we owe some boats time. The slowest boat is Recidivist, to whom we owe about 3 1/2 hours. The fastest is Mureadritta's XL, who owes us 35 seconds per mile, or a little over 20 hours. That is one FAST boat! You could make a good case that their rating was a little high, but we weren't about to argue with it!

Orizaba, Vanessa and Recidivist near the start.

Vanessa was the longest boat at 57 feet, while Synge and Sapphire were the littlest at 33. In general, the longer the boat the faster it can go (for displacement hulls - hulls that don't rise up out of the water like a ski boat does), but that rule breaks down when you toss in variables like weight. Lightweight boats like Synge, Sapphire, and Mureadritta's XL are very, very fast downwind due to their light weight and ability to surf the waves. So even though they are shorter, they can outperform the big boats when going downwind. However, they aren't as good upwind where ballast and weight help keep the big boats upright in heavy wind.

Synge and Sapphire before the start.

We knew the competition was going to be tough, and strategy would play a big part in deciding who would win. To understand the general strategy used in the Pacific Cup, you have to understand the weather pattern in that part of the Pacific. The summer pattern is dominated by a high pressure system that wanders around a bit but rarely if ever goes away. The high usually sits off of the coast of California, and winds rotate in a clockwise direction around the center of the high. So at the beginning of the race, the wind is blowing through the Golden Gate from the West, and we have to sail right into the wind. After a few hours the boats turn to the south, so the wind is hitting more of the side of the boat (although the wind is still blowing from the Northwest). As the boats travel south the wind will clock around, blowing more from the North, and eventually from the Northeast and East. There is a point where the wind really makes a significant change from North to Northeast/East. That change is along a ridge that runs roughly from the center of the high to Baja California. Choosing where to cross that ridge is the first big strategic decision in the race. Turning early gets you headed towards Hawaii sooner, but you run the risk of sailing too close to the high where the winds will be light. Turning later takes you farther from the high, which might get you stronger winds, but you will sail more distance than boats that turned sooner. Our strategy was to be somewhat conservative, not turning especially early or late, and try and stay close to the pack.

Weather Chart from July 5th - the start of the race for Synge. You can see the the high has broken into 2 parts. The ridge is visible running from the rightmost "H" at 1027 down and to the right through the isobars labelled 20 and 16. (That's really 1020 and 1016 millibars). The bulge in the 1016 isobar (right by the 16 label) is a strong indicator of the ridge line.

Riva, Synge and Vanessa maneuvering before the start.

The winds are strong coming out of San Francisco, and typically stay strong for the first few days of the race. This is where the bigger boats excel and the little boats suffer. You can see in the pictures how the big boats have their mainsails all the way up, and yet the boats are pretty much upright, while Synge is heeling over even with a reefed main (see how Synge's mainsail doesn't go all the way up the mast?)

Synge heeling in the strong winds just inside the Gate.

Wednesday July 5, 2006 - Day 1 - From the Rough Start into the Blue

Meanwhile, aboard Synge... After all the wrecks and repairs, the outfitting and preparation, the nerve-wracking trailering, the reassembing, stowing all the gear and the problems at the start line, we were finally on our way! The crew settled down quickly after we crossed the start line. We were back in our element, sailing Synge and coming down from the adrenaline of the past hour. It is a strange, wonderful and somewhat frightening feeling to start a 2000 mile race across an ocean. I tried to just live in the moment and enjoy it - I was getting to do something I'd always wanted to do, and I didn't want to ruin that by worrying about the enormity of the undertaking and the potential dangers involved. I'll always remember looking up at the bottom of the Golden Gate Bridge as we sailed under it. It's such a huge American icon, and so fitting for the start of this race as it so clearly defines the transition from bay to ocean.

Synge going under the Golden Gate Bridge with a seagull flying air cover.

While I was enjoying the view and the moment, I was also getting tossed around by the wind and waves. I recall the waves being 5-6 feet high, and I saw the wind instrument register gusts in the low 30's. The ride was rough. The bow was crashing through the waves, spray was flying up and out from the bow and getting blown back over the boat. The first time the bow plowed into a big wave and the water came rolling back across the deck was really neat to watch. I truly felt like I was doing some ocean sailing. I was warm inside my three layers, and I had confidence that my foulies would keep the water away from me. The second time a wave broke over the bow was just as neat as the first, and I grin when I think about it - the water rolling across the deck, the spray in my face - I was racing on the ocean! After about six waves coming over the bow, I felt water running down the inside of my foulies and into my boots, and thought "Hey now, that's not supposed to happen!". The waves kept coming, the wind kept howling, the boat kept pounding, and the water kept running inside my pants and into my boots. My SealSkin socks were supposed to be waterproof! Too late I realized my mistake - I had tucked my long underwear base layer into my socks, so as my base layer got wet, the water ran into my socks rather than over them!

Mureadrittas and Vanessa before the start.

We tacked 4 or 5 times after passing under the Gate. The big boats were quickly pulling ahead of Synge, 2 Guys and Sapphire. Sapphire and 2 Guys kept ahead of us. 2 Guys is a 1D-35, which is a faster upwind boat. And with the extra person Sapphire was carrying they had a little more rail meat than we did, so they were a little faster than us too. The three smaller boats took a pretty long tack on Port while the rest of the fleet was on Starboard, and the distance between the big boats and little boats opened up.

Mureadrittas, 2 Guys on the Edge and Riva just after the start.

We then tacked and settled into what looked like was going to be a long Starboard tack, maybe our last tack for a long long time. Our strategy called for crossing the ridge around 130 W 30 N. We had a waypoint marked on the GPS for that spot. That waypoint was just about dead ahead now, and all we had to do was drive towards it as fast as we could. An hour and a half into the trip, the Captain handed the tiller to Darren and headed for the rail - the pounding waves and rocking motion of the boat were relentless and seasickness had claimed its first victim. We were all wearing Scopolomine patches, and so far I was feeling okay except for getting cold and wet. The ginger capsules Sally had run out for at the last minute seemed to be helping alot keeping my stomach settled. I remember around that time we had a very large wave come at us more from the side than from the bow. I saw it coming and ducked, but it was no use - the wave broke across the side and I felt a large rush of cold cold water over the back of my head and down the back of my jacket. It was at that point that it was no longer fun or cool to see waves breaking over the boat. I now had a real taste of offshore sailing, and I could feel a mental transition as the trip went from fun and games to something much more serious.

Mureadrittas and Recidivist beating through the waves

We spoke about our upcoming shift plan, and decided that 6pm to 6am would be "night hours", and any shift during that period would be a 3 hour shift since it's hard to stay alert at night. During daylight hours we'd do 4 hour shifts. Darren and Captain Mike, being the most experienced, would never sail together. Braden and I, being the least experienced, would also never sail togther. Mike would start his 4 hour shift with Braden. Two hours into Mike's shift, I would come on and replace Braden. 2 hours later Mike's shift would be over, and Darren would come on. Darren would spend his first 2 hours with me, then my shift was over and Braden would come on. 2 hours later Darren was done and Mike would come on and have 2 hours with Braden. Then Braden would be done and it was my turn again. This worked out well since we only had one person changing shift every 2 hours, so that person would be able to take care of changing clothes, eating etc. and have the whole cabin to themselves while the other off-shift person was asleep.

Sapphire And 2 Guys on Starboard tack

It was around 5 pm and I could still see land, but it was just a hazy outline of the mountains in the distance. That was the last land I would see for the next 10 days. We could still occasionally see the big boats and Sapphire, but we were all slowly separating from each other. It looked like we were done tacking, so Captain suggested 2 of us should try and get some rest so we could start getting into our shifts. I was wide awake and knew I wouldn't be able to sleep, and Mike was a nice shade of green, so we decided Mike and Braden would head below (those Army guys are good at getting sleep when they can!). Braden offered to take a short off-shift in exchange for me keeping going. We agreed I'd stay on until 7 pm, then he would take the 7 pm-10 pm shift and I'd take 10 pm to 1 am. As Mike headed below, he told us if the wind dropped below 20 we should shake out the reef and put the main all the way up. Dusk was upon us, the temperature was dropping and the cloud layer seemed to be getting thinner. Darren and I sailed on, pounding through the waves, still cold and getting wet. We just kept an eye on the GPS, the waves and the wind as darkness fell.

Vanessa, Riva, Orizaba and Mureadrittas approaching the Gate.

7 pm arrived, and Braden came up to relieve me. The wind had been steady at 18-19 for about the last 20 minutes, so while we had 3 of us on deck we shook out the reef. This had the expected affect on the wind, as it quickly rose back up the to mid 20's. :-) We were heeling a bit more, but it was bearable, so we left the main all the way up and I headed below for 3 hours of rest. As I tried to move around the cabin and get undressed, I was tossed around as the boat plowed through the waves. At one point I was trying to stand so I could take off my foulies, lost my balance and fell backward onto the settee, bruising my tailbone. It was way too rough to try and eat, I was shivering and all I wanted to do was lay down and get warm. I had eaten 5 granola bars since my breakfast that morning (bagel and coffee), and had drank about 20 oz of Gatorade. I peeled off my foulies and boots and got out my sleeping bag. The port side bunk (mine and Braden's) was on the "downhill" side of the boat and was wet from water coming in off the waves. So I curled up on the port side settee and shivered myself warm and got to sleep.

Below is an email Sally sent out to family and friends on the evening of the first day.

	From: "Sally Ernst" 
	Subject: Pac Cup Pictures
	Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2006 19:56:06 -0700
	
	Greetings all -
	
	It was a beautiful day in San Francisco today for the Division D start of
	Pac Cup.  Attached are a few pictures - most as they pass beneath the Golden
	Gate Bridge.  Synge was last across the line at the start, but once they
	turn the corner and pop that spinnaker, you can rest assured they will be
	overtaking the competition!
	
	I've noticed that the iboat website is a bit behind....hopefully overnight
	they will get things updated, and we'll be able to watch on a more regular
	basis.  Thanks for all the well wishes and prayers!
	
	Love you all -
	
	Sally
	(whose husband is "at sea" :-)  )
	

At 9:30 pm my alarm went off. I decided I wasn't up to fixing food, so I slept for 15 more minutes. I fixed some Gatorade and grabbed some granola bars. I wrung out my socks, poured the water out of my boots and put my wet foulies on. I put on my PFD and tether, and headed up for my first night shift. I found Braden at the helm and Darren on all fours at the back of the boat. Seasickness had claimed its second victim. Mike was still below and still ble. The wind was still in the mid 20's and the waves were bigger than before, 8-10 feet. In my 13 years of sailing I had had plenty of experience driving under main and jib, but precious little under spinnaker. I knew Darren was going to have to do a lot of driving under spinnaker later in the trip, and he wasn't feeling well, so I took the tiller. Since we were holding a pretty steady course and the wind direction was constant, there wasn't much need for sail trimming. Darren was able to catch a nap in the back of the boat while I steered.

It was an unnerving shift. It was very dark, and visibility was very limited. During my earlier shifts in daylight, it was easy to see big waves coming and make adjustments to ease over them or at least brace yourself. At night, it was really unsettling not being able to see the waves until they were really close to us, and we had a lot of water coming on deck. The wind held at 26 knots and gusted to 30. I really wanted the wind to calm down, both to make our sailing easier and to keep the big boats from running away from us. I'll always remember how the seas looked that night. They were the roughest seas I'd ever sailed in, the waves coming from the front and a little to the Starboard side. The boat was pitching and pounding, the deck was constantly shedding water from the waves. It was scary to think of the strain the boat was under, between the strong winds and waves.

Sunset among some squalls.

My clothes hadn't dried much while I was below, which really didn't matter since they were soaked in the first few minutes of my shift anyway. An hour and half of pounding through the waves, and Darren went below. Mike came on deck, but he was still feeling horrible and tried to nap on the cockpit floor. Every once in a while a wave would come over the bow and the runoff would hit him. He looked miserable, but once seasickness hits there just isn't much a person can do except ride it out. The clouds were sparse, there were lots and lots of stars. I could clearly see the Milky Way. The view was terrific, but I really couldn't enjoy it much as I was very wet and very cold. I put my balaclava on under my hat to help keep my head and face warm and that helped a lot. It took a long time for my watch to read 1 am. Braden took over the helm and I headed below to get warm and sleep. I kept up with my ginger dosage since it seemed to be helping. Again I shed my foulies and boots, emptied the water from my boots, wrung out my socks, climbed into my damp sleeping bag, and shivered myself warm.

When the alarm went off at 3:30am Thursday morning, it was really hard to get up. I felt like I had finally gotten warm and didn't want to get out of my sleeping bag. But I knew there was a cold, wet Braden on deck who was looking forward to being relieved, so I got up. Again the routine: Put on foulies and boots, shove some granola bars into my pockets, fix some Gatorade so I'd have a drink while on shift, put on PFD and tether. That sounds pretty easy, but honestly every time I got dressed or undressed, it was like a circus act. The boat was pitching and rolling, the floor was pretty slick, and I was constantly fighting to keep my balance. Many times I'd sit on the edge of the settee to put on my jacket, and the boat would roll and I'd slide back in the seat, and have to do an uphill situp to get back to where I could put the jacket on. Putting on pants was even worse.

The 4 am to 7 am shift was hard. I took the helm from Braden, and he went below. I was tired, but I knew I had to stay alert and try to watch the waves and keep the boat going safely. The wind was still in the mid 20's and the seas were just as rough as when I had left. I kept praying for calmer conditions, as we were all really uncomfortable and the strong winds were wearing on us. When Darren came on shift, he was starting to feel better. He was able to get some more sleep on the back of the boat while I drove. Around 5:30 am I started to see the darkness start to lift to the East, and it was a huge relief when the sky started to get light. We had made it through the first night! 7 am arrived, and Braden came on deck. I headed below for some rest.

Thursday July 6, 2006 - Day 2 - The Enormity Of It All Hits Me

Weather Chart from July 6th. The white dot shows Synge's approximate position. The high was staying south - that might mean a longer, more southerly trip for everyone.

Thursday, July 6th - I awoke around 8:30 am. There was a fair amount of noise and movement as Darren was getting ready to radio in for our 9 am roll call. We had to run the motor to charge the batteries. We had an attachment for the outboard - basically 2 suction cups connected to a garden hose - that was supposed to allow the motor to suck up cooling water from the ocean when the motor was out of the water. It didn't work well. The motor didn't create enough suction to get water through the hose. We were able to hear everyone's positions and after a few tries, were able to report our own. I entered the positions into the laptop so we could see how we were doing. The news wasn't too bad. The big boats were of course quite a ways ahead, but we were doing okay against Sapphire and 2 Guys. Riva was to our North, 2 Guys on the Edge was pretty far south, and the rest of the fleet was pretty close together. On corrected time we were 6th, which wasn't too bad for this early in the race and the rough conditions. We had sailed 158 miles in the first 20 hours, an average of 7.9 knots, and we were 134 miles closer to Hawaii - 1933 to go. I was hungry, so I heated some water and ate about 8 oz of chicken and rice. I wasn't due on shift until 11 am, so I got some more sleep.

		2006 14th Biennial West Marine Pacific Cup
	POSITION REPORT FOR July 6, 2006
	Positions & Standings, as of July 6 (Day# 4): (Sorted by Division) Race definition file = Pcup06.ini Division 1 (start: July 3 @ 08:00:00 HST): Boat Lat Lon Dayrun @ MadeGood togo ET (@ fin) CT-CT(1st) Dv Oa or Finish (HST) Spirit 32-29N 129-56W 147.8 233 139.5 1621.4 (13:11:50:30) (00:00:00:00) 1 2 Celerity 31-17N 130-15W 177.1 232 163.0 1586.0 (12:12:05:06) (01:01:07:06) 2 16 Slim 32-29N 129-06W 146.7 245 144.7 1661.9 (14:20:01:32) (01:09:20:02) 3 20 PlsSixteen 32-28N 129-07W 139.3 231 128.9 1660.8 (14:19:04:29) (01:13:33:29) 4 22 KeeliQuinn 31-56N 128-51W 159.1 224 136.9 1665.2 (14:23:00:16) (01:19:47:16) 5 26 TheContesa 31-15N 129-48W 153.2 211 112.1 1607.8 (13:02:17:08) (02:02:14:38) 6 32 GiantSlayr 33-16N 128-39W 145.8 222 125.4 1697.1 (16:05:45:49) (03:07:43:19) 7 34 Division A (start: July 3 @ 08:15:00 HST): Boat Lat Lon Dayrun @ MadeGood togo ET (@ fin) CT-CT(1st) Dv Oa or Finish (HST) Cirrus 32-39N 130-23W 166.4 240 162.3 1602.7 (12:21:43:04) (00:00:00:00) 1 3 Hooligan 32-02N 129-58W 158.4 227 142.0 1612.1 (13:04:04:56) (00:00:02:22) 2 4 GrnBuffalo 31-59N 130-03W 151.4 220 127.0 1607.2 (13:00:43:11) (00:01:16:37) 3 5 CalifGirl 31-00N 129-39W 164.9 225 142.1 1611.6 (13:03:45:08) (00:05:27:34) 4 8 Cassiopeia 32-17N 129-39W 150.7 225 133.3 1631.7 (13:18:17:53) (00:05:37:49) 5 9 Cayenne 32-59N 130-01W 135.0 229 124.3 1626.5 (13:14:21:12) (00:12:02:08) 6 14 Sonata 33-16N 129-43W 1646.1 (14:05:30:28) (00:19:08:24) 7 17 Division B (start: July 3 @ 08:30:00 HST): Boat Lat Lon Dayrun @ MadeGood togo ET (@ fin) CT-CT(1st) Dv Oa or Finish (HST) TuttoBene 31-53N 129-48W 163.9 223 141.1 1617.8 (13:06:55:01) (00:00:00:00) 1 12 Locomotion 31-31N 129-46W 165.9 228 147.9 1613.6 (13:03:58:26) (00:00:30:25) 2 13 Bequia 31-42N 129-40W 153.5 220 127.9 1621.4 (13:09:29:27) (00:13:29:56) 3 19 IrishLady 31-32N 129-29W 157.7 226 138.7 1627.8 (13:14:11:51) (00:17:03:20) 4 21 Bounty 33-09N 129-36W 138.0 229 126.9 1649.5 (14:07:02:28) (01:06:26:57) 5 31 Compromise 33-02N 129-25W 120.9 220 102.3 1656.1 (14:12:34:19) (01:10:15:18) 6 33 Valis 33-21N 126-57W 179.9 218 146.2 1780.3 (20:18:38:23) (07:12:52:22) 7 36 Division C (start: July 4 @ 09:10:00 HST): Boat Lat Lon Dayrun @ MadeGood togo ET (@ fin) CT-CT(1st) Dv Oa or Finish (HST) Relentless 34-48N 128-00W 165.2 239 161.5 1756.4 (12:09:07:05) (00:00:00:00) 1 6 Auspice 33-12N 127-22W 188.5 220 156.9 1757.7 (12:10:19:27) (00:02:21:22) 2 10 Siderno 32-21N 127-21W 215.5 215 166.0 1745.3 (11:22:51:59) (00:04:07:24) 3 11 BscInstnct 32-53N 127-15W 220.0 219 181.3 1758.3 (12:10:53:46) (00:09:15:11) 4 15 ET 32-56N 127-04W 196.5 220 162.3 1768.0 (12:20:32:22) (00:18:19:17) 5 18 StryCatBlu 32-43N 126-42W 201.6 210 145.2 1782.6 (13:12:16:43) (01:03:09:38) 6 24 SweetOkole 32-36N 126-37W 196.5 211 141.7 1784.9 (13:14:58:54) (01:05:51:49) 7 27 Division D (start: July 5 @ 10:10:00 HST): Boat Lat Lon Dayrun @ MadeGood togo ET (@ fin) CT-CT(1st) Dv Oa or Finish (HST) Riva 35-53N 125-14W 176.9 229 163.1 1905.5 (10:11:35:03) (00:00:00:00) 1 1 MureadasXL 35-36N 125-09W 185.9 224 164.4 1904.2 (10:09:32:54) (00:18:05:21) 2 7 Recidivist 35-11N 124-26W 184.7 211 138.1 1930.5 (12:09:03:08) (01:18:01:05) 3 23 Vanessa 35-37N 124-40W 169.7 219 141.6 1927.0 (12:01:44:34) (01:21:03:31) 4 25 Orizaba 35-12N 124-27W 184.3 212 138.6 1929.9 (12:07:58:11) (02:04:26:08) 5 28 Synge 35-49N 124-36W 158.3 221 134.9 1933.6 (12:16:01:37) (02:04:26:34) 6 29 Sapphire 35-36N 124-30W 165.6 217 134.1 1934.5 (12:17:54:27) (02:04:35:54) 7 30 2Guys 35-08N 124-09W 180.7 207 125.6 1943.0 (13:14:41:14) (03:14:01:41) 8 35 Division E (start: July 6 @ 11:15:00 HST): Boat Lat Lon Dayrun @ MadeGood togo ET (@ fin) CT-CT(1st) Dv Oa or Finish (HST) Cipango not yet started Elixer not yet started FRChicken not yet started Jam not yet started Kyrnos not yet started Lightning not yet started Morpheus not yet started MadeGood=nm @ Deg(True) ET = Elapsed time @ finish, () = projection. CT = Corrected time @ finish, () = projection. Late position reports are in parentheses. Standings and Elapsed-Times (of finished boats) include the effects of penalties for missed reports. Comments from Cayenne: OVER 959,107 MILES OF FUN SAILED Sonata continues to have radio difficulty, but is getting relays, particularly from Compromise. Plus Sixteen reports seeing a whale breach nearby... magnificent. Most of us are sailing under clear skies and the stars are dramatic. Thanks for the moon, too!

 

Chart of all the Division D boats for the first day.

At 10:45am, I did the circus act again and got dressed. The sleep and food helped give me some energy for the shift. I fixed a round of Gatorade for the crew. We all took turns fixing the drinks since once you had the powder out and were making a mess anyway it made sense to top off everyone's bottles. I headed up on deck. Around noon, the wind finally calmed down and dropped below 20. What a relief! At 2pm, the wind oddly shifted towards the North and we were able to put a spinnaker up. That didn't last long as the wind shifted back and we put the jib back up. I was soaked - every layer was wet - but at least the sun was coming out and we were able to warm up some. I came off shift at 3 pm and was really hungry. I ate about 12 oz of Chicken a la King and then got some decent sleep.

Below is an email Sally sent out to family and friends on day 2.

	From: "Sally Ernst" 
	Subject: Joe/Synge update
	Date: Thu, 6 Jul 2006 12:01:17 -0700
	
	Well, Synge covered 158 miles (in just under 20 hours), and 134 of those
	miles were towards the finish line :-)  Looks like they're keeping good
	speed, so hopefully once they hit the trade winds and put up the spinnaker,
	they'll really be flying!
	
	I'll try and send a daily update so you know how many miles they're covering
	in a day!
	
	Linda's getting ready for her flight to KC, and I'm getting ready for my
	flight to LA.... Just 2 more airports of lugging lots of baggage before Joe
	will be there to help!  :-)
	
	Love to all -
	Sally
	

Thursday night I came back on shift at 7 pm. My base layer and fleece layer had had a chance to dry some, so I expected that I wouldn't be as cold as I was the first night, even though the winds were back up and the waves were still coming over the bow occassionally. I stood in the campanionway and looked around. All I could see in any direction was Water. We had gone back to a spinnaker. Darren was steering and Braden was trimming. We always kept the companionway boards in place to keep as much water as possible out of the boat, so to exit the cabin we would stand in the companionway, clip our tether into a U-bolt on the cabin top, hoist ourselves up with our arms and sit on the edge of the opening, then swing our feet out onto the cabin top. That was what I did this night. I clipped in and hoisted myself up and out of the hatch. I started to move to the low side of the boat so I could go to the stern and relieve myself. As I stepped down onto the deck, the boat rolled from a wave, and I lost my footing. I fell, landed on my hip, and slid down the sloping deck towards the lifelines...and the water. My legs slid under the lifelines and into the cold Pacific.

TO BE CONTINUED....

I was laying in my bunk, looked up, and saw Braden's camera. Sometimes, you see someone else's camera and no one is around, and you just have to take a silly picture of yourself to surprise the camera's owner!

I was just kidding about the TO BE CONTINUED :-)

I caught myself on the lifelines with my arms and torso, and felt the shock of cold water on my legs as they were yanked backwards in the water. Braden was quickly on his feet. He tied off the spinnaker sheet and braced himself, extending a hand in my direction. We locked arms and he pulled me back fully on the boat. When I look back on it, I remember that I was terrified for an instant as I lost my balance and fell, but I knew I was tethered and wasn't going to slide completely off the boat. I stayed pretty calm, but what really made me angry was the fact that my 2 inner layers had started off the shift somewhat dry, and now here I was soaked again! As I settled into the shift, the winds changed and we had to drop the spinnaker and go back to the jib again. Our course was 213, basically southwest, and winds were 14-18. Had I not gone into the water, it would have just been a pretty cold night. Wet as I was, though, it was another very cold night. It was just our second night, and I was already tired of sailing. The races I had done in the prior year were mostly single day events. The one 2-day race I took part in was the 2005 Double-Handed Race to the Straits (in which Mike and I won our division), but that was a 2 day race with the intervening night ashore. I'd never been in a multi-day, 24x7 race before. On this night it really hit me just how long this race was. I remember thinking about our progress so far and doing the math to calculate when we might get to Oahu, and the answer was at least 8 more days. I thought to myself "Eight more days of this? That's more than a week! And I'm already worn out!" Of course I had known it was a 10-11 day race all along, but it was a huge realization to feel the effort we had expended in the first 2 days and think about how hard the next 8 were going to be. I was glad when 10 pm arrived and I could go below to warm up.

I was hoping for a good 2 1/2 hours of rest, but at midnight Braden and I were awakened by Captain Mike and Darren. The wind had shifted again and we needed to switch back to the spinnaker. The jib came down, the spinny went up. The spinnaker filled, and collapsed. We trimmed it out, it filled, and collapsed again. I'm too lazy to write that 4 more times, but that's what happened! It even got twisted up a few times and we had to work to get it untwisted. After 30 minutes of spinnaker wrestling, we decided it just wasn't meant to be. The spinny came down and the jib went up. I dozed for a while, then headed back up for the 1-4 am graveyard shift. It was another cold, wet shift. At least the winds were reasonable - under 20 knots, so it wasn't as nerve-wracking as Wednesday night was. Darren and I split helm duty so we each got a chance to get out of the breeze for a while. Off and on we saw a boat behind us. We could only hope it was someone from our fleet! There were lots of stars out, and around 2 am I saw the brightest, longest shooting star I'd ever seen! It was an awesome sight. Usually when you see a shooting star it's just a streak of light across the sky, but the sky was so clear and the meteor was so big, I could really see the meteor at the front of the streak of light pulsing and burning. At 4am I went below, peeled off my foulies and boots and got some sleep.

Friday July 7, 2006 - Day 3 - The Fatigue Hits

Weather Chart from Friday, July 7th. The high moved further south, that wasn't good. It could mean light winds and a longer trip for everyone. The white dot shows Synge's approximate position.

Friday morning, my alarm went off at 6:45 am. I was really tired, tired of being cold, and I was pretty warm in my sleeping bag. I fell back to sleep. I woke up about 7:30 as we were getting ready for roll call. I felt really bad for making Braden's shift longer. We ended up putting the motor in the water to charge the batteries for roll call. Darren took off the prop, but still it caused a lot of drag. I became the radio man, as Darren wasn't having good luck getting our position reported. It really just made more sense for me to man the radio while he wrestled the motor or made adjustments to the antenna or batteries with which he was more familiar. This arrangement was fine with me, I still had not gotten seasick. The worst I had felt so far was when I was below, working the radio or computer, and I would get a little queasy. But I just had to look out the window at the horizon for a few seconds to settle my stomach back down. I was still taking ginger, but at 1/2 the previous dose. Roll call showed Riva was still north of the pack, Recidivist was south of the pack, and we were still in the hunt! It was great to know we were ahead of at least 1 boat! On corrected time we had moved up into 4th place! We sailed 214 miles in 24 hours, an average of 8.9 knots, and we were 180 miles closer to Hawaii - 1754 to go.

		2006 14th Biennial West Marine Pacific Cup
	POSITION REPORT FOR July 7, 2006
	Positions & Standings, as of July 7 (Day# 5): (Sorted by Division) Race definition file = Pcup06.ini Division 1 (start: July 3 @ 08:00:00 HST): Boat Lat Lon Dayrun @ MadeGood togo ET (@ fin) CT-CT(1st) Dv Oa or Finish (HST) Spirit 31-54N 132-05W 114.6 252 114.6 1506.8 (14:10:07:47) (00:00:00:00) 1 8 Slim 31-32N 131-20W 127.1 243 125.1 1536.8 (15:05:37:43) (00:20:38:56) 2 27 PlsSixteen 31-30N 131-28W 132.9 244 131.1 1529.6 (15:00:48:26) (00:21:00:09) 3 28 Celerity 30-32N 132-33W 126.7 249 126.1 1459.9 (13:07:28:42) (00:22:13:25) 4 29 KeeliQuinn 31-01N 131-02W 124.5 244 122.2 1543.0 (15:09:59:37) (01:08:29:20) 5 36 GiantSlayr 32-10N 131-09W 142.4 242 140.2 1556.9 (15:20:00:57) (01:23:41:10) 6 40 TheContesa 30-08N 131-48W 123.0 237 116.6 1491.2 (14:00:47:52) (02:02:28:05) 7 41 Division A (start: July 3 @ 08:15:00 HST): Boat Lat Lon Dayrun @ MadeGood togo ET (@ fin) CT-CT(1st) Dv Oa or Finish (HST) GrnBuffalo 31-08N 132-18W 125.8 246 124.8 1482.4 (13:18:50:40) (00:00:00:00) 1 12 Hooligan 30-56N 132-02W 124.7 238 119.9 1492.2 (14:00:26:19) (00:00:59:39) 2 13 Cassiopeia 31-47N 131-59W 122.4 256 122.3 1509.5 (14:10:52:06) (00:02:47:56) 3 16 Cirrus 31-39N 132-13W 110.8 237 107.0 1495.7 (14:02:31:19) (00:09:24:09) 4 20 CalifGirl 29-20N 131-28W 137.4 223 114.5 1497.2 (14:03:23:06) (00:09:41:26) 5 22 Cayenne 32-19N 132-04W 111.0 249 110.9 1515.6 (14:14:40:44) (00:16:57:34) 6 33 Sonata 32-31N 131-47W 113.4 247 113.0 1533.0 (15:02:07:25) (00:20:21:15) 7 34 Division B (start: July 3 @ 08:30:00 HST): Boat Lat Lon Dayrun @ MadeGood togo ET (@ fin) CT-CT(1st) Dv Oa or Finish (HST) TuttoBene 30-42N 131-50W 126.1 236 119.5 1498.3 (14:03:08:15) (00:00:00:00) 1 23 Locomotion 30-19N 131-38W 120.1 233 111.2 1502.3 (14:05:34:12) (00:05:52:57) 2 31 IrishLady 30-27N 131-35W 126.1 239 121.0 1506.8 (14:08:18:56) (00:14:57:11) 3 35 Bequia 30-41N 131-36W 116.5 238 111.8 1509.6 (14:10:01:23) (00:17:48:38) 4 37 Compromise 32-07N 131-31W 119.6 243 117.9 1538.2 (15:04:41:59) (01:06:09:44) 5 39 Bounty 33-22N 131-46W 109.5 277 98.3 1551.2 (15:13:48:51) (01:17:00:06) 6 42 Valis 32-08N 129-48W 161.3 243 158.3 1621.9 (18:01:00:59) (03:23:01:44) 7 43 Division C (start: July 4 @ 09:10:00 HST): Boat Lat Lon Dayrun @ MadeGood togo ET (@ fin) CT-CT(1st) Dv Oa or Finish (HST) Siderno 30-51N 130-22W 178.5 240 171.6 1573.6 (11:23:41:52) (00:00:00:00) 1 7 Relentless 33-13N 130-34W 159.1 233 151.7 1604.7 (12:18:57:36) (00:04:53:14) 2 10 Auspice 31-13N 129-47W 170.9 226 149.5 1608.2 (12:21:16:00) (00:08:20:38) 3 11 BscInstnct 30-53N 129-46W 175.6 227 154.2 1604.1 (12:18:33:57) (00:11:58:05) 4 15 ET 30-50N 129-34W 179.2 225 154.6 1613.4 (13:00:49:47) (00:17:39:25) 5 19 SweetOkole 30-32N 129-12W 181.1 227 157.2 1627.8 (13:11:01:01) (00:20:56:39) 6 24 StryCatBlu 30-57N 129-18W 169.7 231 154.2 1628.4 (13:11:28:51) (00:21:24:29) 7 25 Division D (start: July 5 @ 10:10:00 HST): Boat Lat Lon Dayrun @ MadeGood togo ET (@ fin) CT-CT(1st) Dv Oa or Finish (HST) Riva 33-40N 128-41W 215.9 232 202.8 1702.7 (10:07:49:27) (00:00:00:00) 1 1 Orizaba 32-09N 127-22W 233.9 219 188.4 1741.5 (11:13:15:12) (01:13:28:45) 2 14 MureadasXL 32-10N 127-38W 240.3 211 175.5 1728.6 (11:02:44:12) (01:15:02:15) 3 17 Synge 33-06N 127-25W 214.4 221 180.0 1753.7 (11:23:55:33) (01:16:06:06) 4 18 Sapphire 32-45N 127-09W 215.7 218 173.4 1761.1 (12:06:53:49) (01:21:20:52) 5 21 Vanessa 32-57N 127-21W 208.1 220 172.5 1754.5 (12:00:41:06) (01:23:45:39) 6 26 Recidivist 31-55N 126-44W 227.2 210 160.9 1769.6 (12:15:16:51) (02:04:00:24) 7 30 2Guys 33-01N 127-21W 203.5 231 187.4 1755.5 (12:01:39:50) (02:04:45:53) 8 32 Division E (start: July 6 @ 11:15:00 HST): Boat Lat Lon Dayrun @ MadeGood togo ET (@ fin) CT-CT(1st) Dv Oa or Finish (HST) Lightning 34-57N 125-02W 212.5 216 170.3 1898.2 (09:11:43:01) (00:00:00:00) 1 2 Kyrnos 35-14N 125-05W 200.4 219 167.8 1900.8 (09:15:08:20) (00:00:32:49) 2 3 Cipango 35-01N 125-06W 211.2 217 172.3 1896.2 (09:09:03:57) (00:03:05:56) 3 4 Elixer 34-52N 124-52W 212.0 213 163.9 1904.7 (09:20:42:38) (00:08:59:37) 4 5 Morpheus 35-08N 124-48W 196.9 215 156.2 1912.3 (10:08:16:53) (00:13:39:52) 5 6 Jam 35-07N 124-42W 195.0 214 151.8 1916.8 (10:15:31:10) (00:18:36:09) 6 9 FRChicken 35-23N 124-33W 177.6 215 140.2 1928.4 (11:12:38:24) (02:11:16:23) 7 38 MadeGood=nm @ Deg(True) ET = Elapsed time @ finish, () = projection. CT = Corrected time @ finish, () = projection. Late position reports are in parentheses. Standings and Elapsed-Times (of finished boats) include the effects of penalties for missed reports. Comments from Cayenne: Over 965,302 Miles of Fun Sailed! Less than 35,000 miles till the Million Mile Trophy is awarded. For some boats that took a more northerly route, the "Million Mule" trophy is more like it, as lighter winds test our light air sailing resolve. We are quite pleased to note that ALL entrants started this year, which is unusual because there are often last-minute dropouts for one reason or another. Further, there have been no reports of serious gear damage or other mishap. Unless you happen to be a tuna. Two of them have been caught and consumed by our fleet. More to come. We have told the junior members of Green Buffalo that their SAT scores will be added to their rating. Apparently it is study time, and any incentive is a good thing.

 

Chart of all the Division D boats for the first 2 days.

The time between 8 am and 9:30 am was usually an all-hands-on-deck time. Two of us were busy sailing the boat, one was manning the radio and one was handling the motor and battery switch. Braden and I decided he'd work on deck during roll call as he didn't want to deal with the radio. I cannot blame him, the radio was full of static, and you had to have the volume way up just to have a chance to hear the call-ins. Since everyone was up at that time, whoever had the 4am-7am shift kind of got ripped off, as they had to stay up until 9:30 am to help with roll call. We decided to try and vary the shifts so it wasn't always the same person getting stuck with the 4am - 7am shift.

Here I am trimming the spinnaker (or acting like it) while Darren steers

After roll call I had 2 pouches of oatmeal. I washed my underwear and switched to my dry pair. I took over trimming duty from Braden around 10 am and trimmed until noon. It was a pretty nice day, the sun was out and we started getting warm. I was wearing shorts and a shirt while on deck along with my deck shoes, PFD and tether. The wind had clocked around and we were under spinnaker again. The wind stayed consistent, and the spinny stayed up. That was the end of our "lazy" shifts under jib! It was all active trimming now as the spinnaker needed pretty much constant adjustment, so we could no longer get by with just a driver paying attention. For several hours we saw the boat that was behind us, and it was interesting to try and determine if they were gaining on us or not.

Sailing with the red spinnaker

When Braden came up for his 12-4pm shift, we talked about my oversleeping. He was very nice about it and understood how tired I was, but let me know that we really needed to stick to our shifts, especially during the early morning when it's so hard to stay alert. I apologized, and we got back to work. It turned out that later in the trip he overslept and was late to his shift, so we ended up even after all :-).

Darren takes a turn trimming the spinnaker while Braden steers so he can get his picture taken at the helm :-)

I headed down below and fixed 20 oz of chicken and rice. I was hungry and ate it all. Sleep came fast, and the alarm went off at 3:40 pm. I wore a wicking shirt, my base layer and foulie bottoms, and took my jacket with me on deck as it was going to get cool by 8pm. Darren was feeling fine, he was over his seasickness. Mike was doing better, but still wasn't feeling good. He could drive fine during the day, but at night the loss of the visual horizon usually made him queasy. The boat was moving along nicely, and we were making good time. Speed varied from around 8 knots to 12 or 14 when we got some gusts and could surf the waves. The seas were following us, so the ride was much smoother and drier. While we were warmer, drier and faster, it was also more work for the driver and trimmer. The spinnaker makes you fast, but also makes you pay attention. After 4 hours of trimming, I was exhausted. I came off shift, ate 2 more pouches of oatmeal and went to sleep. My log entry after that shift says "4 hours all spin trim - ick. TIRED!!" That's all I could bear to write at the time.

Sally's email update from Friday night:

	
	From: "Sally Ernst" 
	Subject: Latest Pac Cup update
	Date: Fri, 7 Jul 2006 20:05:19 -0700
	
	Synge covered 214 miles, 180 of which they "made good" .  As of 9am today,
	the estimated finish time is 11 days 23 hours (yesterday it was 12 days 16
	hours, so they seem to be doing really well!)  As of the 9am roll call, they
	were in 4th place in their division, but they haven't "turned the corner"
	yet, so still have the great running days ahead of them!  Sure looks to me
	like they're doing great!
	
	I'm done lugging baggage around until Wed.... just gotta make it thru LAX
	and Honolulu :-)
	
	Hope everyone is doing well - it's hot here in Southern California, but I
	just assume it's helping me get ready for warm and humid Hawaii!
	
	Love to all -
	
	Sally

Friday, July 7th, 11pm: I woke up from a sound sleep. The previous shift had worn me out. It was time for the circus act again, putting on my outer layer, boots, PFD and tether while the boat rolled in the waves. The night was pretty comfortable, the best night so far. Winds were in the high teens / low 20's, but since it was coming mostly from behind us it only felt like 10-13. It was partly cloudy and the nearly full moon was often visible. We could see the surface of the water pretty well, which made things much easier than previous nights. I was still wet, but not soaking, and we were only getting periodic spray off the bow so I wasn't getting much wetter. It was an active night with nearly constant trimming, but I did a good job (Mike later said so, which was important to me as I knew I was the rookie on the team, and I didn't want to let the team down). We made good time and were able to surf the waves a lot. It was the most fun sailing we'd had so far in the race, and it helped me forget the aches, pains and fatigue a little.

Coming up next - Saturday Morning, Day 4.