Kinetic update Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Aloha to Kinetic family and friends.

Wind, thank goodness, wind at last. Our newfound wind is holding, touch wood. The early night was clear but cloud cover increased steadily and with it came more wind.

Flights of flying fish have flown, fanning away from Kinetic which they probably perceive as a rather large predator. That we are. Rather than chasing fish we are instead hunting the mighty Kahuna (El Conquistador lives on) and other Vic-Maui boats. Overnight, shooting stars, shining satellites and blinking airplanes were seen overhead before the cloud cover rolled in.

We sent a crew member aloft to unravel a spinnaker which was wrapped around the forestay. Our spinnaker net is intended to prevent these wraps, but it must be lowered to gybe the sail, and that of course is exactly when the sail gets wrapped! Later, we had an exciting spinnaker takedown, probably just in time for the particular spinnaker we had up at the time. As helmsman, I kept track of the glow of the red headlamps on the four person foredeck crew as they struggled with getting 1800 square feet of sail back on the boat. At one point, a cluster of three headlamps crossed the foredeck rapidly, stopping near the leeward lifelines. That turned out to be one crewmember holding the sail and two people holding onto him. Of course, everyone was wearing PFDs (personal flotation devices i.e. specialized lifejackets) with integrated safety harnesses, and they were each separately tethered to the boat. Our mantra is "stay on the boat", and we live by it.

This morning we can see that we are once again trailing a line, more floating debris, that is fouled somewhere under the boat. It has defied our efforts to shake it free, which included dropping our headsail, stopping the boat head to wind and backing the boat down under main alone, a feat of seamanship best practiced many times in calm waters near home before being attempted in offshore conditions against running seas. As the line is much smaller and has less drag than the ship's hawser we were previously fouled by, we have decided to leave it be, at least for now. Swimming to clear it is out of the question in these conditions.

We have another sailboat in direct sight, our first since rounding Cape Flattery 9 days ago. It is not another Vic-Maui boat, but possibly a Pacific Cup boat sailing from San Francisco to Hawaii. No AIS and no response on to calls on the VHF radio, but a strong radar return. The boat is 5 miles behind us, on approximately the same course, and slightly slower than us. This is one race we are winning!

Kinetic's rudder emits a harmonic hum that fills in only at higher wind and boat speeds. We have dubbed the early hum as the "Kinetic Pre-Harmonic" and the full hum as the "Kinetic Philharmonic". Today, auditions are planned for the soon-to-be famous Kinetic Boys Choir. The skipper is exempt from auditions due to a complete lack of karaokic capability.

Peter is in the middle of telling Dean a bedtime story, as Dean tries to fall asleep at the irregular time of 8:30 am. Dean is not responding appreciatively; in fact, he is no longer responding at all. Maybe it worked or maybe he's taking the high road ...

Thank you to all our families, friends and supporters onshore who are following along on our adventure.

Kinetic is goin' to Maui!

1115 hrs - breaking kinetic news - July 14, 2014

Kinetic is half way to Maui and is hauling the mail!

Kinetic update Monday, July 14, 2014

Aloha to Kinetic family and friends.

Kinetic wrote last about a sunset and moonrise at sea. Naturally, that was followed the next morning by an almost as extraordinary sunrise and moonset. We recommend that each of you take a passage at sea to experience these personally. At two thirty a.m. we are sailing South, in a nice breeze under moonlit sails, towards the trade winds. It's warm enough at night to wear shorts and a light fleece or jacket.

Earlier, when the wind speed was less than two knots and the boat speed was about the square root of that, boredom set in and we lowered the mainsail to make a preventative repair to an area that was looking rather sad. It is now Kevlar reinforced and ready for the trade winds. There still are trade winds out there somewhere, aren't there?

Dinner Saturday included figs with goat cheese drizzled with strawberry balsamic reduction, pepperoni on wasabi on crackers, thai peanut cabbage salad, mains of tangy chicken and rice. Breakfast Sunday was blueberry and coconut pancakes. Sunday's lunch starter was chicken, cucumber, relish, sesame oil, wasabi on crepes (i.e. leftover cold pancakes), followed by a quesadilla panini fusion, stuffed with roast beef, salsa, assorted cheeses, cabbage and the chef's secret seasoning. If some of these combinations seem unusual, please understand that there's no progress without experimentation, in our case something that resembles a random walk approach to cuisine. There are also no chefs and no grocery stores out here ... and when there's no wind there's plenty of time to cook and eat.

We've had several visits from white sea birds with very long and narrow tail feathers. The bird circles the slowly moving boat several times, eyeing possible landing sites on the unpredictably wobbling masthead. Waved off by the cluster of antennae and wind instruments, the bird eventually abandons the attempt and heads off into the distance. From memory, this may be a tropic bird.

Another commercial ship crossed our bow, about six miles ahead, and we observed more ships beyond our direct sight by using AIS which has a much greater effective range than radar. Are there more ships out here, or are we simply aware of more ships because of the advances in technology?

Speaking of more, more wind arrived at about 4 pm; our hope that it will hold nears desperation after so much time spent ghosting along in fickle zephyrs.

Thank you to all our families, friends and supporters onshore who are following along on our adventure.

Kinetic is goin' to Maui!

Kinetic update Sunday, July 13, 2014

Aloha to Kinetic family and friends.

A windless evening. A vast and clear sky above, the horizon fluffily frosted with picture-book clouds; the sun sinking slowly through all into the quenching sea; the blue sky and white clouds shifting colour through soft and subtle hues; the undulating sea reflecting a kaleidoscope pattern of mottled pastel blues, pinks and purples. The sun slips slowly under, and is gone. A spellbound pause, long and breathless. Thoughts wander. A dot appears on the indistinct horizon between purple sky and purpler sea. The dot rises, orange against purple, spreads into a horizontal sliver, thickens, transforms to a lenticular crescent and finally rises as the sea gives birth to an entire moon, orange and cratered and impossibly full, suspended in the twilight somewhere between sea and sky. Silence and awe. Time stops. Infinity reigns. Adrift at sea.

We continue to sail in exceptionally light wind, most of the time less than 3 knots. In trying to duck under the centre of the high pressure zone, we have managed to sail right through the windless middle of it, as it has drifted down and over our track. Our light air sails have been up and down, in various configurations, in a game of squeezing out every inch of progress. Meanwhile, the part of the fleet that sailed over the top is now sailing in very nice breeze and is making good speeds toward Maui. The die may now be cast, although we will concede nothing before the proverbial fat lady sings. Now may be the time for Kinetic's intrepid navigator to reveal that we have actually been on a well-funded secret research mission to find the elusive centre of the high, and that this was our intention all along. Or not. Better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt. At the very least, though, the crew suggest that the skipper have a stern word with the navigator. This the skipper calmly commits to do, although his mutterings are indistinct and heard only by himself.

We ran the watermaker for most of the day, producing a significant surplus of water. Water is heavy, and in light air sailing, heavy is slow. The solution to this difficult dilemma was for the entire crew to have their first actual showers of the trip. Briefly, we were as fresh as daisies! We arbitrarily changed our time zone and our watches from Pacific Daylight Time to Kinetic Standard Time, a shift back of two hours. We'll have to make a further one hour adjustment by the time we reach Hawaii. In a triumph of the comforts of food over the comforts of a cooler cabin, the oven was run and duly produced fresh baked buns to accompany our dinner.

Distractions of all kinds present themselves. But, are they actually distractions? Which is primary, the journey or the destination? Yesterday, we were visited by a pod of Minke whales, a smaller variety also seen in BC waters. These may be the same pod which we had seen earlier by moonlight, and described then as very large dolphins. They came, they looked at us, visitors in their home, and went on. In the heat of the cloudless noon sky, we dragged our bags of wet sails on deck and air dried them. We developed a new affinity for the leeward side of the boat, although one suspects not because of the performance advantage of putting our weight there in light wind, but rather because it was in the shade of the sails and provided welcome relief from the now scorching sun.

In the early morning light, we notice a line dragging under the water, streaming behind the boat. How long have we dragged it, how many precious wind puffs has it resisted? It has ensnared us, and we in turn snare it, pull it forward off our rudder, and hoist it onto our deck. The school of attendant fish scurry and flit away, seeking shelter under the boat while they ponder a forced change of habitat. Some four inches in diameter and over twenty feet long, with an eye splice in one end, the synthetic line is apparently the remnant of some kind of hawser from a ship.

Thank you all for your support. And thank you to the Vic-Maui Silver Sponsors for their support of the event:

+ CSR Marine
+ Eggbeater Creative
+ First Yacht Service
+ North Sails
+ Signature Yachts

Kinetic is goin' to Maui!

PS - the following paragraphs are from crew member Greg:

A most awesome day. The sun is out and the wind has built to 4kts, we are pointed at Maui and actually feel like its a vacation. The sails are drying on the deck and the wet gear and cabins are all aired out. I have packed away all the warm clothes and will wear only shorts and maybe a spray top from now on. And a wide brimmed hat best left to the imagination. If the sun gets too strong I will bust out my pink gecko pants that were momentarily popular in the late 80s. etc

A few relaxed sail changes, everyone had a freshwater shower on the swim deck and Peter even gave me a haircut. Luckily the difference between a good haircut and a bad haircut is two weeks, so it wasn't much of a risk. Lots of laughing and stories and tales best left to the wind. The only downer is the amazing amount of garbage we have seen. Basically at any moment you can see at least 5 floating objects and the surface of the sea has almost a thin coating of crap.

On the plus side the ocean is a striking blue and you can see 50 feet or more downwards in the water column. The occasional albatross circles us and wants to land atop the mast, but it is full of antennae and wind instruments. There are white clouds but they are not threatening rain nor promising wind. So as much fun as we are having we are still racing, the sails are still trimmed, helm still manned and we are on our projected polar speeds. In the evening we will hear how our competitors are doing, so we will either be crying in our dinner bowls or celebrating our brilliance. Could go either way, so WTF might as well enjoy the day. Which we have done. Yea Kinetic.

Kinetic update Saturday, July 12, 2014

Aloha to Kinetic family and friends.

Saturday, one week ago, we put to sea. The wind was light then, and it is light again now. In between, not so much. Yesterday, we spent some time sailing along at a very nice clip, able to lay our desired course without relentlessly soaking to a difficult deep target angle. It didn't last long enough, though. This morning, we are working to make progress in under 5 knots of wind, in a rolling ocean swell. The sails and rig are slatting and banging. Progress is measured in a gradual crawl across the chart. Our gains and losses are measured in progress relative to the other boats, in a very large scale marine version of snakes and ladders.

Brenda's beef stroganoff & Gaylean's beef stew have provided sailorly belly ballast, much appreciated by all. We are eating very well indeed, being amply provisioned in almost all departments, with the possible exception of hot sauce. Fresh produce doesn't last long in warm, humid environments, such as the interior of a boat headed South, so our Quartermaster has ordered that we must eat all the remaining plums by the end of the day today. A plum job, some were heard to mutter.

There is fresh water aplenty, thanks to our now trusty watermaker. After some unofficial scuttlebutt, surely scarce of a credible basis, that we might finish within another week, some crew washed their hair yesterday. The more skeptical souls seems to be saving their locks for a later finish time.

There is a lot of floating plastic garbage out here. The most common items are bottles, buckets, baskets, buoys; all "b's" and none beautiful. Lids, trays, rope, and the like round out the rest of the list. It's no "floating garbage island", but it sure is sad to see the sea in this condition. And while we are on the subject of unsightly sightings, please don't say anything about Greg's new PJs.

On a brighter note, last night we were graced with a visit by a pod of several quite large dolphins. They surfaced in the bright moonlight, breathing noisily and swimming close alongside the boat for some minutes before deciding to find someone or something speedier to play with. We also saw our first flying fish of the passage, one lonely glider, yesterday. We have seen at least two pairs of albatross, different species by their markings. As these birds often travel near boats, it is hard to know whether we are seeing the same or different pairs on successive sightings.

Thank you all for your support. And thank you to the Vic-Maui Gold Sponsors for their support of the event:

+ Greater Victoria Harbour Authority
+ Navis Marine Insurance
+ Pacific Yachting
+ Westerly Yachts

Kinetic is goin' to Maui! 

Kinetic update Friday, July 11, 2014

Aloha to Kinetic family and friends.

Friday!

Thursday afternoon: We are now angling away from the North American continent.  The wind is getting lighter and the ride a bit lumpier. With credit to Tim O'Connell, we have fitted the Mark III super-bungee shock absorber to our main boom. Our side of the course seems to be popular with at least some of the other race boats, as they have made what appears to be an expensive gybe away from Maui and towards our path.

Four a.m., Friday: Low clouds, squalls of wind and rain, patches of star-spattered clear sky, an almost full moon playing hide and seek among the clouds. An adrenalous spinnaker take-down in much too much wind for the sail, with Cam's steady hands on the wheel. A reacher up. The squall passes. A heavier spinnaker up and the reacher down. A long arcing moonbow, graceful and silver. Sloppy, rolling waves on the stern quarter. Lines, hardware and boat groaning, moaning and creaking in the moonlight, louder than the snoring off-watch.

Through the ether comes an ethereal weather update, with a shift unfavorable to the Easterly group of boats, Kinetic included. Just another dismissible forecast, most of them are wrong anyway, say some. Stand onward.

Notes regarding the port watch: On a dark and barely seen sea, under a darker and featureless night sky, Vern demonstrates his well-honed night driving skills. Nine Vic-Maui's, both ways, make for a deep pool to draw on. Mike intuitively senses subtle wind pressure and direction changes like only an experienced high performance dinghy sailor can; teamwork could be his byword. Dave (aka Isaac) revels in being at the helm, offshore, for the first time, and further refines his trim and helming techniques. Dean proves his value as a relatively late addition to the team, providing another set of capable hands on the wheel, and a calm focus when things unexpectedly go sideways.

We have two First Nations people among our crew of nine. Dockside, just before our departure from Victoria, Peter's sister Laura performed a smudging and cleansing ceremony for the boat and each crewmember. With this, we have left the land behind, and hope for the sea to give us a safe passage.  We thank Laura, and her mom Roberta, and think of Peter's dad whose spirit and calming touch is also with us.

To anyone who doubts there is a spiritual dimension to life, consider this: Wednesday, Kinetic received an email from a sister of another crew member, asking him to let her know if we saw a unicorn while out here at sea.  There must be an inside story to this seemingly improbable request .. but in any event, the very next day in the great expanse of open ocean while sailing along minding our own business, Kinetic passed within three miles of a very large ship, 935 feet long, 131 feet wide and 41 feet deep, which was steaming at 16.5 knots between Asia and Manzanillo. The ship's name?  "Ever Unicorn". Surely, this is the least likely of convergences, and with the largest unicorn on record, real or mythical. Did Kaley know, or was it simply meant to be?

Salutations to the TechVets cycling team; your legs and lungs grow stronger on land while mine whither in the cycling-free zone on Kinetic. I will probably need the assistance of a domestique upon my return to the saddle.  Robin?

Thank you all for your support.

Kinetic is goin' to Maui!

Kinetic update Thursday, July 10, 2014

Aloha to Kinetic family and friends. 

Kinetic is goin' to Maui!

Kinetic update Wednesday, July 09, 2014

Aloha to Kinetic family and friends. 

Wednesday morning. Grey skies, low cloud, drizzle, breaks of brightness hint at a sunny world not far above. 

We are running deep, closest to the coast and the higher wind speeds and bigger seas of the compression zone.  Yesterday, without warning, the steering failed and the boat spun wildly around up across the wind.  All hands were called on deck.  Seas broke against the boat, sending spray across the deck.  One team struggled to get the spinnaker down from where it was pasted by the wind onto the rig.  Another team excavated the emergency steering supplies from deep storage.  A third dove into the cavity under the cockpit where the steering gear is, discovering that the steering cable was severed.  Soberingly, a loop of this cable when new is strong enough to lift the entire boat.  Over three hours later, after a very difficult maintenance procedure, we had a replacement steering cable fitted and the boat answering her helm properly. 

During the dark of night, we again broke the steering cable. Another all hands on deck situation. Another struggle. Twice in twelve hours. This time we had the job completed an hour faster, benefiting from the recent practice. Wallowing rudderless in seas at night, even briefly, is not for the feint of heart. Not that we have much choice now.  Having no other practical options makes it easier to focus on fixing the problem. Afterwards, a range of emotions; relief, fatigue, concern, hope. 

Around us, we see that we are not alone in these challenges. We are running conservatively, to preserve gear.  This is costing us relative to boats to the West. Hopefully it pays in the long run. Either way, it is a marathon, not a sprint. Be safe, have fun, do well. In that order.  

Everything else seems to be working. The crew are all doing well. The food is great. We noticed that we 'forgot' to remove the flat panel TV screen before the race. Not that we have time, motivation or any media on board to watch. 

Thank you for the continued stream of messages from home. 

Kinetic is goin' to Maui!

Kinetic update Tuesday July 08, 2014

Aloha to Kinetic family and friends. 

Dawn, Tuesday morning, the sky cerulean blue, whisked whimsically with wisps of first-kiss soft pink clouds.  Gone is the night sky with its scudding clouds, bright moon and stars. Only the strong wind and following seas remain from the hard watches, tokens of the best wishes we received from ashore. 

Kinetic surges along, rolling and bucking, sails full, pressing a deep course on the eastern edge of the fleet. At certain speeds, only the higher double-digit speeds, Kinetic's rudder hums harmonically, singing to us the praises of sailing faster and faster. Always, we hear the siren song of the more western track, and proverbially we stuff beeswax and cloth strips in our ears, insulating against temptation so tantalizing that we can taste it. No, no, NO! We will NOT sail into the windless centre of the weakling high pressure zone. 

Yesterday we 'spoke ship', in an entirely modern sense, a long range radio conversation between our ship of the sea and a ship of the air high above.  The spirit of the race's founder, airline pilot Jim Innes, still flies air cover over the Vic-Maui fleet. 

Last night we noted a faster moving vessel, initially over eighty miles away, on our AIS (Automatic Identification System). Our combined speeds towards each other closed this gap in only three hours. With a closing speed approaching thirty knots, one  mile closer every two minutes, and Kinetic running fast and deep with few maneuvering options, we paid close attention to the converging tracks. At fourteen miles range, we acquired a solid target on our radar, confirming the AIS information. We had a pleasant chat by VHF radio with her crisply spoken, English school accented officer, confirming each others intentions. In twilight, we crossed three miles ahead of the brightly lit cruise ship on our port bow. 

Bleary eyed, the off watch rises to the smoky smells of breakfast bacon, camp coffee and diesel exhaust, the former two much the more appealing.  Running the engine, out of gear, is a necessary chore to charge the batteries.  It is already warm and damp inside the boat, a mere hint of the heat and humidity ahead. We are one hundred and sixty miles offshore, somewhere West of Cape Blanco on the Oregon coast. All is well onboard. 

Thank you for the messages from home. 

Kinetic is goin' to Maui!

Kinetic update Monday July 07, 2014

Aloha to Kinetic family and friends. 

Two days since our start on Saturday, day 3 of our race. 

At 9 am Monday, we are averaging almost 9 knots of boat speed, sailing downwind with main and spinnaker in 20 knots. The on deck crew is peeling layers as the sun again tries to burn through the low clouds. The waves are fringed with whitecaps brightened by the sun. We are about 120 miles West of the Columbia River Bar, near Astoria, Oregon. 

We are right where we are supposed to be within the second start fleet, behind the faster rated boats and ahead of the slower rated boats. We are giving up some relative speed and 'distance made good' in order to be where we want to be for the weather we expect some days ahead. Now, ever-so-briefly, we empathize with the challenges facing weather-guessers - ah, errr, ah - professional weather forecasters. 

Everyone is rotating through sail trim, helm (steering), and domestic duties. Some crew are getting their first experience with driving in ocean conditions at night, in clouds and poor visibility, with swells and a full press of sail. Hopefully the tracker is not so finely detailed as to show all the wobbles and spills! "It's just like learning to ride a bike". Skinned knees and all. Dave Isaac drove for a good stretch with the compass screened off, learning to helm in the dark by heel and feel alone. 

You can follow us from the comfort of home, via the race tracker at www.vicmaui.org.  You'll certainly get a better nights sleep than we will ..  We are happy to receive email messages from family and friends; please send them through Gaylean.  There is no privacy onboard.  Using your pet name for your loved one will result in embarrassment for them and unbounded mirth for the rest of the crew; it's your choice. 

PS - we are pleased to report no mal de mare (seasickness). 

Kinetic is goin' to Maui!

Kinetic update July 06, 2014

Aloha to Kinetic family and friends. 

We have set out on our fifth Vic-Maui race. Our plan is to be safe and have fun, and do as well as possible in the race. We have our work cut out for us against a competitive fleet.  Already the lighter, higher performance boats are showing their capabilities. That said, this race is long - much more like a marathon than a sprint.  None know what King Neptune has in store for any of us. 

The weather and navigational situation is fairly complex, so far. Low pressure against high pressure, fronts and ridges, wind, no wind, seas, no seas.  Currents, tidal and oceanic. We have flown three different jibs and four different spinnakers, all in the first 30 hours. Currently we are in light wind, sloppy swells/waves, clouds and drizzle, with a wan sun trying to burn through. 

Thanks are due to all who helped us get to the start line - family, friends and supporters. All the advance efforts have resulted in the boat being better prepared than ever before.  Vern, Mike, Dave I and Dean are on the Port Watch; Peter, Greg, Kip and Cameron are on the Starboard Watch. David is floating across the two watches.

You can follow us from the comfort of home, via the race tracker at www.vicmaui.org. You'll certainly be drier than we are right now ...

Kinetic is goin' to Maui!