August 4-5....Mahi Mahi Fest continues (with gin)...but winds are light

On the down side...

There is not a lot of wind out here.  We fluctuate between sailing and motoring, but at these wind angles the boat is HOT, and the wispy airs are hard on the main sail (it just keeps flopping around) so today we've had to do some repairs.  There's a tropical storm brewing off Hawaii, and we are getting rains but not enough solid wind to push this boat anywhere productive.  

On the upside, Mahi Mahi Fest 2014 is still on, and it turns out that a large bottle of gin is key to getting these fish on board!

It started just before sunrise, I got up and made sure the fishing gear was out, we started catching fish almost immediately. We landed 3 today and lost 2 right at the boat. The hardest part of the whole process is getting the fish onto the boat (after we lost the gaff).  Imagine a 6'4 guy and a 3 ft fish on the transom of the boat in rocking seas, trying to get a clean fillet off of the fish. At one point I was sitting back in the transom enjoying the view. Then, a fish jumped out of the water about 20 ft back, then three more, then another 4. 8 Mahi Mahi in total all charging at our rod and hand line.   It's like we're the only interesting thing our here for them!

At this point, we only had a small scrap of duct tape left on the rod, and a very chewed up hand line lure. The Mahi took them both. The hand line appears to be too stretchy with the bungy as we are having trouble getting the hook to set, but the rod worked perfectly and it was a fight. The current process is to get the fish as close as possible, then I get on transom of the boat. I grab the line by hand and pull the fish to the boat. Sometimes, the fish opens his mouth, ready for the 60# bottle of gin I am about to shove in there to put it out. Other times… not so much and I have to wrestle it around… when this happens, we are about 30% successful in getting the fish landed. We have wasted a bit of gin, but the Mahi is all the better for it!  Once the Mahi has its share of the gin, we put a rope down through its jaw and gills so it can't slip off the transom.

I stepped away for dinner, and just after we finished our mahi tacos, the reel started singing again. Dave drew the straw (and made the lure - first bite on it) and started reeling. The fish had taken a lot of line out by this time, so we didn't mind giving up the job. The fish darted from side to side leaping out of the ocean, going from a blue silver colour combo to green with a bit a blue. Finally Dave had the fish up to the boat, I used the boat hook as a gaff under the gills and was able to get it secure enough to get the gin down (the fish, not me). With the gin portion done, it was time for the rope.

 It was about this time that Dave and I noticed that this fish certainly competed with the one from the previous night for largest fish yet. We won't know for sure, as we don't have a scale, but this fish is up there in weight.

The crew is getting along really well and we all miss home.

See you soon (another 10-14 days depending on if we run out of gas or not - maybe a story for another day).

Turnagain

Sports Day Turnagain Style

August 1st Update    

Today was BEAUTIFUL!!. The temperatures were great, and the wind was only about 10 kts on average all day. While it did not lend to fast sailing, we were able to have the hatches open and keep inside temperatures very reasonable. We made a ton of water, had showers and did some maintenance on the boat.  The furling system is holding together, and the galley faucet that was leaking is now fixed. 

The crew has quickly gelled and is working well together. They have also settled into their respective watches.  Things are great and we are making great time towards home (well… headed to Alaska currently but hopefully the winds will change as forcast and let us curve to the east), even if a few of us need to find our sea legs (hence the short blog today). 

Fishing isn't going great. We have temporarily given up on the Kit-Kat and gone to more traditional store bought lures still with limited success. We had a bite at dinner, but it promptly threw the hook. 

Dave and I are missing "Sports Day" back at home, but have been thinking up some games we might be able to do on board. Dave's kids and mine are the same age, we have traditionally spent sports day being the supporting dad and doing the horse races (being the horse), or the one with the bucket on our head while our kids try to fill it faster than the other kids and their dad's using a sponge (and of course getting Dad totally soaked). So we may do piggy back races up and down the deck tomorrow am, during the traditional land races time frame, and we may try some sort of water event in the afternoon, but have not come up with anything that would be safe at the current speeds we are sailing. 

The winds are expected to start backing tomorrow mid to late day, which will likely allow us to hoist a kite. Then entire crew is excited about that.   

We all miss you
Turnagain

July 31....Drip....Drop...Drip...Drop

Today we had some excitement. There were many squalls, most bigger than the last.  During one of the bigger ones, the crew had reefed everything down and was quite proud of their work. I came on deck and quickly noticed that the headsail furling unit had what appeared to be a serious problem.  The side plates that hold the drum down had become disconnected and the entire foil and furler had slide up the forstay by 3 inches. Luckily we found one of the pieces that held it all together (there were two at the start of the trip) and we have put things back together enough to get us to Vancouver (hopefully).

We had some great sailing today, with speeds above 8kts for what felt like most of the day.

After sunset, we caught a fish as well. It was small and what appeared to be a barracuda, so we returned it to the sea. We will try again first thing in the am. We are thinking we will even get out the hand line and try some different lures, but we will see what the winds are like and our speeds. 

We have some other maintenance items to tend to including the galley sink. The faucet is leaking (a slow drip) and is driving Travis nuts with the water pump kicking on randomly throughout the day. We need to do our best to keep him from going crazy this early in the trip :) 

Until tomorrow,

Turnagain crew

The Hunter Becomes the Hunted

Yesterday was the last day in a series of very challenging conditions, moderate winds over highly variable seas slamming us from the rear had made for a very lumpy ride through a string of wicked storms. Our collective lack of experience in open ocean weather had positioned us as the victim in all of our interactions with boat-hunting storm cells. It was time to turn the tables on these terrifying columns of gray death and rain. 

While the rest of the crew slept yesterday afternoon, Steve T., Ty, and Adam decided it was time to do something stupid. We had heard that if you get in front of one of these monster storm cells and zig-zag back and forth in a taunting manner, you can get a huge bump in speed as you ride the squalls that they throw off. If you find a storm heading in the direction you want to go, it can be ridden indefinitely. 

If Travis were on deck he surely would have 86'ed this idea as soon as it was suggested. The boat had its brand-new monster kite up so we made an agreement to drop the sail as soon as things were looking like they were going to get expensive. 

We were surrounded by storms in all directions, so it wasn't hard to find one heading toward us. As the boat got within about a mile of the front storm the winds kicked up and the storm sprayed our faces with light rain in otherwise clear blue skies. It was beginning to seem like it might be a stupid idea but we had already committed to it and none of us were going to be the one that pulled the plug. We zigged our sails into the wind and the boat took off, well upwind of our previous course. We rode the storm for about an hour and we kicked back into it several times as we reached too far ahead of it. We got a huge bump to the south without having to slog through trailing seas. 

Travis slept through all of this so please don't tell him about it. We will laugh about it over Mai Tais on Maui. Until then, zip it. 

As dinner approached the wind kicked up and the waves died down. We had some of the best sailing of the trip that evening as the boat took off like a shot. After days of rough nights and long days in scorching sun and heavy downpours, the team was exhausted but highly enthusiastic to get their hands on the wheel. 

The sunset after dinner was one of the best I've ever seen. It bathed the boat and surrounding clouds in a rich deep orange-red. The surrounding storm cells had rainbows nested on their crowns and looked much less terrifying. 

Without thinking about it, we have retired our foul weather gear in favor of shorts and t-shirts, even on night-shift as the temperatures stay well in the high twenties and the evening fills the sails with warm breeze. Last night's night-shift (Jason, Darin, and Steve C.) was treated to a show by some local wildlife. Around midnight, as the boat hummed along at full bore, at least fifty tiny dolphins (much smaller than the ones we see back home) jumped and bobbed along beside the boat doing all sorts of jumps and flips. It was a great night for sailing! 

Today's wind has been less than ideal (pretty much zip). However the sun is out, we have a freezer full of fresh tuna, and our laundry has been piling up. The boys are enjoying a well-earned day of rest, baking in sun and swimming in a part of the ocean that is so clear and blue it truly defies words. 

In addition to rest, today is Mid-Trip Mail Day! Prior to our departure Ty prompted the loved ones of those aboard to write a letter for them to open at the half-way mark. The crew opened their letters together on the back deck and read in silence that quickly erupted into a choir of laughs and awwww's. Needless to say, we all feel very loved and miss everyone at home dearly. 

From what we have heard, the whole fleet is stuck in zero wind and we are not sure how long this lull will last. The forecast seems to indicate it will push through until tomorrow so we will be well rested as we dive into the second half of this epic journey. 

To occupy ourselves (and keep from going insane) while we drift around we have started to create some lists. The first is a tally of sea garbage that we have driven past or has floated by us. Here it is:

"    Buckets (dozens of them)
"    Red light bulbs
"    VHS Cassette Cases
"    Shampoo bottles
"    Japanese glass floats
"    Milk crates
"    Fishing netting and floats (dozens)  

In addition to our lists, we have started to put together some business ideas to recoup the cost of the trip. The first of which is a CD compilation of our favorite shower music that we have been putting on to make the shower-ee feel uncomfortable while showering on the back deck in front of the group. We are titling this highly provocative mix "From Our Shower to Yours" and we will be selling it off of the back of the boat at Marinas around the Pacific Northwest. The playlist is as follows: 

Justin Timberlake - Sexy Back 

Right Said Fred - I'm Too Sexy 

Def Leopard - Pour Some Sugar on Me 

ABBA - Dancing Queen 

Prince - When Doves Cry 

Montel Jordan - This is How We Do It

Plus Many More… 

Expect a Christmas album to follow in November.  

We definitely missed the 200 mile mark on the odometer today but it was a great rest day to get all of our laundry sorted out. The boat is looking a lot more like a gypsy caravan than a thoroughbred racing machine with our laundry littered all over the rig but a dedicated laundry day was well overdue! 

Missing you all like crazy, 

The boys on Turnagain

More about tuna fishing....July 6

Day 4 - Beasts of the Sea
Yesterday we left you off shortly before midnight while
we were in extremely dense fog dodging freighters criss-crossing their way to Astoria. We could only see about twenty feet in any direction with the boat humming along under white sails at near 10 knots. Our lone source of light was the mast light telling us where the wind was coming from, casting rays in the dense fog down to the deck.  

We got through the night unscathed and the morning met us with a heavy gray mist, consistent breeze, and a moderate sea state.

Darin was rudely awoken this morning by Travis hovering over him in his bunk with a monstrous grin on his face and the news "WE CAUGHT A TUNA!".  

Earlier that morning, we sat staring at nothing but grey cloud from floor to ceiling and lifelessness in every direction. We were making headway but needed something to break things up because we had not seen another boat in over a day. Ty suggested that we start up the fishing derby again. Unfortunately our lone cold-water Tuna lure was snapped off the line yesterday (when Adam hooked a massive beast). 

Adam took this as a challenge to McGuyver something together. His first stroke of genius was to take some electrical tape and the wrapper from a KitKat and fashion some sort of flasher with a Japanese fishing hook hanging off of the back. The crew's response to his initial design was not strong but they said the same thing to the Write brothers.

Cruising at about 8 knots we dropped the lure and left it skipping and jumping on the water's surface about a hundred feet behind the boat. About ten minutes later Travis stood up sharply and announced "Something  is chasing it!". The reel began screaming as something had a good hold of the line. We had hooked our first fish! Travis jumped over to help Adam bring her in and they slowly wore the big fish out while Steve T. slowed the boat down to bring her close. Travis demonstrated his extreme skill in filleting on the back porch of the boat and easily quartered the fifteen pound beast. It was a very good mood on the boat and the crew were ecstatic with their catch and teamwork!

Darin, a much more experienced fisherman, was keen to take the new fishing lure for a spin. Fifteen minutes later he had another monster on the line. Darin claimed it was at least forty pounds, and from looking at the bend of the rod nobody disagreed with his assessment. 

Darin's skill at fishing shone as he slowly coaxed the massive beast to the boat without strain on the rod or himself. The second fish came in at a meaty eighteen pounds and threw Steve and Darin's meal planning for the rest of the day out the window. It was most certainly going to be tuna for dinner. After some mild repairs to the lure Adam filed a patent for the design and the back of the boat got a good wash down.

With all of the excitement surrounding the fishing adventures we almost completely forgot that we are very much still in a race. The wind shifted for us to a more favorable angle and our upwind beat walked around to the downwind reach that we had been anticipating for days. 

Steve C. came up to find out why there were so many hatches banging around, just in time to avoid getting covered in Tuna shrapnel and get a kite on deck. He made quick work of throwing up the big-boy kite that got us humming along very comfortably. Our next step is to hooking into the Pacific Tradewinds after making a hook out to Maui near San Francisco. 

The water has transitioned from the deep Emerald green of the Pacific Northwest to a rich navy blue and has warmed up to eighteen degrees. We are all keen for an opportunity to jump in for a dip but the boat keeps moving so fast that swimming will have to wait (til Maui hopefully!).

Darin's birthday dinner was pushed back until today and we celebrated shortly after getting the kite up with a tuna sashimi feast. Cake was served for desert and we are back in our groove cruising down wind. We all feel very lucky to be able to be a part of this!

Fishing Derby Score Board:
Adam - 15 lbs - Big Eye Tuna
Darin - 18 lbs - Big Eye Tuna
We will try to get another update out soon! 

Miss you all tremendously,
The boys on Turnagain

Day 3 Missile to Maui, illustrated by Catharine

Day 3 Missile to Maui

Things picked up with the wind and we tried fishing a bit. Lost the lure within 15 minutes.  So today we made a lure out of a kitkat wrapper. Caught a skipjack or bigeye tuna within 5 minutes. After it was cleaned and in the fridge, we put the line out again... another fish within 10 minutes.  Adam reeled in the first one, and Darin reeled in the second.  They were about the same size and likely about 10-15 pounds.  Sushi for lunch (ironic because we had canned tuna on the menu for lunch anyways).

Last night's breeze was a huge lift in spirits for the group. As midnight approached, the waters were calm and the boat felt like a rocket on flat water as it accelerated into more wind that fed further increases in speed.

The morning came with some of the most aggressive sailing the boat has seen to date. We were smoking at well over 8 knots off of the tops of 12 foot waves that were coming right on our nose.

If half of the boat wasn't in the air, then two thirds of it was, followed by a thunder clap as all fifty feet of the hull dropped like a sack of hammers into the tale of each crest. Every effort was made by the skilled helmsmen to avoid slamming the boat, but heavy seas were coming from all sides and at least once each half an hour a group of rogue waves would cause the boat to come down so hard that you could feel the fillings in your mouth coming loose.

Everything I have read about the Vic-Maui lead me to believe that it is a short upwind tacking derby followed by a lengthy downwind slog with only a single turn that takes place near San Francisco. This race has been anything but that. We have been fighting our way up wind for the past three days and it looks like we will be continuing to do so for the foreseeable future.

To celebrate Darin's birthday, Travis baked some birthday brownies and the team selected a few of their favorite books for him to enjoy on the voyage. Reading is definitely a great time killer when the boat gets stuck in a lull!

Ty and Steve T. are proving to be deadly helmsmen again today. They are keeping the boat moving fast as the wind shifts in direction and speed.

After the fishing lure was snapped off the rod when Adam hooked a Great White Shark (his claim), he was put to work creating a "fancy lad beverage of the day". Today's signature beverage is the "Hazelnut Moca de la Mer". For those at home following along, the recipe is:

1 Starbucks Via Coffee Sleeve
2 Cups of desalinized Pacific sea water (substitute tap water, if none available)
1 Heaping Tablespoon of Nutella
Stir aggressively, add milk to taste.

Travis and Jason continue to periodically huddle over the computer and make adjustments to our headings and are doing a fantastic job of keeping us out of trouble and in as much breeze as we need to keep the boat moving. <knock on wood>

Darin's meals have continued to exceed the expectations of the crew. We are now quite concerned that there will be no way of maintaining this level of quality all the way to Maui.

It is now close to midnight and the boat is humming along in a great groove that we hope persists through tomorrow.

If you are reading this, then your are certainly in our thoughts. We are looking forward to seeing you sooner than later!

Miss you all tremendously,

The boys on Turnagain