RAIN, whales, tuna. The coast is getting closer...

Boat time 7:30 pm Aug 11
The pacific doesn't want to let us go that easily. At about 5:30, we started getting more frontal clouds forming behind us with a few heavy showers coming overhead. At 6:45, RAIN started. About the heaviest rain I have ever seen. With the rain was wind . first from in front, then beside… then the other side. The guys are doing their best to sail it, and I am up on deck as often as they ask for it. On my last deck foray, I thought I saw lightning somewhere, so I came down to put all our critical electronics into our "faraday cage" (some call it the oven). With one group off watch, hopefully they get informed to not turn on the oven for anything ;).

And because I know you were concerned about our nourishment….. no fish yet…… so we had pasta for dinner. Probably a better meal with the terrible weather outside.

I think I will pretend to do some navigation down here for a little longer and hope that the weather clears up. Maybe 15-20kts on the beam… then I can pop up and take the wheel for a bit… :).

Boat time 1:00 pm
The wind still hasn't materialized. We did have a fantastic morning of motor sailing in the sun. I napped on the front deck, did some stretching.. general laziness. I earned it…… I caught a 35-40lbs tuna this am, cleaned it and packed it. We put half in the freezer and the other half is for two meals (lunch today and dinner today or tomorrow). We have had two others on the line today, one was brought up to the boat, but was much too small to keep, so we let it go. Mac has just finalized making a new lure and has set it out. Motoring puts us at almost the exact speed we need for tuna, so we are expecting great things.

Lunch was served during the 12 pm shift change and consisted of toro sashimi, and tuna nagiri with wasabi and soya sauce. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and are eagerly looking forward to dinner.

With all the motoring, we have had lots of hot water and as much electricity as we need to make water, so everyone is showering again today. So far the water maker has been working really well and seems to work better if we run it everyday, so water use is being encouraged…… this has included fresh water rinsing of the cockpit daily.

Just after lunch, we saw 8-10 minke whales heading straight for our track. We put the boat into neutral and drifted towards them. At about 100 meters, the whales dove. It was great to see them as we have only seen whales very far off in the distance so far.

Boat time 6:50pm
Dinner is now finished. A bbq tuna steak with rice and mashed yams. Everyone approved. I tried to send in this blog report earlier this evening, but it appears there has been some miss communication with the sat phone provider and I have run out of time on it. Maybe it will get added tomorrow, but by tomorrow evening I expect to have cell coverage, so it might be a bit late.

We have been fishing solid today, and have had a number of bites, but are not having too much success in getting the fish to the boat. The captain did not stock enough hooks, and we are on our last hook…. With no barb, and the tip is getting very dull. We might be finished with the fishing in the am.

During dinner the winds started to build. Better late than never. So we have the engine off, and are sailing along in the 7kts range and timing of arrival is very much the topic of conversation. Everyone appears ready to head off rapidly in their own direction to get home to loved ones and start reprogramming for work Monday. This includes me and the boat. I have a quick stop in Vancouver to make, then off to the sunshine coast. If things go really well, I should be on the coast by Thursday night.

Off to bed now, as I am expecting traffic to increase exponentially over the next hours of sailing and I need to try to bank some sleep.

Until tomorrow… or whenever I get better connectivity.
Turnagain

Albert the Albatross

Turnagain Blog update August 11, 2014

Boat time 2am
The boat is still humming along. We reduced sail as expected around dinner time last night to white sails and have been averaging around 7kts since. The last part of the spinnaker sailing yesterday was great with Dave, Mac and I keeping the boat above 9 kts for almost 3 hours straight and many surfs into the 12s for long periods of time. The swell had setup out of the west with a huge period and great lead in time, so we were able to catch almost every one. It was too bad that there were no days like that on the race, it sure chews up the miles. Currently we are at 480 to go to Duntze Rk (another 65 or so after that to Victoria), so that is quite exciting.

Dinner last night was some steak (bbq'd) with steamed potatoes and a bottle of red wine. Quite nice after 12 days at sea. There was a lot left over, so we will have steak with eggs this am for breakfast.
I am just up doing some quick updates on the navigation and checking power levels to see how much autohelm we get to use for the rest of the night (looks like only another 1-2 hours of battery time left with Otto on).

Boat time 2pm
We have had an AWESOME 12 hours with 379 miles to go right now, the morning shift and I have had some serious sailing. The wind went a little forward and we carried full jib and full main (then put one reef in the main) directly on course at 9-12+ kts for almost the entire 6 hour shift. We had a GREAT time sailing in fairly relaxed conditions. About 1 hour ago, there was a front that moved over us… the wind changed direction to directly behind us and dropped to 8-10 kts almost instantly. We changed course but with the left over confused seas, we altered course again and started the motor as we needed charging anyways. So, while we motor NE, we are tidying the boat and other general maintenance items.

Dave and Mackenzie have convinced themselves that a single albatross has been following us for days and have named him Albert. Albert is quite a great flier and rarely seems to flap his wings, instead gliding over the wind and waves, getting vertical lift from the wind rising off the waves Albert soars up into the sky 20-30 ft to "bank" the energy then swoops down again. As great a flier as he is, Albert must be a terrible navigator to be following us. I guess he cannot see the magic 8 ball we are using for our navigation down inside the boat.

Now that we have slowed down, I think I will go put out a fishing line in hopes of some fresh TUNA :).

Boat time 4:15pmWe put the line out with a fresh kit-kat lure on it. Had a bite in the first 5 minutes, but the hook did not set (possibly the design of the lure this time). We checked and reset the lure with no further activity, but are still very hopeful. I am especially hopeful as I have no plans for dinner tonight and a quick sushi meal would solve all that ;)

We have just posted into our last position update for the return trip as the communications boat that is organizing the daily roll-call is expecting to finish tomorrow and will not be onboard to run the schedule. We are still 360 miles from the strait and are currently motoring as the winds are not there to push us at the speeds we want. The morning forcast today, said that we should be seeing increasing north west winds later this evening. Hopefully they materialize. If we can sail another 150-200 miles, then we can increase the speeds for any further motoring required. Currently we only motor at 6-6.5kts (1400 rpm) to conserve fuel.
The "to do" list on the boat is getting longer and longer as I find more and more things that have gone awry over the past month or so, but most are easily delayed until the fall once the weather turns.

I hope to write again tomorrow with great news of our increased speeds sailing in fresh North West winds.
Turnagain

Keepin' on keepin' on...

Turnagain Blog update August 10, 2014
Boat time 9am

After almost 24 hours of relaxing white sail sailing, we hoisted the A4 again at 5 this am today. Speeds went back up over 8 and many in the 9s and 10s and are making a straight line for Duntze rock. We are expecting some light winds Monday night, but will be in desperate need for some charging by then anyways, we will also have more than enough fuel to motor at a higher speed if we want (which I am sure we will). After the light air, we are expecting north west winds to fill in and carry us the rest of the way to the straight. From there, it will just depend on our timing for winds as I expect winds to be light with our likely middle of the night arrival at Duntze.

Tonight we are going to attempt to bbq steaks and have a steak, potatoes and steamed carrot meal, but with the wind in the 20kt range and the boat charging at 9-11kts right now, that might be hard to pull off if it persists. But it seems I have a bit of a standard to keep up, as everyone is commenting this is the best provisioning they have had on an ocean passage before (lucky for me, only two others have done much if any ocean passages). I have been running a few techniques to keep them happy. Lots of stashes of different food that they don't know about… so smoked salmon for lunch every few days is a nice surprise…. Or fresh bread (tomorrows breakfast plan)… or I may try for muffins, but we only have chocolate chips for that….. no bananas. We have not been able to get any tuna as we are mostly moving at a very quick pace to catch them… I think we will slow down tonight so we can get a few on board before we make Victoria.

Looking over the log book for the past few days, it looks like 6:00 pm to 6:00pm ending last night we did 182 miles made good….. many more through the water if you have seen the way this boat gets driven ;). 8:30 yesterday to 9:30 today was 189 miles (take off the hour and it was very similar). We are on track to make about 100 miles in the past 12 hours at our noon log entry as well. It feels great to be making great time like this with not too much work and the crew is getting a ton of learning time trying to keep things under control with the kite up ;) . We will be going down to white sails tonight so everyone can have a bit of down time.

The air is VERY moist. I think it was even foggy inside the boat this am :).

Lunch is done, the afternoon watch is on and driving fast again. Dave just hit an easy 12.1kts for a solid 20 count on the gps. Wheeeeeee!!!!!!

We missed our 100 miles in 12 hours by 1 mile today, but we are really happy with our speeds and expected arrival times. Thoughts are definitely on how and where to get my stuff arranged in town so I don't have to stay there for too long. We have birthday parties and visiting to do late this weekend and through next week. Glad it looks like I might make it. There is always a chance things turn for the worse out here, but we are optimistic : ).

We are looking forward to seeing everyone later this week.
Turnagain

Goose Neck Barnacles and Sweaters....brr!

August 8, 1315

Today…. We are sailing. I woke up at 4:30 this am and the watch crew said "wind seems up… we were thinking of rolling out some jib".  I looked at the winds and the angles…. Brought out the A2. We have had it up since and the wind has filled in. We are currently rolling along in the mid 8s over ground with almost every mile sailed a mile made good to Duntze rock with 954 to go. Hopefully today we start putting a ton of miles in the bag. Time will tell.  For now we are enjoying the winds and the sun.

During yesterday's swim, I noticed that there were some goose neck barnacles on the trailing edge of the prop shaft stuffing box. It is surprising that these were there and the size they were in the short time since our departure, as the boat was clean when we left. But interesting to see how quickly they grow and where they secure themselves to.

August 9, 0900

Last night, I came on deck at 11 and we quickly decided that white sails were not working for us. Up went the A4 and off we went. We spent the night sailing in increasing winds at 8-13kts on the gps. I personally did not get much sleep as I took at least a third of the driving during the really challenging parts, but everyone did a great job. I was joking with the group that it is strange that 9kts in the middle of the night is starting to feel normal. From 6pm until 6 am we had 93 miles made good, which included the white sail time around dinner through till 11 pm.

August 9th, 1500

Otto (the autopilot) steered the boat from 9 am through till 12:30 at a steady 7.5-8.5 kts mostly on course (it was set to a wind angle), while the crew tidied the boat and sat around in the cockpit chatting and eating lunch (there will be video of parts of this posted on your YouTube Channel "Turnagain50" once we get back to real internet). Lunch consisted of a plate of cold cuts, fresh hummus, cheese and some pineapple-pork sausages with crackers and chips.

So we continue to tick off miles towards Dunzte rock, which is our mark at the entrance to Juan De Fuca, with about 755 to go as of now. The afternoon watch had a great sleep through the morning and felt energized after lunch, and have been hand steering since 1230, while the am watch is sleeping and I am switching between napping and general boat chores (making water, checking all lower easily accessible rigging etc, writing this).

The temperature is changing. I have been in pants all day today (the first time since about day 2 of the race), and the ocean is down to 20C….. brrrr…. There is also much more humidity in the air. The boat is dripping with condensation (outside so far) by the am, and there was a marine layer across the entire horizon this am. I am anticipating true fog shortly as we approach the Fogust west coast of the Island. I hold out hope that some real August weather will still be had once I get back so I can enjoy some family boating while the kids are still out of school.

Until later,

Turnagain

BLACK CLOUDS AND LIGHTNING...oh, and by the way we are half way

Fortunately...

We are still making progress despite variable winds.  The wind has shifted very west over the past 24-36 hours (as expected because we are trying to get up to the bottom of a low pressure system to get some down wind sailing back home) and we are currently motor sailing NNE to get into some of this pressure. We hear that boats in front of us have a bunch of this pressure and are eager to get there and turn off the Yanmar. We are not entirely sure how the boats behind us are even moving, the weather files show that it is very light almost everywhere , except the tropical storms below us heading west and the lows up above us. We have been treating this like a true delivery, if we are not on course and making good time, we are using the engine…. Hope there is enough fuel……

Unfortunately...

Mahi Mahi Fest 2014 is officially over.  Time to start scouting out some tuna.  We have pulled in the fishing lines for now…. Seems someone tipped the Mahi off to candy wrappers and they have stopped biting. We are low on hooks, and are now in preservation mode until we get back into tuna territory - likely Friday.

Fortunately...

We are not currently in the path of any hurricanes.

Unfortunately...

Got woken at 3:45 to say there is lightning about 5 miles out port side and a "REALLY BLACK" cloud in front. I came up to WOW a huge cell or cold front of some sort. So we went into instant storm prep (running different sail halyards for the storm sails, stowing everything everywhere, pulling out storm sails and putting them in the cabin. Short story.... we were prepared, but only had 25 kts and no lightning (yet) phew!!!..

Fortunately....

We are still enjoying ourselves.  Looking forward to our half-way party, and here's hoping the second half is quicker than the first!

Turnagain

Hurricanes...by Catharine

Christopher Reeve said: 

"Either you decide to stay in the shallow end of the pool or you go out in the ocean."

Turnagain is still the blue boat in the middle, currently averaging 6-7kts
towards home

Well, these guys are definitely in the ocean.  Day ? and they are making their way slowly across....sailing when the winds are good, and pulling down the sails (so they don't fray too much) when the winds die.  

Today they did some repairs on the main sail, which had frayed when the winds were light and the sail was flopping around like a dead fish...  They had to use a drill to make a small hole in the sail to feed through some heavy duty Spectra twine to fix the frayed bits, and Travis seems happy with the repair so far.  

Travis reports: "It is just about noon here on the great blue sea.  Clouds are on the horizon, and it might get a bit aggressive later today."

Then shortly after: "We just go overtaken by a system or wind change or something...it is raining, and wind is kind of everywhere.  It is like a squall, but with no end in sight and not near enough wind to really be called a squall."

Well, that 'System" is a combination of Hurricanes Iselle and Julio, which should be passing over and just North of Hawaii Thursday and Saturday.  I got word from Julie (our wonderful greeting party coordinator in Maui) that everyone in Hawaii is bracing for the storms, filling their tanks with gas and stocking up on water and other supplies.  Flash floods are predicted, so hopefully everyone stays safe and sound there.  

Hurricanes Iselle (left) and Julio (right) as they approach Hawaii today

Forecast for Sunday, with Hurricane Iselle dissolving at is passes the
Hawaiian chain and Hurricane Julio passing just North of the islands

These systems are forecasted to downgrade to tropical storms, and should weaken in the slightly cooler waters as they head North, and will hopefully mostly pass South of where Turnagain is currently.  I'm sure the guys are watching these closely, and hoping that some of the 'wind' at the edge of these storms helps propel them towards home!

It sounds like the crew is in great spirits, working well together, and enjoying their time out at sea.  I'll keep you posted as always...  

Catharine

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

Waikiki

July 28, 2014 9:00pm

After loading the boat and having a quick bite to eat at the Pioneer Inn, we slipped our mooring for Honolulu. Winds were light and "from every direction", so we chose to motor for the first 45minutes to hour. Then there was WIND!!!.. we quickly got the sails out and had steady pressure to 28kts with gusts to 35. Turnagain was in her element, rocketing along at 10-14kts. Slowly the wind built as we got closer to Molokai to a steady 35 and gusts to 38kts. Our top speed for the sail over to Honolulu was into the 16s, but I was not watching as I was busy driving, Dave had a keen eye on the speedo though and was saying something about 16.4kts. Not bad for white sails!

We made quick work of the 75miles to Honolulu and pulled into the Hawaii Yacht Club "Aloha Dock" at 7pm.  We rafted to an Andrews 56 that had completed the Pacific Cup (from San Francisco) around the same time as our Vic-Maui completion. We got straight to sharing beer and swapping war stories.  The furthest in boat of our raft was Tatoosh (sp?), an 80ft wood sailboat that has quite a history, including being owned by Peter Fonda at some point in its history (according to the crew and totally unverified).  The Turnagain crew quickly made for some shore food as we knew we would be on the boat a lot over the next few weeks and ended up eating at the Tropics bar on Waikiki beach.  Service was great, food was average, but I was able to eat way too much.

We will be in Honolulu until Wednesday am, at which time we will leave and head to Ko' Olina for fuel and then around the west side of the island and on to the Strait of Juan De Fuca.

Until tomorrow

Travis

In the wee hours of July 20th...by Catharine

My last illustration....

We just KNEW they were going to arrive in the middle of the night.  We'd been calculating and re-calculating their arrival for days. 

We got the call to head down to the docks around 12:30 am, and from there the phone tree began and we headed down.  We hauled the little ones out of bed, dressed them (and the spouses) in the awesome shirts that Jenn and Roberta made, put on our Aloha gear, and braved the rain.  

At this point the rain wasn't so bad.  And the darkness seemed manageable.  But then we learned that Turnagain was still going to be 1-2 hours away.  There wasn't much point in going back to the hotels to wait, so we roamed around the docks and the Banyan tree in the dark.  Callum sat in the van with Nana and pretended to fly a jet to Hawaii.  Sylvia toured the historical sites and collected a pet rock.  Jenn walked Daylie and Dalton around, trying to get Dalton (a wee 3 months old) to sleep.  Curtis and Julie prepped everything for the boys arrival, and the rest of us just milled about.  

A sleepy Sylvia with her pet rock, waiting
for Turnagain

We got a call that Turnagain had OFFICIALLY crossed the finish line, around 1am.  Curtis was going out by inflatable to deliver beer and help guide them into the dock.  And they'd be here soon!

And then the rains REALLY started.  

I'm talking run-for-your-life-under-cover rains.  

The kind of rain that is SO LOUD you can barely talk to the person next to you and all the gutters are instantly overflowing and there are rivers cascading down the streets.  

And in the torrential downpour Jam arrived at the dock and were greeted by their loved ones.  We all prayed the rains would cease before Turnagain's arrival!

And of course they did.  

All of us with our amazing sign (prepared by
 our greeting crew, watching the boys come in

Approaching the dock.  We hooted and hollered them in!

Enjoying their champagne.  We all got a little
champagne shower to go with our rain shower!

Turnagain all dressed up

After celebrating on the docks we all headed into the Pioneer Inn for a party and feast prepared by Curtis and Julie.  It would be an understatement to say we were all pretty happy to have our guys back!

Pretty awesome way to spend my birthday :)

Roll up, Stop

Roll up, Stop

We are now 40 miles away from the finish. There is a light fog perched on the horizon that is keeping us from seeing Maui. 

The sun is scorching the decks today. Inside the cabin the temperature is 32 degrees and it is even hotter outside. The team is on half-hour steering rotations to insure that everyone is properly hydrated and there is always a fresh set of hands on the wheel. 

It is looking like we will be finishing somewhere in the neighbourhood of 12:00am-3:00am tonight with most guesses landing on 2:00am, which is eight hours from now.

This will likely be our last blog post until we have our photos wrapped up.

This race has been a tremendous experience and we are all very thankful to have been able to be a part of the team!

But before going we would like to thank:

Helly Hansen Granville - Leo, Krizia, and Tiff did a spectacular job at getting the team coordinated in a  set of spectacular offshore gear.

SEAMOB+
Hank Schut for producing our emergency equipment schematics.

Edward & Jane Karadontis for being gracious hosts as our spector vessel

David and Gaylean Sutcliff for all of the guidance in preparing Turnagain for the trip

First Yacht Services

Catharine McGregor for being our shore side communications controller and blog updater

North Sails for delivering our excellent last two spinnakers in time for the race start

Curtis and Julie who we hear are prepping for our arrival as our official LYC greeters.

We send our best wishes to all our friends and loved ones who we will be seeing very shortly!

The boys on Turnagain

The Home Stretch

On the home stretch... about 60NM to go as of 6pm Hawaii time, currently going about 8.5kts...which puts them across the finish line around 1am (although the wind seems to be getting light out there), and maybe into Lahaina around 2am?  If we're lucky?  Could be later?  We will see....  But we are all ready with our Aloha shirts whenever the boys arrive!

Here's a little song written by Bruce Tays before the race started (he's a friend of Darin and Travis)

Just sit right back and you will hear a tale
a tale of a fateful trip
that started from the BC port
aboard this sailing ship

The mate was a mighty lumber-man
the Skipper brand and sure
five seaman set sail that day
for a 2 week tour
a 2 week tour

The weather started getting rough
the Turnagain was tossed
if not for the fearless crew
the Turnagain would be lost
the Turnagain would be lost

The ship found ground on the shore of this inhabited Hawaiian Isle
with Darin (Gilligan)
the Skipper too (Travis)
5 other clowns
And there shit stained shorts
Looking to get hammered
Here on Darins (Gilligans) isle

The last 240 brought to you by caffeine pills and gatorade

Day 15 - Turnagain by a Nose?

Sailing doesn't get any better than this. As we enter the last 24 hours of the race we are a little over 200 miles from the finish line.

Today the team screamed forward and shattered its previous record by logging 220 miles today. We have clear sunny skies, steady wind, and serious competition keeping us on our toes. After fifteen days and well over 3000 miles under our belt, all that is left is a drag-race to the finish line that will come down to boats crossing within minutes of each other. <queue up Kenny Loggins - Highway to the Danger Zone>

The crew of Turnagain is on red-alert for this last push as we watch the odometer count down to zero. We are keeping our biggest flying sails up around the clock to keep the boat moving in the double digits and the crew is on a strict diet of caffeine pills and Gatorade.

Last night we powered through another matrix of warm rain storms that forced us to steer back and forth violently as we tried to maintain a frantic pace under heavy clouds. Everything went really well aside from getting knocked around a bit and soaked, so, not much to report there.

If you read yesterday's blog, it sounded like we put our rig through its paces, however some of our competitors have experienced more significant damage. According to last night's fleet report:

" Passepartout lost a second kite as well as a steering cable
" Alegria lost its third kite of the race
" Kinetic has wrapped their prop with some sort of debris
" Bedlam II blew a spinnaker halyard block

These minor setbacks have not hindered any of the boats and they are charging hard for the finish. We are very happy to hear that all crews are in great shape.

In previous posts we have requested "a beer" when we get to the dock and spoken about how much we have missed the taste of "a beer". We would like to formally revise all previous statements to "several, ice cold beers".

We send our best wishes to all our friends and loved ones who we will be seeing very shortly!

The boys on Turnagain

The MAUI 500 (also known as ALL HANDS ON DECK)

The odometer that is counting down to our arrival in Maui is sitting just above of 400 miles! We passed the 500 mile mark over an early breakfast this morning. The islands should be visible on the horizon in the next day and we've cleared 2,900 miles in two weeks! The rest of this journey should be a cakewalk! (maybe)
We started the race two weeks ago with a conservative attitude towards preserving the boat and sails. The past 24 hours have demonstrated a complete reversal in approach. The team is driving the boat like a stolen dirt bike. In the past day we've had:

" Four epic high-wind / high-speed kite failures that required all hands on deck to reboot the rig
" Done well over $1,000 in damage to the running rigging
" Melted a rope to a winch
" Wrapped two ropes so badly they had to sliced off at their clutches
" Suffered innumerable bumps, burns, and bruises to our persons

The details of our wipeouts are glorious and they are a testament to how far we have come in terms of our comfort and confidence with handling the boat well beyond the intent of its designers. All of them happened in winds that would certainly be classified as "storm conditions" and we wear these victories proudly. It has become a bit of a competition among the skippers to see how hard they can push the boat before things start shaking, smoking, and snapping.

The first wipeout happened last night just as dinner was being plated by Travis downstairs. Adam was at the helm with the bulk of the crew on deck preparing to drop our biggest kite and switch to smaller white sails. The wind had built up to irregular gusts in the low thirties that literally made the boat hum as it rushed over waves. The crew's ability to continue to maintain control was questionable in daylight and the sun was going to set shortly on a boat that would be unable to see waves and squalls. With Steve C. positioned on the bow ready to pop the release on the front corner of the sail, Darin, Jason, Steve T. and Ty assembled in the cockpit to ease it down and drag it into the boat.

Adam began the exercise to drive as far away from the wind as he could to take pressure off of the sail. Before the boat had settled into its moderate course, a monster wave picked the boat up from behind and spun it back up into the wind. The wheel was spun hard over to compensate but it was not enough to overcome the lift of the monstrous ocean swell. As the boat fell into a trough, another wave hit, a heavy roller that kicked the boat's rails into the drink. The crew on deck was able to brace themselves during this, but Travis did a cartwheel across the cabin downstairs with knives and cutlery flying everywhere (he escaped without incident). As the boat powered back up, the nose swung back downwind into the tail of the swell that had knocked them over. A momentary acceleration pushed the nose deep into a wave and Steve C. up to his shoulders in water. After, what felt like minutes, of grinding the nose of the boat into the wave, the bow rose out of the sea and the helm powered up enough to regain control. Following that, the kite dropped smoothly and everyone escaped unhurt.

Our second wipeout took place this morning around 5:00am, just after sunrise. After sailing through the night in steady breeze on white sails, the team was eager to throw up a kite at sunrise to get back on track for a 200+ mile day. Everything went great until Tyler and Adam were rudely awoken by about six gallons of water coming through their cabin window from above, right onto their faces. Tyler exclaimed, "What's going on here!?"

What followed felt like absolute pandemonium at the time, but looking back, the crew did an excellent job of containing what could have been a very dangerous and expensive incident. The inflow of water into their slumber was followed by confident demands from the top deck "all hands on deck". They scrambled up to the deck in their underwear with heavily matted sleep-hair to find what looked like the aftermath of a derailed train. The noise from our large kite powering up and then flogging in the wind is what I imagine a helicopter crash sounds like, but repeating over and over again. Upon arriving in the cockpit we looked forward to find Steve C. struggling to maintain traction on the bow, soaked head to toe, with eyes as large as dinner plates trying to make his way to pop the release at the front of the sail. The rest of the crew was in the cockpit scrambling to bring the sail under control and unwind the control lines so that it could be brought into the boat.

Steve C. was unable to pop the release because the sail was violently pulsing in the wind and then Travis gave the order to cut the line to the release. Unfortunately, Steve could not hear anything over the sound of the sail. A few moments passed and nothing was getting solved. If the sail continued to flog in the storm it would shake itself to pieces, ruining our most effective downwind weapon. The control ropes began to grind on each other as they whipped around and the air was filled with the pungent smell of burning plastic from the friction between the ropes.

Something needed to happen quickly. Adam looked at Travis calling for the line to be cut and responded by jumping down the hatch, and running for the knife rack. The first knife that looked sharp enough to get through the bulky high-strength line was a gargantuan cooking knife. He popped out of the cabin and sliced through the offending line. He only had to get about a quarter of the way through the line before the tension on it caused it to completely fail and the kite released.

Shortly after recovering from that emergency, the lines were replaced and rerun. A smaller kite was brought on deck and hoisted. It wasn't more than ten minutes before a heavy gust rolled the boat and cause the new lines to fail due to being too wet or small for their clutches and another wipeout (#3) ensued. The team's recent practice in bringing down sails quickly shone through and Darin, Jason, Ty, and Steve T. were able to quell any danger within a minute.

The last (hopefully) wipeout of the day featured Steve T. on the helm. He had been driving for a few hours, driving the boat at a furious pace while pointing the boat exactly where we needed to go. The wind had been slowly building all day and Steve was doing a spectacular job of keeping our speed up in the double digits as we overtook waves running away from us.

To maintain high speed in rocky seas, over three meters, with an overpowered kite, it is tremendously helpful to "hot wire" the main sail right in. The upside of this is that you can push the boat well beyond its design speed and not have to work very hard to do so. The downside is that if you happen to wipe out, it tends to be catastrophic. The reason being that "hot wiring" the main sail puts it into its most powerful position and the only way to get out of a wipeout is to take the power out of everything. In layman's terms: it works really well, until it doesn't.

As we hummed along we had to keep our main sail more and more powered up to compensate for the rolling seas. Without any warning a wave that was completely out of synch with the other waves we were pushing through charged at us from port, and gave us a bit of a smack our bottom. The result must have looked like a blooper reel from a demolition derby as our very delicately balanced boat spun hard to the right and the resulting shift in inertia would have flipped the boat over had it not had thirty tons welded to the bottom to prevent just that. The kite flogged as all of the energy in the wind we had been running from powered it up instantly causing the rope holding it to buckle and lurch with such force that the friction caused it to melt itself to the winch it was wrapped around. A few moments later the boat was back under control and the team demonstrated its skill in getting the kite stowed away without any damage.

We are now cruising on white sails in heavy winds. I'm not saying I'm opposed to flying kites in this wind, but if it blows up again, I'm just going to cut it all loose. I don't think I have the arm strength to muscle another kite into the boat! : D

In similar news, we've also been "boarded" for the first time. A term I was unfamiliar with until it happened. Being boarded is when a very large wave hits you from the side with sufficient height to crash well above the side of the boat. This afternoon we had about three feet of blue water fill the cockpit directly from port. The open transom quickly drained it out, but it was shocking to be sailing in sun and clear skies one moment and looking up inside a wall of crashing blue water the next. We also lost some laundry that was drying during that altercation. Fortunately, the iPod and speakers escaped completely unscathed.

We are on day three of winds in the high twenties and doing laundry on the boat is now all but impossible. It seems to get rained on, swallowed by a crashing wave, or blown out of its pegs before it has a chance to dry. I will keep you posted on how this affects morale and warn the shore crew if we will be turning up in our underwear.

Jason continues to be our good navigator and tells me that we are on course for a couple more days of racing before we hit the shores of Maui. Darin is keeping his hands busy wrestling sails around and making sure we're all well fed with top quality meals. He seems anxious to get a rod back in the water regain his top spot in the fishing derby but we are sailing way too fast to catch anything right now. And while he isn't busy being our bad navigator, Travis has been spending his days and nights tagging people off of their shifts early to help preserve strength and is doing a terrific job leading the team and managing resources.

This all may sound quite traumatic, but I assure you that we're having a blast! The food is still spectacular and we are all laughing at getting through this crazy journey. Travis grilled up fresh Mahi-Mahi yesterday night and we spend our days sipping on cool ice teas in warm breeze. The hot sun, hitting our mileage targets, and getting closer to our friends and families are all keeping our spirits high!

Missing you all like crazy,

The boys on Turnagain

July 16 - The Invitational is back on!

Moments after posting last night's blog entry, after baking in extremely light breeze for the bulk of the afternoon, the team shifted into recreation mode. Adam kicked out the back table and started dealing cards. Travis dropped the fishing hook in the water. And the rest of the team assembled around the table for a few hands of cards while we waited for the wind to pick up. Ty was steering half-heartedly to keep some shape in the sails in the occasional whispers of wind. 

Then everything happened, all at once. 

Ty went downstairs to check on how dinner was coming, leaving Adam with two hands of cards to play while steering the boat with his foot. The wind filled from behind slightly, bucking the boat into first gear. All of a sudden everyone's attention snapped towards the fishing reel perched on the stern pulpit that screamed to life. Something had bit the other end and began to violently swim away from the boat as fast as it could. Everyone dropped their cards and Travis bolted across the deck for the reel to slow it down before it ran out of line. 

The rest of the team scrambled to their battle stations as the sails filled with a pronounced "whoompf!" and the boat lurched to speed. Cards began to fly everywhere as if someone had taken a leaf blower and shot it across the table while Travis ignored the chaos around him and began to reel the beast in. The fish breached the water around fifty feet behind us, a beautiful turquoise and yellow striped Mahi Mahi, around two feet long, snapping and writhing in the air. 

The boat exploded in excitement. The Invitational was back on! 

Adam tried to keep speed down on the boat in sync with Travis while the rest of the team kept the boat together and then assembled for the traditional photo shoot with the fish as soon as it was on deck. 

For those keeping track at home, here is the leader board for The Invitational:
1st - Travis - 22 lbs - Mahi Mahi
2nd - Darin - 18 lbs - Big Eye Tuna
3rd - Adam - 15 lbs - Big Eye Tuna 

Following that gift from the sea, King Neptune continued to smile on us as the breeze continued to build from behind. We put up huge sails to insure that we took advantage of every puff we were offered. As evening arrived we plowed on in huge wind and waves and started our first heavy weather run at night, in very poor visibility, with our biggest and fastest sails up. The benefit of doing this is to maximize the miles we can clock on the home stretch. Everyone on board is getting anxious to see their loved ones as quickly as possible! 

The downside of such an aggressive move is that it makes you very vulnerable and you need to have your crew work operating like a Swiss watch or someone or something could be seriously injured. Ty took the helm for the first two hours of the night run as the wind built up to a speed that required three sailors on deck that knew exactly what was going on, ready to spike the kite at a moment's notice. As the sun disappeared, Ty and Steve T. took the first shift running blind in heavy seas and did a great job of demonstrating the stability of the current rig while getting the boat screaming to Maui. The helm was then passed off to Adam, Darin and Jason for the second four-hour shift in absolute darkness. We were highly overpowered but making huge gains. 

Then it all fell apart. 

A light mist of rain blanketed the crew on deck from a passing storm cell (that we had no idea we had sailed under), and about two seconds later, out of nowhere, a massive squall came over our rear quarter on the port side, pinning the boat on its ear with the kite in the water. Daren and Jason responded to Adam's attempts to drive the boat downwind and regain control flawlessly. The boat was back up in moments and under full control without out damage to person or property. Needless to say our hearts were pounding a mile a minute. 

Travis came on deck to make sure everything was ok. After briefly checking things out he commended the crew for getting things back in order so quickly and asked if it was time to drop the kite and put up a more conservative sail. The crew thought that they could handle the odd squall.  As Travis was about head back down to sleep I remember looking at the wind-meter and seeing it ramping from fifteen knots to twenty-five knots, a clear sign that we were about to get walloped again and so yelled "SQUALL!". I am not sure if I even finished the word before the second squall gave us a much harder kick than the first. I am not sure what the peak wind speed of the second squall was but it was well into the thirties and put a humble calmness into the crew on deck. Again, there was no yelling and the crew was able to quickly get the helm back in control. 

Moments later Steve C. popped his head above deck to see what was going on. After a very brief discussion it was agreed that we would drop the sail and move to white sails until the visibility increased or daylight broke. We can handle squalls, but only if we can see them coming. 

The aggressive tactics of the night are paying in spades and we will be very close to clocking 200 miles today, if not more. Our competitors did not choose to ride as dangerously as we did last night and it has helped drive the distance between us and them a little bit deeper.
We now have less than 600 miles to go and favorable winds from behind that we have been waiting for! Maui should be visible in the next couple of days and we are eager to celebrate our hard-earned achievements! 

Missing you all like crazy, 

The boys on Turnagain

From the home front - Part 3 (Catharine)

Day ?

784 Nautical Miles to Maui...

They are moving along...getting closer and closer every day.  My parents, Travis' parents, Sylvia and Callum and I arrived in Maui a few days ago, and others will be arriving soon.  When the wind picked up this afternoon I couldn't help but think this wind is getting the guys closer and closer every minute.  The weather here is gorgeous...huge swell, blue windy skies, rainbows...I can only imagine what it's like out there on Turnagain right now...

From the sounds of the blog, they are still getting along (mostly), and using their big boy voices! Of course what they blog about and what everyone is ACTUALLY feeling on board could be two different things completely, but it certainly does seem like the time of their lives, and completely worth it.  For Travis it's been a year and a half of preparations...making sure they had a strong team, countless hours of preparation, boat work, practices etc.  And for every hour they've spent preparing, it's been an hour of supporting family (wives, girlfriends, grandmas and grandpas and nanas and papas and aunties and uncles and friends) picking up the slack.  It takes a village to get a Vic-Maui team off the docks!

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Just after the guys left the dock, my mom looked at the picture of the guys in their spiffy blue Helly Hansen Jackets and said 'I know that twinkle in his eyes.  It's exactly the same twinkle Sylvia had after her ballet performance'.

I'm going to call it the McGregor sparkle from now on.




Since arriving in Maui, the race has seemed much more real to Sylvia and Callum, but they haven't really had much clue about what's going on.  Maybe they are too young. No concept of time...no concept of distance. They think going to the basement is far away, never mind crossing an ocean!






The most in depth conversation we had about the whole situation went something like this:

Sylvia: "How's daddy going to get back from Maui"
Me: "He's sailing with the return crew.  Remember Carmanah's dad Dave-O?  He's on the return crew" (Carmanah is Sylvia's friend from the cabin).
Sylvia: "Oh yeah, Carmanah from Cotoria".  (Cotoria is what she calls Victoria) "Carmanah is allergic to eggs.  So if you are going to eat chips you have to check the ingredients for eggs.  And if the title of the bag says 'Egg Chips' then she probably shouldn't eat them".....and so the conversation digressed.

Anyway, I'm feeling really proud of the guys, and Travis.  It's no small feat to actually set sail and do this thing :)

Harvest Moon

Today marks our third consecutive day of pounding the boat into the wind towards Maui while we wait patiently for King Neptune to deliver the downwind breeze that was promised in the promotional materials.

As you may have noticed from pining over our progress on the race tracker, we have been able to slowly bank left onto a course that will put us right through the finish line. We would have rolled hotter earlier and turned more abruptly, but all the fishing gear on the back throws the boat into a four-wheel drift if we kick the wheel over too hard.

We now have well over 2,100 miles in the bag and less than 800 to go. With winds from behind, we can easily slay 200 miles in a day which puts our arrival in Maui around four days away. Fortunately, the forecast lines up with that <fingers crossed, knock on wood, rub rabbits foot> and we should have winds that will continue to make the boat sing for the remainder of this epic voyage. The aroma of cold beer and fresh burgers that is blowing our way from Hawaii has completely enveloped the cockpit and the minds of the crew. Editor's Note: We also miss our families and loved ones.

The cloud formations on the horizon that have haunted the clear nights we have been sailing through recently have been nothing short of breathtaking. However, yesterday's Harvest Moon was an experience that made the entire trip worthwhile. A few hours after the sun had set, the stars had assembled in their usual places with an unknown constellation off of the South end of the big dipper marking our standard course. The moonrise slowly blew out the stars as it rose over our left shoulder and illuminated the densely humid air around us, soaking the ocean in an almost daylight orange glow. As our eyes adjusted to the light, it was almost uncomfortable and we were a bit overwhelmed with what we were experiencing. Please add a Harvest Moon over the mid-Pacific to your bucket lists.

On the culinary front, Darin is continuing to deliver top notch meals and doing a Spartan job accommodating the gluten and wheat allergies of some of the softer crew members. To take some of the weight off of Darin, Travis baked the crew a few loaves of fresh bread which curbed the crew's growing thirst for carbs and staved off a mutiny for at least a few more hours.

After a brief hiatus, The Invitational is back on. Although nothing got reeled into the boat, Adam hooked the first Mahi Mahi of the trip and it damn-near tore his arm off before shaking itself loose. The lure of choice seems to be the Kit-Kat wrapper slash gigantic hook combo. An attempt was made to use an Oh! Henry wrapper-based lure yesterday but the aquatic life of the mid-Pacific only seem to have time for the cookie crunch of Kit-Kat.

After much deliberation, the judges have voted in a couple more white-guy shower jams for our mix tape:
The Black Eyed Peas - My Humps
Mark Morrison - Return of the Mack
Berlin - Take My Breath Away (Theme from Top Gun)

We continue to push forward taking every advantage to create as much water between us and the boats trailing us in our division as possible (as of this writing). We will need to beat several boats by close to a full day to place ahead of them (with correction factors). The upside of the way things are shaping up is that we will be hitting the dock at the same time as the bulk of the other fleet. We are very much looking forward to trading war stories with the other boats and showing our families our terrible tans! (dry-roasted to the ankle and Snow White from the knee to the neck)

On a very positive note, the crew of Anduril is flying to Maui for the post-race festivities after technical difficulties with their steering system forced them to head to San Francisco. We are very thankful to hear that the crew and boat avoided injury and we look forward to celebrating with them!

Missing you all like crazy,

The boys on Turnagain

Shaken, Not Stirred (and Passepartout aka the Black Pearl)

Shaken, Not Stirred

It is really, really hot out today, 29 degrees in the shade with almost 100% humidity.

When we started this journey, none of us knew what we were getting ourselves into. None of us had sailed anything nearly close to this distance in the open ocean. It turns out that it is actually quite hard to find an expanse of sea anywhere in the world that exceeds this distance without some sort of rest stop or midpoint. This amount of sailing would be what a recreational sailor does over fifteen years of recreational boating and we have condensed it over two weeks. The weight of the task that sits upon our shoulders is starting to sink in.

This morning we began our eleventh day at sea. It also marks our third consecutive day of maintaining a course of 240 degrees in steady winds that create over six feet heavy ocean swell on the nose that send soul-rattling thuds through the boat, day and night, as the boat breaches a wave every twenty seconds.

We have nicknamed our most frequently seen competitor, Passepartout, "The Black Pearl" because it seems to pop up on the horizon without any warning and skulk around an hour and then disappear. They are currently safely about twenty miles to the East of us. However, they were within about a hundred feet of us just a couple of days ago attempting to solicit expensive mustard from us through the radio.

Our navigators are starting to agree that our arrival time will be the 18th or 19th, or for those that are counting, that is around 6 days away, or 120 hours, or 10 shifts. However, trust in them is waning and several of the crew have splintered off and are actively recruiting others into a group that disbelieves that Hawaii exists. Why would part of the United States be in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? I, for one, have never been there and am conflicted as to which group to align myself with. So far the protests have been peaceful. I will keep you posted on any developments.

So far, today has been the most challenging for the group in terms of morale. Our sleeps are short and light because of the rolling of the boat in wind and waves. This, on top of how much we are all missing our loved ones is making the days seem longer. The shores of Maui can't appear soon enough, but our team is still standing strong with the end in sight.

Things that are keeping the team together:

• Darin's cooking - He is persistently slaving over a hot stove dishing up plentiful and delicious meals. I had plans of losing weight on this trip but he is not collaborating and I'm starting to look like Honey Boo Boo's mom.

• Our progress so far - We are consistently hitting our goals for the day. If we don't hit our goal we use the downtime to recharge and rest to make sure we hit our next shifts at full bore.

• Positive decision making and leadership - We have had a highly collaborative approach to strategy thus far. Before the race began we agreed that we wouldn't take risks that could seriously hurt us down the road. This has paid off is spades so far <knock on wood>.

Looking forward to seeing the smiling faces of our friends and family! We can't wait to see you!!

As the sun sets on us tonight the total on our odometer is just north of 1,800 miles and we smashed through around 170 of those today. We have around 1000 miles left to go and seem to be able to knock off around 170 per day when heading up-wind and well over 200 on downwind legs. The breeze wants to shift downwind in the next day or so and will allow us to throw our progress on the home stretch into overdrive!

It has come up at least five times today that we can almost taste the burger and beers that will be waiting for us on the dock. I really hope that someone reads this and makes that dream come true.

Missing you all like crazy,

The boys on Turnagain

Mutiny averted

The wind gods were starting to help us out as the day started in light winds from about 180 (south - where we have been trying to go) and our heading of 240 ish (about to Fiji - a slight miss on Maui and certainly too far for the food we have on board), things got better and better to winds in the 10-13kt range from 130, allowing us to steer 195-210 for at least half of the day. That heading is basically straight at Hawaii from here.

Moods on board shifted to a much more positive outlook, the discussions of having to sacrifice someone on board to food rations disappeared and generally people were much more relaxed.

There had been grumbling among the crew and it appeared we were heading for a certain mutiny, so Travis spent an hour making bread. This ended up being a huge success and the mutiny appears to have subsided (at least for now). Travis is not a baker, but he found a secret.... if you deprive people for 10-12 days, they will eat just about anything.

To occupy time, mid afternoon Adam decided to try fishing again. He started trailing the line, and fairly quickly spotted a Mahi trailing his lure. It bit, but the hook did not set well and after a few leaps through the air was able to shake the hook. I am sure that we will get the lure out first thing in the am to attempt for more.

The evening of the 14th, the winds subsided a bit and we have been making slow progress in 7-9kts (still from 130 ish) almost directly Hawaii. It is sunrise now, winds are still light, but appear to be backing (coming from further east - maybe 110 now) and we are readying our orange reaching kite. Even though this will not likely make for faster sailing, it makes the crew believe we are going quicker. The boat will heal over further, make more sound.... generally fooling most men into the false sense of speed.