Fog, Cold, and Shipping Lanes

Turnagain Blog update August 13th, 2014

Boat time 1:43 pm
Today we should be at Duntze rock by about midnight, then down the strait. We will change our clocks to PDT at Duntze rock as well. So that should be interesting. At least we will not be getting up at 6 am and expecting to see the sun rising (like we have been the past 4 or 5 days), but the local time is closer to 9 and the sun is already way up.

This morning, we were still sailing along nicely, the fog was burning off and it was even sunny after a bit. I decided I should do a bit of driving and took over from Dave at the end of his rotation (the crew switches helms person ever 30-60 minutes depending on the conditions). Shortly after I took the wheel, the winds went from 15 to 25-30 and the seas really kicked up. I had Mac and Dave start by reefing the main in one reef point, but that quickly went to 3 and the jib was rolled in a bunch as well. We continued along at a brisk 8-9kts for about an hour with steady waves coming over the bow and running all the way down the decks into the cockpit. They both knew it was a bit more "extreme" as it was the first time this trip that I clipped in my harness and had my full foul weather gear on. I ended up steering for about 2 hours through the worst of it, then shortly after I gave up the wheel to the next watch, the wind started to die out. We are now motoring towards Duntze rock against what feels like a two knot current. I hope we get some positive current as we enter the strait to speed up this last leg of the trip. Timing looks like we will be heading down the strait through the night with an arrival in Victoria by 10 am or so. I know we are all hoping we make it in by then, as many of us feel the need to get onto the next thing. Some are flying out to see family, others are hoping to enjoy the last few weeks of summer with family right here in BC.

Boat time 4pm
We are now about 40 miles from Duntze rock. The fog has closed right in and the wind is still "off". We are motoring along, against a bit of a current, with the radar on and our eyes and ears on close lookout for boats. If the fog gets too much thicker, it may slow us down a bit as I do not want to steam right into someone after a very successful trip thus far. The fog is making the temperatures feel quite cold and everyone is bundling up and making hot drinks. Night shifts tonight might be a challenge to keep people motivated. Maybe we will have to make the last brownies (if there is still an egg available). The entire boat is hoping that the "dust" settles for the trip down the strait so we can see some land, but we can certainly smell it outside. I should get back on deck and assist with navigation in the fog. Radar can be a fun thing.

Boat time 7 pm
Duntze is 18 miles off now. The weather has been mixed since my last update. There was fog, then it cleared a bit, now we are in heavy rain, mist and reduced visibility. I am manning the radar and electronics with Dave and Mac keeping as good an eye out as possible above decks. It will likely be a really long night for me until we get through the shipping lanes and on to the north side of the channel. I don't anticipate that for 5 or so hours from now.

We just finished dinner, another defrosted pre-made pasta. The group seems to really like it, and on a cold night like this it does go down well. The brownies are made, and the crew is eyeing them up for some snacking shortly I am sure.

Dave just stuck his head down to let me know that it is very cold on the bare feet. We both had a bit of a stand and said no boots…… we will see how long that actually lasts. Going to sign off for tonight, and we hope to be docked in Victoria by about 10 am local time tomorrow morning. There will be more blogs over the next couple of days and videos posted to the YouTube channel as I get some of them edited and some decent internet to upload them.

Until tomorrow
Turnagain

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

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