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 :)

From the home front - Part 2 (Jenn)

Since the guys have been gone, things for me have been busy with a 3 year old and a 3 month old - but the guys are on my mind at all hours of the day.  I was surprised that we would have as much communication as we've had - I thought it would be total blackout except for emergencies, so that has been great.

What Daylie gets up to when Dad is
 too far away to do anything about it...

We got a phone call today from Ty - it was amazing just to hear his voice after 7 days - by far the longest we have gone without direct communication since we met!  Daylie (our 3 year old) was so happy to talk to him. She has been missing Dad (especially when she gets in trouble by me…). She wakes up asking for him a lot, but she knows he is on a boat going to Hawaii and she loves looking at the tracker because Daddy's boat is the "light pink" one - her favourite colour :)

The strangest thing for me, is every morning when I wake up. I realize that another full day has gone by that the guys have spent on a 50 foot boat in the middle of the pacific.  It's just unbelievable to me - their mental strength.  You talk about 15-20 days on a boat, but until the 6th, 7th, 8th, etc. day go by, you start to realize how long that is - and just how many hours there are in a day.  

Although it seems that we will be headed to Maui in no time, I know that those 7 days will feel very long to them, so I am sending them as many good vibes as I can - as I know all of our family and friends are.  So many people are following the boys via the blog, and are checking the tracker as much, if not more than I am!  I hope they know that they have a HUGE fanbase on the mainland, and that everyone is rooting them on!!

The Abrams Clan (Jen, Daylie and Dalton)

From the Home Front - Part 1 (by Roberta)

Day 8

I feel like a war bride... I know he's out there battling for something; a trophy for the team, bragging rights perhaps or is it  more than that, is it the courage to face Mother Nature's best and worst she has to offer? When speaking to others who have either done Vic-Maui or the wives of husbands who have survived this race (I'm talking about the wives); nobody mentioned what it would be like for me. They spoke about Maui and how much fun it is once the boys show up... The guys prepared him for all the good, bad and ugly... But not once did anyone help prepare me mentally for the emotional battles I would incur.

My emotions change hourly with their every move in the race: anxiousness, excitement, fear, happiness, the list goes on....  I am consumed by it all!

I can say honestly that I am very proud of my husband and his team mates for working together to keep everything in order, I know that their #1 goal is to get to Maui fast but also safely as well.  And having a little bit, ok a lot of fun along the way is well heart warming to know that 7 guys can survive on a 50' boat, and oh the shenanigans.

Between the hourly updates (seeing them inch their way to Maui), the daily blogs (from laughing my guts out to having my heart in my throat), to the other loving wives on the team in which I can turn to for support, I feel blessed to be connected to this ongoing roller coaster ride (note: they aren't quite at the half way mark yet).

My nights are sleepless as I wake to see where they are, my days go by hourly, again as I watch to see how they are doing. I find myself in a time warp, living my life right now 1 hour at a time... With each hour brings us new information, whether it is a change in their mileage, change of direction or even change in ETA, it's always changing.

One thing I have learned about myself in the past week is how strong and brave I am for him. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and after 21 years of marriage and 3 kids and him thousands of miles away, I can't help but keep falling in love with him every day even though he isn't here beside me.

So ladies of Vic-Maui virgins my advice to you: love your husband and support him, this is an opportunity of a lifetime and he WILL have the time of his life and that's ok, because he will miss you more than anything and you will learn a lot about yourself as you sit up many sleepless nights literally watching the boat on the tracker move tiny paces.  The support we show him comes back as an internal reward to ourselves because nobody can be our husbands biggest fans but us. Encouragement has its own rewards.

Well the clock has just turned the hour and it is time for an update - 4am!  (I work at 9am)

Missing my man tremendously, and I can't wait to see him on the shores of Maui....

Roberta