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.

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

Gybing

For those of you tuning in to other sources, Anduril had to make a detour to San Fran due to broken steering, and many other boats suffered blown out spinnakers or broken steering cables after our recent night of squalls.

Early this am, our new weather routing was suggesting that we wanted to be further South than we currently are (not by too much though... surprising we haven't messed it up totally yet - we will find that out tomorrow night), so we got to gybe.

This was the first gybe of the trip, so now we are all getting used to leaning the other way. A few spilled drinks, pots heading the "wrong way" in the galley, and a whole new way to steer.

We should be on this gybe for most of the day, but new weather is coming out momentarily so plans may change again soon.

It is a maintenance day today...time to deal with any food spoilage casualties, main cabin vacuum (yes, 7 guys on a boat will vacuum, eventually), water filter changes, etc.

We also had fresh made muffins this am and are enjoying a fresh breeze after terrible winds overnight.

Will send more updates soon,

The boys on Turnagain

Storm cells like goons with socks full of batteries...

Turnagain Update 3pm July 9th, 2014

Street Justice

We left you yesterday heading south in sunny skies and smooth seas with laundry drying on the life lines and everyone relatively relaxed. 

Shortly after finishing typing up the day's summary, two large storm cells to the North rolled up behind us like goons with socks full of batteries. The storm cells appeared as walls of dark storm cloud and rain radiating black squalls towards us. We had our full monster kite up which we use for light winds to get the boat screaming well beyond its design speed.  

An emergency "all hands on deck" was called to get the kite down as quickly as possible. If a squall hit that kite it would surely shred it and severely impact our long-term performance and short-term morale. The crew's response to the pending emergency was stellar with everyone jumping into action and getting it stowed in under a minute. A celebratory tuna sashimi feast was held while everyone was awake but the battle we avoided was the first of many we would face that evening. 

By the time we had narrowly escaped the first two storm systems the sky above had filled with thick cloud as far as the eye could see. As the sun set, our grey ceiling darkened to the rawest blackest night we have had to sail under yet. Running blind to our surroundings meant that we would not be able to see approaching storm cells and squalls. It was decided that we would go back to a more conservative sail plan to ride out the night with crew manning each sail in the event we needed an emergency release if we were hit by a surprise squall. 

The night sail was our rockiest yet, with fog and heavily variable wind rolling over three meter waves from passing storms on all sides. Every few hours we would walk around a corner into a parking lot full of goons and take a hell of a beating in the dark. As they say in boxing, "It's the ones you don't see coming that hurt the most".  

In addition to dodging storms, we passed through several lanes of heavy commercial shipping traffic bound for southern California. This kept the night watch busy on the radio coordinating passes with tankers and container ships, some over a mile long with only a single light to locate them in dense fog. The rain and fog kept us from spotting them at a distance and forced us to make significant deviations from our planned course to create huge allowances for error in avoiding them. 

Although we could not see them, our nearest competitors on Passepartout could be heard radioing in to the same traffic we were dodging about an hour after we had passed through. It was good to hear signs from someone else in our race as we have not had any contact with other boats in a few days. 

When morning came there were a lot of heavy eyes and deep sighs. Steering through the storms was exhausting and everyone took their lumps at the helm from Mother Nature. Many high fives were exchanged over coffees as day broke. The team survived their most adverse weather to date and more favorable wind and waves have made today a good day to catch up on rest. 

From what we have heard, all of the competing boats seem to be chasing the same weather system that will be flowing to the South West. We look forward to bumping heads with familiar faces as we converge on a narrow bridge of wind to Maui with doldrums on both sides. The current forecast leaves few alternative course options. Our plan is to get there fast and get through it before it collapses! 

Today's downwind drag race results:
Under Kite: Steve Corcoran - 15.3 knots with a silver medal to Jason Bowman at 12.6 knots 

Today I took a survey of what everyone was looking forward to most upon arrival in Maui, here are the results: 

Steve C. - I'm looking forward to shaving off my nasty "Magnum P.I." moustache (though, it's quite lovely in my opinion), and having a beer
Travis - an ice cold drink
Steve T. - an ice cold beer
Adam - a Gin Caesar and a beer
Ty - an ice cold pitcher of beer
Darin - two ice cold pitchers of beer
After they gave their answers it was suggested, "How about we grab a burger and go get pissed?" and everyone agreed that was also their answer.  

As we continue to log over 200 miles per day, enthusiasm is high and we will continue to do our best against Mother Nature's goon squad. The water is warming up enough for Mahi Mahi, so stay tuned for round two of The Invitational. 

Missing you all like crazy, 

The boys on Turnagain

Dear Tanpopo...and jellies and laundry and loufas

Illustrated by Catharine.  There is no dolphin in this story, but Sylvia insisted of course.  The jellies are called Velella Velella for those who want to know.  

Dear Tanpopo…………. 

It is with our deepest condolences that the crew of the good ship Turnagain regret to inform you that we will no longer be requiring your all you can eat sushi services.  You see, we have now been to "the other side". We have harvested the bounty of the sea with our makeshift lure (patent pending - all intellectual property hereby forbidden to be infringed upon without the expressed written consent of Ab-Mac Industries) You see Tanpopo, although your sushi is ….. well it's just ok……… the tuna sashimi we heroically caught and are feasting on daily is simply put …. SUPERB. Tuna Ceviche ? …….Why Yes please ! ……Tuna sashimi ? ……….Don't mind if I do ! …….. Spicy Tuna Quesdedilla ? …………. Why, it would be rude not too! 

As you can probably tell we are getting our fair share of divine seafood and loving every single minute of it. 

We are currently a few hundred miles off the northern California / southern Oregon coast. There has been a remarkable change in the water colour over the past few days - the sea is now a deep pacific blue which is just stunning. Our little jellyfish buddies seem to be thinning out as we get further and further offshore. I'm not exactly a jellyfish expert nor enthusiast  but we kinda think these things are pretty cool mainly based on the fact that have their own little sail that sticks up in the air as they try make their way across this massive ocean. 

Jason & Travis are having fun playing 'good navigator' and 'bad navigator'. Jason gets the boys to drive hard to the south while Travis plays softy and lets the guys head further west. We have however hooked into a really awesome high pressure system at the moment. We continue to watch the weather models and feel confident about the high pressure system through mid-week, but only time will tell what mother nature has in-store for later on in this marathon.  We think we are the southernmost boat in the fleet at the moment and appear to have a pretty good angle as we start to work our way west. Currently we're seeing approx 20 knots of breeze from off our right shoulders and have our A4 kite up and are ripping at a pretty solid 9 - 12 knots in about 6 foot seas. As of this afternoon, Travis is the current holder of our speed record, having registered a whopping 15.2 kts surfing down a nice size roller. 

The boys are trying to maintain a little civility even though it's just us out here for hundreds of miles.  Ty decided to do his laundry off the back swim grid, combined with 50 clothes pegs he has managed to  instantly transform a  gorgeous Beneteau 50 into something resembling a Mumbai shanty town.  Steve-O decided it was time to up his personal hygiene game and proudly marched his way through the cockpit this morning in his skivys to have a shower on the swim grid. Yes - that is the same swim grid used to massacre a few mid sized tuna….. and then to hand scrub Ty's under garments.  Steve decided to get very liberal with not only Travis's Loufah (yes - he brought a loufah!!)  but he also took the little shower dispenser a little too close to his "personal area's" during the rinsing phase of the mission"

That's about it for today - Chef Darin continues to feed us like champions and we are pushing hard to make good miles while we have great breeze at our backs. I know we are all missing our lovely ladies and little ones ….. can't wait to see them in Maui !

Update 4pm July 5th

Day 3

After spending most of day 2 in windless conditions off the central coast of Washington state, we were ecstatic to have 20-25 kt winds (albeit on the nose - southerly) most of this morning. Turnagain was getting sufficiently powered up that we had the main double reefed and the jib partially furled in for a few hours mid-morning. Travis also had us experiencing our first bit of surfing mid-morning when on starboard tack; however we pay the price by slamming into the seas when on port. 

By noon the winds were back down to 8-10 kts out of the south and we continue to push Turnagain over the lumpy seas in a southward direction. 

We have been working in a band approximately 50-100 miles off the coast. During the first half of the day we made almost 60 miles of southward progress tacking back and forth down the coast. The seas have turned a beautiful blue colour out here further offshore. We continue to see the odd whale, various sea going birds and the trillions of sail-type jelly fish continue to surround us. Our bowman Steve Corcoran almost had a jelly fish fly up into his face after we took a large wave over the bow while Steve was up front.

Adam's fishing derby has taken a set back after something grabbed the line and tore the lure off the rod. We have since postponed the derby until we get further south and into Mahi-mahi territory.

Naviguessor Jason is taking us further offshore tonight, we are planning to work a band approximately 75-150 miles off-shore in hopes of maintaining south winds of 10kts until the promised NW sets in tomorrow afternoon. We are trying to stay close enough to the continent to set us up for a great ride around the north pacific high, while maintaining a safe distance off-shore to ensure constant wind. We'll see how we do in a couple days.

We are setting into a good routine out here on the ocean. We have been working 6 hour day-time watches, reducing to 4 hours during the overnight hours. We are settling in well and pacing ourselves for our epic journey across the Pacific Ocean.

It is also a special day onboard as Darin celebrates his 45th birthday.  Happy 45th Birthday Darin!

We send our best wishes to all our friends and loved ones, 

The boys on Turnagain

Imagine if you were a dragon slayer and there were just no more dragons...by Catharine

Travis and I have a favourite movie we watch when we're away on the boat and the littles are in bed.
Have you seen Riding Giants?  It's a documentary about the origins of surfing, and chronicles everyone from Duke Kahanamoku to the more recent tow-in surfing people.

Anyway, there's this hilarious scene where Laird Hamilton's wife Gabrielle (Laird is basically the founder of modern tow-in surfing) talks about how depressed Laird gets where there aren't any waves.  She says something like "Imagine you are a dragon slayer, and one day there are just no more dragons" to describe how surfers feel when there are no waves.  Travis and I always kill ourselves laughing, and it's become an inside joke we refer to all the time when things don't go our way.  I guess you can see where I'm going with this right?

For those of us following the tracker, it looks like they've been drifting around quite a bit out there. And today's second start boats trying to get up Juan de Fuca are also looking like dragon slayers without any dragons :(

Hopefully things pick up for them.  Not too windy of course, just Goldilocks.

Travis sent this quick up date today.

"Well, it has been a bit better today.  The wind has been up...from the SE though...not like the brochure! :) So we have been pounding along trying to get South.  The boat has been doing well...even though it is not an upwind machine.  Looks like we may start to get some NW later in the weekend."

Vic-Maui 2014, by Catharine

As per his post, Travis left the dock this morning for Victoria, to do final prep on the boat.  We picked up vintage Hawaiian shirts from a store on Main St for the guys on arrival in Maui :)

The kids said goodbye, and won't be seeing Dad until he arrives in Lahaina.  I'm not sure they really get it... They've spent a lot of time on boats in their short lives, but have no concept of time or distance, or how far Travis, Darin, Ty, Adam, Steve and Steve, and Jason will be sailing before we see them again.
Even I have trouble imagining how far it is!

I know some of us are heading to Victoria to see them off.  After so much anticipation, I know I'm looking forward to getting this show on the road :)

I'll be posting to this blog anytime I hear news of how they are doing, and I'm sure we'll all be following them closely on the tracker.  There will be a certain amount of email traffic coming out through Turnagain's SSB mail, or via Sat phone if needed.  If there's anything important to communicate with friends and family, I'll be sending out emails or calling people directly.  

For those of us heading to Maui to welcome them, we'll be in touch!

Catharine

It Starts

I have just left the dock in Coal Harbour to begin the delivery to Victoria.  The last week has been even busier than the previous months of prep. Moving food onto the boat. Final equipment setup and stowage of all the spares etc.

The boat is about as ready as it will get (once we pack the fresh foods in Victoria) and has lowered down closer and closer to the waterline with every trip down to the boat.

The whole trip is really starting to hit home. It is way different talking about sailing to Maui for two years than actually untying and leaving.     There have been many people that have helped get Turnagain ready for this trip including (but not limited to) Catharine – my VERY supportive wife, the team at First Yachts (Brad and Adam mostly, but the rest of the team supporting them), the Turnagain team with a TON of hours from Darin, and the crew at Xprt who have taken a lot of work off of my plate to allow me to focus on this prep, and a lot of support from David and Gaylean Sutcliffe with the VicMaui committee.

We will be in Victoria early Monday am and I hope to have at least once daily updates to this blog from now until Maui and then again on the return.

Travis

Swiftsure 2014

Well, Swiftsure was a bust (again).  Excellent winds heading out around the mark, followed by glass calm seas.  Many boats, including Turnagain, elected to drop out.  Such is life in the world of sailing!

Oregon Offshore 2014 Finish

Turns out they had an amazing trip back, super fast.  Finished second in their division.  I think the whole crew was stoked to discover that Turnagain can sail quite quickly when the conditions are favourable.  Here's hoping they encounter similar winds en route to Mau!