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

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

LIVE! All male shower shows - Daily!

Good news and bad news from the boat today. The bad news is that the Adam MacLean Invitational Tuna Derby (or The Invitational as it is referred to on the boat) is on hold. The good news is that the reason we are putting it on hold is that we are sailing far too fast for fishing. 

Over the past two days we've been deep into the mid-teens as we burn over two hundred miles per day towards Maui. Any fish caught at this speed would simply explode. 

The warm seas have settled down as we rocket towards the 20th parallel. Our sleeps are getting much better as we are able to consistently lock in and surf waves. Last night's sail was under steady winds and clear skies with the moon illuminating the sea ahead of us with the Milky Way blanketing the sky above with navigation points. 

Near midnight our closest competitor, Passepartout, crept out of the horizon to starboard despite being hundreds of miles abeam just days ago. They distantly crossed over our tail in the dark and then returned to being a tiny bump in the horizon over our right shoulder. This am with sun coming up, we got out in front of them and have what we hope will be some great shots of them sailing with their spinnaker out.  It is strange, that after 700 miles or so, we bunch up again out here. This was the first sign of any other boat we had seen in days. 

As the clock rolled over to 2:00am we decided it was safe to drop the white sails and raise the White Monster kite to throw on the afterburners and truck through the night. <queue Kenny Loggins - Highway to the Danger Zone> 

Yesterday we held a downwind drag race as we went through our rotation of skippers with Darin and Travis coming out on top: 

Under Kite (the new one that Drew delivered the Wednesday before departure...good thing!: Travis - 15.6 knots
Under White Sails:  Darin - 12.8 knots 

Travis and Jason's game of good navigator / bad navigator is turning out to be an effective management tactic for the team and we are all settling into our respective routines.  We are sure that from shore it is looking like we are falling trap to the "great early sailing" and getting sucked into the High.  Well...... that might be accurate :).  But we have looked forward at the wind models and it doesn't look much better south. So here is hoping. 

The weather has been a really awesome, but looking forward is causing some angst in the crew. It looks like everything is going to go really soft Thursday and Friday, which could delay our arrival. We all are very much looking forward to seeing our families in Maui and it will be hard to sit and wallow around in under 5kts of wind. For now, we push on with the BC Place roof flying out in front of the boat (the A2) and Steve Tomlinson at the wheel.  

Unfortunately, none of our daily routines have included showering and thus today has been officially crowned "Team Shower Day".  

Today's entry is going to feature an anonymous confidential confession: 

"After a work-out at the gym I am usually comfortable showering in the buff. I don't know what is causing me such apprehension about showering in the buff while on board here in the middle of the Pacific. Perhaps it is the camera pointed at me or that someone on the crew puts Def Leopard's "Pour Sugar on Me" on the stereo whenever I get into shower on the back deck. Hence I think it'll be bathing in my suit until I get off of the boat." 

To capitalize on today's highly successful Shower Day, Travis plans to bolt a hot-pink neon sign on the back of the boat while we are docked in Maui that will flash: "LIVE ALL MALE SHOWER SHOWS - DAILY". 

Needless to say, we are all ecstatic with our progress and miss everyone back home terribly, 

The boys on Turnagain

The First 24 Hours, by Jason

The First 24 Hours

We had a great send off from Victoria Harbour with friends and family seeing us off. There were a few teary eyes and heavy hearts, both on the boat and ashore as we pulled away from the Causeway Floats in front of the Empress Hotel.

We were fortunate to have Edward & Jane Karadontis escort us out to the start line with some of our family members aboard their beautiful Sabre 36. The weather at the start couldn't have been better with a 15-20kt westerly blowing and a strong ebb tide to push us along. At the starting gun we trimmed in the sails, were at the line and off we went on our 2,300 mile journey to Maui.

The sail out the Strait of Juan de Fuca was an excellent way to kick things off with constant winds from the West in excess of 20 knots pushing the boat as fast as she could go up wind with the occasional reef. Shortly after the start Turnagain, along with Turicum and Passepartout, begun to break away from the other boats in our early start (the remaining ten boats start on Saturday). The day was spent jockeying  for first place up the straight through Race Rocks and all the way to the tip of the Olympic peninsula. After over 12 hours we were still gladly diving and dodging one another as we closely swapped tacks with Turicum and Passepartout.

As evening approached, Darin prepared the first of many excellent meals (beef fajitas). I am happy to say that despite rolly-polly sea conditions we are all still holding our food down! During dinner Travis asserted his dominance as captain by cleaning up our dinner time game of 80's trivia, hosted by Ty. Travis' knowledge of Don Johnson movies is second to none.

After dinner, as we rounded the tip of the Olympic peninsula and took our first steps into the Pacific, the team soaked in a wonderful sunset with a small group of sea lions harping at us from astern. As night took hold and the temperature dropped, the wind bobbed around us as we struggled to get around the Cape Flattery bell bouy, our sole mark between Victoria and Maui. Shortly after rounding, the wind picked up for an hour and we had our first run under spinnaker with only the stars to navigate by. After an hour of screaming downwind the falling temperature took the steam out of our thermal breeze and left us with little do aside from bob around watching the navigation lights of our competitors in similar conditions at unknown distances, also waiting for more breeze. 

We spent the night on 4 hour watches listening to a mix of Adam and Ty's music (U2's  Joshua Tree right now), trying to keep the boat moving and spirits high as we charge towards Maui. We are having a blast and keeping busy with Steve Corcoran walking us through hoisting and dousing each sail in our inventory as we try to lock in a solution to our wind problem.

We are seeing lots of wildlife including: orcas, humpback whales, dolphins, great white sharks (possibly just a menacing looking dogfish), seals, sea lions, and millions of floating jelly fish with sails on them.

It's Friday morning now, time to turn the computer back over to pulling weather data. As we get into Tuna territory the focus is shifting from sail changes to getting the hooks baited. Stay posted for results from the first daily Turnagain Tuna Derby! <queue banjo music>

Check back for more news later today! 

Happy Birthday to Ty's daughter Daylie ( July 2nd) and Jason's Daughter Katherine (July 3rd).

Miss you all already,

The boys on Turnagain