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

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

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 Race Tracker, by Catharine

So I'm pretty sure I'll be glued to this thing until they reach Maui.  For those of you who don't know, you can track every moment of the race on the Tracker on your phone.  Just download the Yellow Brick app (YP Races), purchase the Vic Maui 2014 package for $2.99, and voila!  You too can watch them inch across the Pacific.  The tracker appears to update about once an hour.  If you can't find it in the app store, just go to www.vicmaui.org and follow the Yacht Tracker link (for free I think).

Here's the first several hours of the race:

And they're off!  1 hr after the start.
Turnagain is light purple

Approaching Race Rocks

Working their way out of Juan de Fuca

Looks like Turnagain is doing well upwind!