The Hunter Becomes the Hunted

Yesterday was the last day in a series of very challenging conditions, moderate winds over highly variable seas slamming us from the rear had made for a very lumpy ride through a string of wicked storms. Our collective lack of experience in open ocean weather had positioned us as the victim in all of our interactions with boat-hunting storm cells. It was time to turn the tables on these terrifying columns of gray death and rain. 

While the rest of the crew slept yesterday afternoon, Steve T., Ty, and Adam decided it was time to do something stupid. We had heard that if you get in front of one of these monster storm cells and zig-zag back and forth in a taunting manner, you can get a huge bump in speed as you ride the squalls that they throw off. If you find a storm heading in the direction you want to go, it can be ridden indefinitely. 

If Travis were on deck he surely would have 86'ed this idea as soon as it was suggested. The boat had its brand-new monster kite up so we made an agreement to drop the sail as soon as things were looking like they were going to get expensive. 

We were surrounded by storms in all directions, so it wasn't hard to find one heading toward us. As the boat got within about a mile of the front storm the winds kicked up and the storm sprayed our faces with light rain in otherwise clear blue skies. It was beginning to seem like it might be a stupid idea but we had already committed to it and none of us were going to be the one that pulled the plug. We zigged our sails into the wind and the boat took off, well upwind of our previous course. We rode the storm for about an hour and we kicked back into it several times as we reached too far ahead of it. We got a huge bump to the south without having to slog through trailing seas. 

Travis slept through all of this so please don't tell him about it. We will laugh about it over Mai Tais on Maui. Until then, zip it. 

As dinner approached the wind kicked up and the waves died down. We had some of the best sailing of the trip that evening as the boat took off like a shot. After days of rough nights and long days in scorching sun and heavy downpours, the team was exhausted but highly enthusiastic to get their hands on the wheel. 

The sunset after dinner was one of the best I've ever seen. It bathed the boat and surrounding clouds in a rich deep orange-red. The surrounding storm cells had rainbows nested on their crowns and looked much less terrifying. 

Without thinking about it, we have retired our foul weather gear in favor of shorts and t-shirts, even on night-shift as the temperatures stay well in the high twenties and the evening fills the sails with warm breeze. Last night's night-shift (Jason, Darin, and Steve C.) was treated to a show by some local wildlife. Around midnight, as the boat hummed along at full bore, at least fifty tiny dolphins (much smaller than the ones we see back home) jumped and bobbed along beside the boat doing all sorts of jumps and flips. It was a great night for sailing! 

Today's wind has been less than ideal (pretty much zip). However the sun is out, we have a freezer full of fresh tuna, and our laundry has been piling up. The boys are enjoying a well-earned day of rest, baking in sun and swimming in a part of the ocean that is so clear and blue it truly defies words. 

In addition to rest, today is Mid-Trip Mail Day! Prior to our departure Ty prompted the loved ones of those aboard to write a letter for them to open at the half-way mark. The crew opened their letters together on the back deck and read in silence that quickly erupted into a choir of laughs and awwww's. Needless to say, we all feel very loved and miss everyone at home dearly. 

From what we have heard, the whole fleet is stuck in zero wind and we are not sure how long this lull will last. The forecast seems to indicate it will push through until tomorrow so we will be well rested as we dive into the second half of this epic journey. 

To occupy ourselves (and keep from going insane) while we drift around we have started to create some lists. The first is a tally of sea garbage that we have driven past or has floated by us. Here it is:

"    Buckets (dozens of them)
"    Red light bulbs
"    VHS Cassette Cases
"    Shampoo bottles
"    Japanese glass floats
"    Milk crates
"    Fishing netting and floats (dozens)  

In addition to our lists, we have started to put together some business ideas to recoup the cost of the trip. The first of which is a CD compilation of our favorite shower music that we have been putting on to make the shower-ee feel uncomfortable while showering on the back deck in front of the group. We are titling this highly provocative mix "From Our Shower to Yours" and we will be selling it off of the back of the boat at Marinas around the Pacific Northwest. The playlist is as follows: 

Justin Timberlake - Sexy Back 

Right Said Fred - I'm Too Sexy 

Def Leopard - Pour Some Sugar on Me 

ABBA - Dancing Queen 

Prince - When Doves Cry 

Montel Jordan - This is How We Do It

Plus Many More… 

Expect a Christmas album to follow in November.  

We definitely missed the 200 mile mark on the odometer today but it was a great rest day to get all of our laundry sorted out. The boat is looking a lot more like a gypsy caravan than a thoroughbred racing machine with our laundry littered all over the rig but a dedicated laundry day was well overdue! 

Missing you all like crazy, 

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

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

Oregon Offshore 2014 - Update

By Catharine:

Turnagain went off the grid for a while.  At 1720 the Race Tracker indicated they were off Aberdeen at the back of the pack (all the other boats had been updated more recently), but then nothing further was updated until almost midnight.  I finally picked them up on AIS as they approached Cape Flattery, then the Race Tracker updated, showing them approaching the cape shortly after midnight.

Here is what the Race Tracker shows, as of 0200 (note: the super fast boats have already finished the race in record time apparently):

Currently (based on AIS date from Marine Traffic), Turnagain appears to be racing down the Juan de Fuca straight at 11.1kts!  They are ahead of Velocity, Ion and Avalon, and not far behind Kinetic.  Turnagain is the pink boat just above the number 112.  The boats ahead of Turnagain appear to be travelling slower (7kts), so perhaps Turnagain will catch up and then they'll all just drift towards Race Rocks.

Looking forward to seeing how it all shakes down.  I wish all the boats had AIS, or that more boats were updated on the official Race Tracker :)

Oregon Offshore 2014

It's that time of year again...Oregon Offshore.  Travis is currently en route from Victoria to Astoria, and the race starts later this week from Astoria.  Here's Travis' current update:

Travis - 22:00 May 3, 2014 - Just off Victoria BC

The trip down to Astoria started with a sunny "delivery" style commute to Victoria on Friday.  Leaving the dock in Vancouver at 9:30am was a great change from our original plan of a 5am departure.  We spend a fun night in Victoria, RVicYG.  Leaving RVYC at 8:50pm, we have started out to Astoria.  As usual, the weather has not materialized as forecasted and we are motoring towards Race Rocks as I type this.  With the delayed travel, Jason and Mackenzie were unable to make the trip, so we are at 5 currently on board.  The group has been fantastic.  Eric, found on the VicMaui crew bank, has been a fantastic find and has fit in exceptionally well with the group.  Hopefully we get some wind as I know everyone will be frustrated with continued motoring for the next 36 hours if it does not build.

It is typical boating as we leave the dock this evening.  The steering light is really dim and needs to be replaced at our earliest option, the starboard steering wheel has a slight squeak to it that needs tending to - hopefully we can resolve it in the light of day tomorrow.

That is all for now, but many more email updates to come as we have systems to test :)

Overnight Sail

After some team gatherings in early October, we were able to plan an overnight practice session on Turnagain.  The night.. November 29.  The crew. Jason, Darin, Steve T, Declan, Karl, Ty, Dave (from the returning crew).  Steve C was unable to make it due to illness and Adam M had some family things to tend to.

 We finally all met at the Pier 7 dock in north van at 7:30 and promptly left for the night. Winds were forecast to build, but it did not look promising.  We motored out to about 2 miles west of Pt. Grey  bell buoy and had enough of a south east wind to start sailing. With the 140 Genoa and main, we reached across the straight for mid Gabriola Island. Half way across the wind had built to a steady 12-15 SE and we were running the lines for a spinnaker hoist.  The plan was to hoist the A3/4 with the forecasted 18-20Kt SE expected.  As we ran the lines and prepared for the hoist, the galley was busy preparing dinner.  We hoisted the spinnaker and beared off slightly to a 120 degree apparent wind angle in 10-14kts of wind.  Once the wind appeared to be building as forecast, the course was set for a “round Sangster” route.  Shortly after setting the spinnaker, a FANTASTIC lasagna (well… 3) was reheated and dished out with everyone stuffing themselves.   

The food was also a practice run for the big trip in July as we need to work on portions and prepared meals with enough healthy parts to keep us going. 

By 11 pm, the wind was steady 18 gusting up to 22-25 and the boat was rocking down to Sangster. With this kite up, the boat can do about 160 apparent if the wind is up to 20 ish kts and we were able to make great tracks towards our mark.  All crew had time on the wheel (except me, as I am hoping to get everyone very familiar with the boat before we head out for something more significant ;)).  By midnight the wind was steady over 20-22 and regularly gusting to 25 and a swell was starting to build. With Ty at the wheel and discussion of what to do if the boat starts to get over powered, Turnagain experienced its first “wipeout”.  We won’t hold this against Ty for too long, but after 7000 miles in not always calm conditions, it does take a certain skill to make this happen.  We douced the kite and sailed under white sails the rest of the way down wind to Sangster. At approximately 2:30 am, we rounded Sangster after picking our way through the reef waters and started to beat our way back up to Vancouver. The boat was doing well, although pounding a bit into the seas that had built.  

The group was fantastic and everyone did their part. We figured out a few short comings of the boat and of procedures, but things are coming together.  

I am looking forward to our next practice (unscheduled, but hopefully late January at the latest) and working with this group to get a machine running for the VicMaui 2014. 

Travis