Aquavit: Pac Cup 2016
| Vessel Name: | Aquavit |
| Vessel Make/Model: | Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 42iP |
| Hailing Port: | San Francisco |
| Crew: | Michael, Bill, Joe, Patrick and Karl |
| Extra: | 8/3/16 - On a quest from Kaneohe, Hawaii back to San Francisco with new Crew: Michael, Bill, Joe, Patrick and Karl 7/11/16 - On a quest to Kaneohe, Oaho, Hawaii with Crew: Michael, Mike, Bill, Paulo, Magnus and George |
20 August 2016
Getting from there to here
As much as we would like to take all the credit for our long voyage across the Pacific, we have had a steady and reliable aid guiding us along. That aid is the multitude of instruments we have to tell us things like: where are we? Are we going in the right direction? How fast are we going? Is [...]
19 August 2016
Sea Creatures
For the most part, the life in the deep ocean is under the water and not seen, but there have been some remarkable sightings on this trip. Here's a taste of what we have encountered.
18 August 2016
SF approach, full moon and meteor
This is an interesting part of the return trip. We had the hard sailing north from Hawaii into the prevailing swell. We had the sinister high pressure that was following us everywhere we went in the middle of the trip. Now, finally we are on track towards SF. It's a good feeling to be making [...]
18 August 2016
Heavy Weather Sailing
It's almost a relief hitting the heavy weather portion of our trip. We were worrying about the gale for so long, and the large seas and high winds that it would bring where we were further south, that when it finally hits we know what to expect. As our last correspondence with the weather guys states: "There [...]
15 August 2016
Whales and Weather
Saw a pod of killer whales yesterday, passed all around us, and one followed us for a few minutes. This is their place and they are curious about us. I've seen lots of killer whales in the San Juans, but new and exciting to several others.
14 August 2016
Weather
Seems like we've been plagued by the adverse weather this trip. On the way to Hawaii we encountered large, confused, seas and then Hurricane Darby. The last leg of the trip to Kanehoe was rushing like madmen to avoid been trapped at sea for days while the storm system passed. (We arrived at 4pm. Boats [...]
Heavy Weather Sailing
"There is a persistent pressure gradient
squeeze between 133W to 129W when you are expected to be crossing those
longitudes. The expected wind/wave conditions are NNEerly 25-30 gusts
40kts, wave heights 12-15 ft."
We're at longitude 132 and we've had these conditions for about 36 hours. Boat handles well on a beam reach (double reefed main, about 40% jib) and allows us to take the waves at nice angle. Some of the waves are huge but Aquavit rolls over them like a pro.
Exhilarating sailing but very wet as some waves and a lot of wave spray hits the cockpit. Follies are totally wet and never have a chance to dry out between shifts. We're on modified watch schedule now, so that two crew are always in the cockpit. Good for safety but not for sleep...less time between shifts and longer shifts. On the upside, all the crew are so accustomed to heavy weather sailing that its almost routine by now. Usually its quiet in the cockpit, as we huddle down trying to avoid spray directly into our faces. But Pat and Carl, our two "youths" on the voyage, comment loudly on evary wave ("yeah...that was a big one")and revel in the challenge and excitement. We others soldier through!
We're "only" 450 miles from SF now, and we're all excited about our landfall. Making very good progress. Amazing to me that the boat does about 8.5kts into swells with such reduced canvas up. I expect Sunday evening arrival.
Lot's of boats now steaming to LA or Oakland, seen on our AIS and occasional sighting, but none close so far.
Joe and I saw the most amazing thing in the early morning hours, about 1am. Two bright lights, intense lights, moving quickly across our starboard side about 2 miles away and low in the sky. Joe shouted UFOs! But after a few seconds the lights developing flaming tails until they died out 30 seconds or so later. We think they were meteorites that had entered the earth's atmosphere and fell into the ocean not far from us.
Miss everyone and, after two weeks sailing, looking forward to getting home.
From Aquavit, Lst 37degrees 47 minutes, Long 132 degrees, 02 minutes, s
Michael
