We are 75 Miles away from Hawaii and looking forward to making landfall tonight. Last night was very difficult with many squalls hitting us for over 8 hours. It was looking pretty promising until 4am, when we got hit with a huge gust with driving rain. Tony was driving and I was trimming. The boat rounded up hard and the spinnaker wrapped itself around the forestay. Then we tried to free it, but the strong winds ripped the head off.

Now we had a shredded spinnaker in pitch dark with two us on deck. Ted and Jim quickly came up and joined us in the driving rain. It took us about 45 minutes to get the remaining spinnaker down and get set up to hoist again. We unfortunately lost our best spinnaker for light winds expected at the finish. The other unfortunate thing is we lost 3 miles to Viva over the course of the spinnaker debacle. Oh well this is what makes sailing fun.

Last night Tony yelled out, "I've been hit". I looked at him with confusion, and then could spell our new friend in the cockpit. The flying fish was flapping his wings right next to Tony's bare feet while he was driving by compass. "Get it out of here", I quickly grabbed my flashlight and tried to nab it, but it was not going easily. Eventually I got a hold of one of its wings and set it free.

Another race to Hawaii in the books. A great boat and equally great crew made this adventure truly special. Until we sail again! Cheers, Capt Rod

Famous Sailing Quotes from Transpac 2019

Ted to Jim changing shifts in 30 knots of wind. "Be careful, I am handing you a loaded gun"

Capt Rod to the crew: "Sail faster damn it!

Jim to the Crew: "Where the hell is Callisto?, Wow, what kind of sailing family is this?

Tony to the Crew: Those Viva guys must think we are a pesky gnat

Coast Guard San Diego: All mariners, be on the lookout for sailboat off Coronado Island that has run out of fuel.

We are 225 Miles away from Hawaii and man it is getting hot! We still have a drag race to the finish, so it will be interesting. We sailed through an intense squall field yesterday with heavy rain and slow sailing. We lost a few miles but are hoping we can get a few more back today and tomorrow. Looks like we will finish sometime late 7/22 if the wind holds out. The number of squalls we get will change that estimate.

Squalls are very complicated in these latitudes. They are little low pressure systems that spin counter clockwise and travel at 15 degrees from the direction of the wind. Some boats are so fast that they can stay up with the squall and gybe back and forth in front of them to get some great speed. Our boat cannot do that so we just take them as they come. If we end up on the right side of one, we get a great ride, if we end up on the left side we will suffer.

Jim surprised us with sloppy joes for lunch. Man they were good. Eating sloppy food on a pitching boat is always challenging, but the flavors were amazing. He served them over hamburger buns with a side of salt and vinegar chips. Next time we need bring a toaster so he can brown them to perfection. Cheers, Capt Rod

We are 400 miles from Hawaii or two days away. It is always exciting making landfall. Viva is still in sight trying everything to get around us. It is truly amazing how similar the boats are down wind. We will be on opposite gybes and barely see each other, only to gybe back and have a port/starboard situation 600 miles from Hawaii. Tony again set the trip record last night of 15.1 knots surfing down a huge wave.

The squalls are coming more frequently and for longer periods of the day. The good thing is that it is warm, so we are just enjoying showers for free in the cockpit. Today is another shower day, so we have also filled the solar shower to remove, as Jim puts it "a bio hazard".

It is getting harder and harder to sleep knowing we are close. We sleep/nap a lot just in case we need to be on deck for a maneuver. We expect to be making many sail changes and gybing more frequently as we get close the Molokai Channel.

Unlike other boats, we listen to music and have happy hour each day. I like to think we enjoy the journey as much as the racing. The driver gets to pick the music, or we just put it on shuffle. Right now Ted is rocking to "Lets Groove" by Earth Wind and Fire. I can still remember Ted sporting those tight bell bottom pants and platform shoes in high school. Cheers, Capt Rod

We are 580 miles from Hawaii and making good progress. We tried to dive under Callisto last night so we are in a good position. Viva is right next to us, keeping us on our toes. The squalls were not too bad last night, just a few 30 knot gusts and some rain. Jim had the best surf and tied Tony's record of 14.8 knots.

Besides being my birthday today, it is also our friend Charles birthday and Tony and Michelle's wedding anniversary. I always get my hopes up for the Bday cake - but I will settle for double rations.

Racing 24/7 has its challenges, but we are getting into a rhythm. We are on for 4 hours and sleep for 4 hours. Two of those hours are spent driving and 2 are crewing. It is good that all of us can drive at night, because it is difficult to steer by the compass. I get on shift at 12am and drive to 2am, Jim is crewing for me during that time, then Tony takes over driving at 2am, while Jim sleeps, then Ted gets up at 4am and starts driving. The cycle continues day and night.

We are getting our hopes up for a daytime arrival. Most of our finishes have been at night. Right now we are trending toward a 7/22 afternoon finish. Since we are three days out, everything can change.

Cheers, Capt Rod

We are 770 miles from Honolulu. We had our first squalls last night with lots of wind and rain. Squalls normally occur below 27 degrees latitude. So far we have only seen about 30 knots of wind, but that may change. Tony has the surfing record so far with 14.8 knots. Viva crossed our bow yesterday and we have been jousting with them ever since. We wish we knew where Tommy Trojan was hiding. It is unfortunate their transponder is not working.

We use navigational software to plan our routes for the race. They call the Transpac a "Navigators race" because huge gains can be made by choosing the shortest course with the most wind given the fastest your boat can sail. Each boat has a polar diagram that shows how fast the boat should perform given the various wind conditions. Jim and I were looking at the data the program produces to see how we can improve our polars. Jim said "if I only had Python I could capture the data, sort and create a better diagram" So he check the computer and said, "hey you have Python on this computer"�...Thanks RJ. So in a matter of a few hours Dr Vicker wrote 100 lines of code to create the most perfect polar diagram for our boat...... Sail Faster Dam it.

We had movie night and listened to Capt Ron over the speakers. Favorite Capt Ron quotes from happy hour: Jim: When we left California we had just enough food and booz, so we must be close to Hawaii. Ted: Mom and Dad we're engaged! Tony: You're parents are just playing hide the salami Rodney: If its going to happen, it's going to happen out there

Cheers, Capt Rod

We are 970 miles from Hawaii. We had very strong winds last night and made just over 200 miles in 24 hours. Now we are getting ready to make our final approach to the Molokai channel and the timing of our gybes. All the Cal 40's are coming together at the finish so it will be exciting on 7/23.

We have been starting to see flying fish and more sea birds. One actually hit the side of the boat during my driving shift. That was startling, and probably not much fun for the fish.

It is starting to get very warm in the boat so we are really enjoying our fans. The sun is getting intense, so we are spending more time in the shade and down below. We still get hit by the occasional rogue wave. Somehow all the big waves(Poops) have found Ted first. Some have filled the entire cockpit. Tony had the misfortune of sitting between Ted and a big wave last night. Cheers, Capt Rod