Staff and members at the Oakland Yacht Club have been wonderfully accommodating and gracious hosts during our week long stay here. Great camaraderie, hot showers, good food and cold beer. It doesn't get any better.

Making our last minute preparations in Port prior to the big race. Dougie demonstrating his new found leather sewing skills.

Peasey bringing us safely into our first port of call.

After the winds picked up to 30 knots, Jeff noticed loosened lazy jacks and wanted to get the work done before happy hour. The worst part was Jeff's battle with a too tight climbing harness.

Tommie's fish fed us for two days. The first night was delicious fish tacos and the second night was Davey's famous fish curry.

Our first day out on the Pacific Ocean yielded a 15 pound Bodega Tuna after Tommie spend the day dragging his hand lines behind the boat.

After about 18 hours of motoring through the Straight of Juan De Fuca, we were rewarded with a magnificent sunset.

Pulling away from the docks.......

The Sandpiper Crew ready for the voyage down to San Francisco.

Alrighty then! The blogging site for the intrepid Sandpipers is now up and running. We wanted to set up this site so we can communicate with our loved ones and share the adventure, terror, trials, tribulations, tedium, and beauty of our trip from the West Coast to Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.

Sandpiper is taking part in the 2012 Pacific Cup. Davey-O was talked into this crazy idea over libations at the George and Dragon. Like all great ideas, it sounded really great at the time. Davey-O may have changed his tune since that fateful night almost two years ago.

Installments from the haul out will be uploaded in the next few days.

The departure date for SF is less than a week away. Davey-O and the Seattle crew are busting their humps with the last minute preparations. I will be joining the crew early Monday morning (7/2/12). We are planning an extremely early departure on 7/3/12 to catch the large outgoing tide.

Welcome! We look forward to sharing all of this with you. Expect TMI, ranting, and wordiness.

Aloha,

Pooch - the slacker in Hawaii that gets to fly in, get on the boat and take off. It is important to give these guys something to complain about. I humbly accept that role.