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ALLURE DAY 3 - FLYING SQUID ON DECK

After reading the 3 previous blogs, the question that probably went through your mind is "why would any sane person do this?" Well, with the Transpac, you pay your dues for the first few days (and believe me, I did!) and then you wake up on about the 3rd morning to a beautiful sunrise with the winds moving aft, a spinnaker up and you realize you are getting close to sailing nirvana. We are there and it will only get better as we get deeper into the trade winds and closer to the islands. We are all pushing the boat hard and totally adjusted to the life at sea on a sailing yacht. We haven't discussed world events or politics yet - that stuff can wait till we return to the mainland. We talk about family, friendships, bucket lists, and just how to get the most out of this great life we all live.

This trip is different for me as I skippered my own boat in this race in 2005 and 2007. This boat is faster and a much different motion than my Cal 40. As in past races, the enjoyment is in direct correlation to the guys you sail with. I am fortunate again to be with not only great sailors, but great guys.

As I look out the companionway to the ocean, it is the most brilliant blue you could ever imagine. Absolutely spectacular!

Last night was challenging sailing as we were going through rain squalls. You feel the moisture moving in on you and you look behind and see the dark cloud bearing down on you. The squall represents an excellent opportunity for accelerated winds but it can get very dark. You really don't mind the rain as the air is somewhat warm anyway, but trying to stay on course when it is pitch black and raining can sometimes play tricks on your eyes. You can't see the horizon so you can get vertigo.

I am fortunate to be out here, but more fortunate to have a great wife and daughters who are so supportive of my love for offshore sailing. I love you guys and can't wait to see you with my scruffy gray beard.

All is well on Allure and Aloha,
Steve - AKA - Hooner

P.S. from JB: If you haven't been told yet, you can follow the race at www.transpacrace.com. Then click on the link that tracks the boats down the course. We are division 5 sailing against other similar 50 foot boats. All the boats carry a transponder to send an hourly satellite position, but there is a 6 hour delay. Why the delay? Well, Transpac is about boat preparation, boat handling, crew work, speed but also it's about lots of strategy. You might think we all go along the same path from LA to Honolulu like the runners in a cross country track meet do, but that is not the case. Navigators' work night and day receiving (legal) downloads of very sophisticated weather information that changes several times a day. The trick is to interpret where the wind strength and direction will be most favorable a day, 2 days, 3 days out from now. And then sail where you think the puck will be. If you have been paying attention to the tracks, you will see boats zig-zagging across the course going north or south and north again hoping to get into the best slot of wind to take them to the finish.

Horizon, in our opinion the pre-race favorite in our class, went south early, then crossed us going north, and then crossed us again a day later going south again. They are doing very well and are quite far ahead at this point. We believe south is the best and so we jibed to port pole yesterday evening at 6, sailed for three hours or about 24 miles almost due south, then jibed back to resume our westerly direction. We want separation from the boats north. We took a hit in the standings to get into this position, but hope it will pay off to be down here 3 or 4 days from now. We'll see if it does or not, or whether other boats will come down here too or stay up north.

We are going to be in different wind for the next few days than the guys north because of this 50 mile separation between us and our northern most competitor. For the next few days, sometimes we'll gain and sometimes they will gain on us. Friday will be the moment of truth when we figure we will all start to converge again on our 3 day approach to the islands. That approach itself has quite a bit of strategy and it will be interesting to see how our competitors' thinking differs from ours. So back to the 6 hour delay. Competitors want to sneak around the course not giving away their intentions for at least the 6 hours, thinking by then it will be too late for another competitor to react. It's a little of a cat and mouse game.

By the way, my first blog contained some bad errors: our instruments were not calibrated and were reading about 20% fast, both boat speed and wind speed. So those fantastic numbers were false! Sorry about that.

Everyone is healthy and eating great dinners prepared by all our wives - a very nice touch of home out here. The macaroni and cheese by Andrea was a hit (the cut up hot dogs everyone loved even though Andrea thought it was tacky), and the turkey meat loaf stew by Sissy was fantastic.

Out ETA is probably Tuesday at midnight, so it will be a slower race than we anticipated. Andrea , you might want to cancel the Ilikai hotel reservation, and keep on standby at the condo. Love to all, Jim Barber.

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