Pipe Dream Transpac Day 12
Aloha yet again.
We are now less than 600 miles from the finish line and we are getting the usual afternoon strong winds. The daily position reports this morning showed we gained ground over Willow Wind and reduced the gap to So Far by a few miles. We had good winds most of the day yesterday, covering 165.2 nm in the 24 hours. We would all like to see the distance for one day be over 180 miles. We have also moved up into position 45 in the total fleet, a significant improvement over our result 2 years ago.
The race committee are scoring Wind Dancer, even though we were told at
one time they had steering problems and used auto pilot for a while and they had
withdrawn from the race. We are currently one hour ahead of them on corrected time and hope we can keep the position to the finish and not have to make an issue out of it. I need to get my celestial navigation sights taken care of so we do not have to take any time penalties. I calculated our local area noon sightings taken previously and placed us within a couple of miles of our actual location. I still need to do a couple of star shots and have to read the materials to figure out how to plot the sightings.
We did actually locate and sight three stars the other night (Anteres, Vega and Kochab) Last night we had mixed winds during the night and again managed to wrap the spinnaker around the forestay a couple of times. We made the decision to change to our second 1.5oz heavy spinnaker and keep the primary chute for
> our trip down the Molakai Channel and the finish. None of us even recognized the sail at first as I do not think it has been used since the last Transpac. After the chute was up a few hours it suddenly ripped across the middle so we had to take it down. It will go back to the sailmaker for repairs unless we end up being really desperate and get out the sail repair kit.
We then decided to try out our chicken chute and see what it was like as it has not been used since being cut-down by the sailmaker. It was OK but on the small side and we managed to get it wrapped also. We took it down to clear the wrap and proceeded to put in in the water and get the port sheet caught under the boat. The sheet was released to the realization we may have lost it in the water, then found out it was being dragged behind the boat attached to the aft-guy. We got everything back together and returned to the primary chute we have been using the last few days. We were doing over 6 knots with the main only and there are no further problems.
We have been contacted by our Aloha Party committee in Waikiki (the same people as the last Transpac) and have found out one of them is the membership director for the Waikiki Yacht Club. She has assured us we will be given a prime berth at her club, a great benefit as these are issues this year locating so many boats. It will provide a great base while we are there. We are all looking forward to the arrival party.