Tuesday, August 10, 2010
The welcoming committee!!
Monday, August 9, 2010
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Last Day on the high seas
> Well, this is it. We are 130 nm from the mouth of the Columbia and reaching under the gennaker with 16 knots of wind on the beam. Riva is performing smoothly at 8-9 knots with occasional bursts to 10.5.
>
> Last night we became concerned about making our tide in the morning. The wind died off to 8 knots from the stern and we were wallowing along at 3 knots. Well, not having anything to do with that, we cranked up the iron jib (engine) and motorsailed at 7 knots. We needed to charge batteries anyway and so it served a dual purpose. At about 5 a.m. this morning, with Tom and I on watch, we set the gennaker on a pole for a downwind deep broad reach. Our speed shot up to about 7-8. We rode it that way and waited for the wind to increase and back. It did both and we were able to move the pole forward and start broad reaching. So, this brought us back onto schedule for the early tide with a bar crossing at about 5-6 am at slack ebb.
>
> We just encountered an albacore fishing fleet of 6 boats out of San Diego. One of the crew on his vessel had participated in the Whitbread Around the World race in the 80's. The captain was impressed by Riva's speed as we sailed past at 8-10 knots and wished us luck.
>
> The spirit of the crew is very high. Almost giddy. They know today is the last day and they are on the helm, taking turns every 30 minutes. They want Riva to perform for them one last time, to get them safely into port. Tom and I are trying to get some shut-eye because we both know that the crew will stay awake all day and into the night in order to see the first lights on shore. So, someone has to be well rested and Tom and I will be the ones.
>
> We will have one more PacCup roll call tonight at 8 pm pacific time. We will bid the fleet farewell and fair sailing. We will have some more input into the blog as soon as we get back into town and are able to sort through all the pictures that we want to share with the blog followers. We have some fantastic pics and video.
>
> ETA approximately 0400 at the mouth.
>
> Dave
Friday, August 6, 2010
Next to the Last Day
> Hey everybody,
>
> We have a treasure trove of pictures and video that we will weed through and get posted to the blog as soon as we get back. So, all the text that has been going up will be supported with the pics that go with it.
>
> It is interesting at roll call everyday to see how the boats going to San Francisco are making out. Green Buffalo has done a great job conducting the radio net everyday. At first, they thought that we were going to San Francisco with them. Green Buffalo said that he had latitude envy as we were always 3-4 degrees latitude further north then they were. A couple of days ago, I mentioned that we were going to Astoria and then on to Portland. He then understood our continuing north far past the point where everyone else would have turned down towards the Golden Gate.
>
> Today is the next to the last day of our trip. The wind has died down to 14 knots, but more importantly and finally backed and we are on a beam reach doing a steady 8 knots. We have a full jib and a single reef in the main. Tom's watch shook out the second reef last night when our speed began to fall to around 7 knots and the wind abated.
>
> As we near the coast, it is interesting how the weather has changed. The water temperature is now 55 degrees. Night watches consist of temperatures in the low 50's with almost constant fog and mist. Everything on the deck is dripping wet from all the moisture. Hopefully this will help remove the salt encrustation that we accumulated while in the warmer weather. We now keep the hatch closed to try to keep it relatively dry below. One really beautiful aspect of the fog is that we get to experience fogbows in the mornings. Fogbows are like rainbows, but they are more of a whitish glow with pastel undertones. They don't have the brilliance of a rainbow formed by rainshowers. We think it's because of the size of the water droplets. We will try to find out why when we get home.
>
> We have seen nothing but birds out here. It is amazing that at the farthest point from land that is possible (in the world?) there are birds. There are these little fast ones that we called batbirds. There are very large brown ones that someone said could be albatrosses or shearwaters. We saw birds that flew backwards (it looked like some mating dance). And of course, we had dingy and his buddy camping out on the boat for a day or two.
>
> Yesterday was supposed to be a feast of pork tenderloins, scalloped potatoes, and broccoli. I opened the tenderloins and it was easy to decide that they were well past their prime. I hope fish like the other white meat because they were the recipients of a fine meal. So, instead we had chicken and mozzarella ravioli with a light sauce of garlic, onions, and stewed tomatoes. No complaints from the crew.
>
> Everybody is excited about our prospects of reaching our destination. We are currently on a track that should have us arriving at the Columbia River Bar at 1:00 a.m. on the morning of the 8th. I figure if we cross the bar at about 3:30 a.m., we should arrive at the dock at about 5:30 a.m. Once we have cell phone contact, we will let everyone know in real time.
>
> The Columbia River Bar is considered to be a piece of water that should be avoided when conditions are less than ideal. The entire Columbia River flows out through the mouth of the bar. On top of that flow, that area also experiences 9 foot tidal range. When you have a strong ebb (outgoing) tide the currents are strong enough to produce short period very steep waves that make it prudent to wait a couple of hours until the tide goes slack (period between tides). Our arrival time coincides with the beginning of a slack tide. Getting to the Bar any faster that we are proceeding would find us waiting for slack tide anyway. So, our present course and speed are just fine.
>
> We are still standing watches on Hawaiian Standard Time. This is convenient for watch purposes and for the daily radio roll call. What is nice is that I usually stand the 12 - 6 a.m. watch. Now the sun is rising at about 3 a.m. It makes it nice to have daylight for at least half of our watch. The crew have discussions now regarding our arrival time. Is it HST? or UTC? or PDT? I ignore them and will let them figure it out.
>
> Greg is still under the weather a bit. He is eating more now but doesn't have too much energy. I am not sure if it is the mal de mer or the teenager thing.
>
> We got the pancakes that Stephen didn't make yesterday. They are a great way to start the day out here.
>
> We will be there soon!!!!
>
> Dave
>
>
> Spirits are so high because we are coming to an end that nobody really cares to know the true time, haha. All we want to know is when are we going to see LAND. This trip has been amazing in all aspects. The conditions have been contrasting from day to day, the crew is still all safe and sound, and I personally have learned an enormous amount of sailing knowledge as well as other facts that i will keep with me an continue to use for life. We have all grown a bit on this trip and I believe will continue to speak with one another once the trip is completed. That was the biggest prediction that i was concerned about...whether or not i would drive these boys crazy over the span of the trip, haha. I am truly grateful of the experience and beleive it could not have gone better! Lots of love to everyone, and we'll see you all very soon!! Ryan
>
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
End day 11 Begin Day 12
> Hey everyone,
>
> August 4 brings a beautiful grib weather file that shows a nice 10-12 knots from the north. The idea was to close reach to 50 degrees and the wind was going to back and become a perfect broad reach to a run. Instead, we are in 17-20 knots from the north, are double reefed with the jib double reefed and are steering our way around the waves. I personally love it. The boat handles it easily and the bonus is that we are headed straight on our bearing to the Columbia River Bar and Astoria. All information we have shows a quickly backing wind by this evening. Gribs being what they are, we will have to see it to believe it.
>
> At 1:00 pm hst we were at 42n by 137d30m W and 620 miles out. Coming at you fast.
>
> I made a hearty breakfast this morning with a couple of no takers. We cleaned the main cabin and rearranged the sailbags. Much nicer.
>
> So, the plan is to keep pressing on. The wind IS backing. The seas will calm down.
>
> Planning on the 8th for hot showers and cold beer.
>
> Dave and crew
>
>
>
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Tuesday PM Update.....
0500
As we came out of the high pressure zone yesterday, we left behind a glassy sea with clear blue skies and headed into a nice breeze. Our hopes were high when we hit 9 knots in the right direction. Then, the wind began to clock towards our bow and we were soon in the position of having to decide whether to tack and go north or hold our course and head south of east. We tried both for short periods and north was the preferred course. We are currently on a course of 020 at 5.5 knots. The new grib file for 10am shows a wind lifting us to a decent course.
The weather is noticeably colder. We crossed of the latitude of the California/Oregon border, extended out 900 miles into the ocean, and declared ourselves to be officially in Oregon waters. True to form, the weather cooperated. The temperature dropped 20 degrees. The clouds covered the skies and turned the blues to grays. The rain fell in a light mist which dampened our clothes and skin. Just like home. Hopefully, the weather at home is better than this and we can enjoy some sun when we get there.
If the predictions hold true over the course of today, we plan on tacking back to a port tack and ride the northwesterly winds of 15-20 in to Astoria.
Shelly!!! Tom says, "DON'T (DO NOT) call the CG. We're doing fine."
Now, for the important stuff. Stephen, What's for breakfast?
The main cabin is a mess. As much as we try to keep it organized when the boat is heeled on port tack (the boat is leaning to the right), a tack onto starboard (the boat is leaning to the right) turns it into a personal gear jumbo. It looks like a clothes table at a flea market that has been extensively picked over. The galley is the only refuge for the OC's on the boat. It is cleaned constantly. Everything is in its place. The crew found out last night what happens when you leave things on the counter. Stephen and I tacked over from port to starboard to the cacophonous sounds coming from below. All manner of utensils and dishware adhered to Newton's Law of Gravity and found resting places at the lowest spot in the boat.
1100
The high seems to like us and is following us. The winds are shifty and we are trying to stay in phase with them by tacking at the proper times. We are hoping for the promised steady winds later this afternoon or evening. Then, we can recompute the ETA and have a target to aim for.
This item from Kerry Poe at North Sails of Oregon:
The most memorable experience for me was tight reaching in 20-30 knots with our asymmetric spinnaker in big swells while driving at night with no moon or stars. The only thing you could see and go by was the orange glow of the instruments. The driver being basically blind to the surroundings had to rely on wind angle, knot meter and boat speed. During my watch the three of us just started laughing about how crazy and surreal it was crashing through waves and surfing 24,000 lbs while not being able to see a thing except the instruments. While we were crashing around in the dark the other watch was down below trying to sleep. However, it is hard to sleep when the boat starts surfing. Down below while Riva surfed it sounded like the boat was being dragged through a gravel pit. Ear plugs became a very handy tool!
Riva usually flies symmetric spinnakers, however we decided that it would be worth taking a small rating hit and add a asymmetrical spinnaker to the inventory. That decision ended up proving to be a very good one since we used the asymmetric for several days with noticeable increase in performance. The other main sails we used were a spinnaker staysail and a 3DL main and 1.5oz symmetric spinnaker. The 3DL main and 1.5oz spinnaker have now crossed the Pacific ocean twice!
Monday, August 2, 2010
Latest update from the high seas: Monday AM
We started motoring yesterday afternoon and currently (0300 hst) are
motor sailing at 7.6k with a 0.5 knot helping current. We are
expecting the wind to fill in by this morning. Right now, it is 8.3
knots from 325 degrees and our Velocity Made Good (VMG) is great. The
grib files show a big header later this morning which should force us
to pick a tack, north or east, that will best get us in position to
jump onto our port reach to the Columbia River Bar. Our plan is to
stay close hauled in the lighter winds and gain ground to windward.
Then, when the wind backs, we can ease sheets, increase our speed, and
improve on our ETA. We have plenty of fuel left with 30 reserve, 24 on
deck, and 5/8 in the main tank. That's a total of approx. 84 gallons.
The crew are really doing great. While we are motoring, they are
playing cards, watching movies on the portable flat screen tv,
charging their Ipods, eating and sleeping.
I was on watch this morning and expecting increasing wind and seas. i
cleaned all the reaching running rigging of the deck, restowed all the
loose gear, poured the remaining 24 gallons of diesel into the main
tank, and stowed the jerry jugs below deck. So, the deck was clean
when the wind started to increase. At 5 a.m., the wind picked up
rapidly to 13 knots true. I turned the engine off and we started close
reaching at 7-8 knots. The seas are growing from dead calm to about
3-4 feet presently. Riva handles them very well. She is well balanced
on the helm and the crew now vie for turns at the helm.
The Nobletec software is predicting an ETA of 8/7 around noon. With
940 miles left to go as of 7:30 a.m. hst, I am reluctant to say yet
that that will be our arrival time.
The new updated grib shows weather completely different that what we
are experiencing. We seem to be rapidly entering the area of
compressed isobars along the west coast. We exited the low wind part
of the high about 12 hours earlier than a previous grib file had
predicted. So, I think the lesson to be learned regarding grib files
is that you can rely on todays weather to be similar to what the file
is representing. However, beyond that, you need to try to figure it
out based on the weather in the vicinity of your vessel.
Stephen is making bacon and pancakes to the wild reviews of the hungry
crew. We are making great time. We will keep in touch and looking
forward to seeing you all very soon.
As of 3 pm hst (6 pm west coast) our position should be 40 N by 142 W.
This would put us in Oregon waters!!!!! Yeah!!!! Only we would be
about 850 miles offshore.
Later,
Dave
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Halfway Party a Huge Success
Speaking of crew, did you know that we have a collective 75 years of living on Guam (PULL). This has been a reunion for a lot of us. On Guam (PULL) we were all water people. We spear fished, dove, sailed, fished, and were generally in the water as much as possible. Tom's kids grew up on the water, living aboard the boat that he built, a 38 foot Airex core FRP cutter. My kids were also born and raised on Guam (PULL) and learned how to snorkel, scuba dive by 10 yrs. old, and sail whenever they had a chance. They all have great stories to tell and it is great hearing it from their perspective.
The weather gribs have been frustrating but we are pointing in the right direction.
Cheers, The Rowdy Riva Revelers
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Interesting exchange between Dave and our professional weather router.
By going rhumb line to Astoria, I calculated that we would have to motor approx. 300 nm to get across the bottom of the high and into the northerly coastal flow east of the high. Riva is an excellent upwind boat and I took that into consideration when making my decision. It looks like the first winds we find will be from the NE quad and I would then make a decision to proceed on starboard or port tack, whichever will be favored. If all else fails, we would be positioned to beam reach into a port on the Oregon coast to resupply and refuel.
Presently, all the information we have shows that we should be in pretty calm air. We are presently at 1745 gmt we were at 36d39m N and 148d48 W proceeding at 7 knots under sail with wind of 8-10 knots from 150d T. As I thought we may be motoring at this time, having this wind is good for our progress and the morale is high with the crew. Our fuel situation is that we have approximately 90 gallons with a range of about 540 miles at 6 knots.
Any information that you could give us to improve on our decision would be very gratefully appreciated. This high seems to be very finicky and having a hard time getting consolidated.
Again, thank you for your help.
Dave Moran
Scott/Dave, understand your concern about fuel and sailing in the NE winds. We have found that the most efficient route out of Hawaii and to the US west coast is toward the center of the high then E in N-NW winds. This moveable high makes the routing much more difficult. We try to get you to a point far enough N and W that you can remain in favorable wind directions for this entire leg.
Summary…
1) the NE Pac high pressure is currently centered near 40N/140W and is fairly strong at 1031MB
a) into the beginning of next week, low pressure organizes over the S Aleutian Islands and moves into the E Bering Sea
b) in reaction to this, the NE Pacific high works it’s way further W
c) to be centered from 40-50N along 145W by midday on the 2nd
d) this high will continue to slide to the W during the 3rd and 4th, as the low in the Bering Sea is also pulled westward by a more complex low that develops N of Japan
3) by the evening of the 5th, the high is forecast to be centered near 43N/150W
a) with N to NW winds forecast between the center of the high and the Oregon coast
Routing…
1) routed you between 150-160 nm/day from your 1745utc position today toward 45N/145W
a) to remain on the W side of the center of the high in lightening and clocking SE to S to SSW winds
b) and away from the NNE to NE winds along the E side of the high
2) once you reach 45N/145W, you can head generally E toward Astoria along the E to ENE side of the high in building N to NW winds
a) expect you will get into some light air for around 400 nm as you approach the center of the high during the 2nd and the 3rd and then begin E from near 45N/145W
Wind forecasts
Wind directions are TRUE, wind speed in kts, and time is UTC
Sun, Aug 1
00: 150-170/8-10
12: 160-180/6-10 nr 38 30N/147 50W
Weather…Variably cloudy with chc of isolated showers/squalls
Seas 2-3ft
Mon, Aug 2
00: 170-190/5-10
12: 180-200/5-10 nr 41 10N/146 40W
Weather…Variably cloudy with chc of isolated showers/squalls
Seas 2-3ft
Tue, Aug 3
00: bcmg light and variable
12: bcmg 080-100/5-10 nr 43 40N/145 30W
Weather…Variably cloudy with chc of isolated showers/squalls
Seas 2-3 ft
Wed, Aug 4 – heading mainly E on rhumbline to Astoria
00: light and variable
12: light and variable nr 45N/144W
Weather…Variably cloudy
Seas 2-3ft, light NE swell
Thu, Aug 5
00: light and variable
12: bcmg 350-010/6-12 nr 45 30N/140 30W
Weather…Variably to mostly cloudy
Seas building to 4-6ft by later in the day with building NW-N swell
Fri, Aug 6
00: 340-360/8-14
12: 330-350/15-22 nr 45 50N/136 40W
Weather…Variably to mostly cloudy
Seas building to 5-7ft during the day, NW-N swell
A tough call by the delivery crew:
Day 6 is coming to a close and we made a decision to change tactics. After studying the 500mb charts and the gribs for the next 8 days, I have made the decision to alter course and go below the high emerging on the NE corner as it fractures and forms an E-W ridge at 45N. This has been a tough decision because it goes against all the conventional wisdom of heading north. However, the 48-50 latitude in a week looks downright lousy. We would have great winds for a couple of days and it would die out and leave us floundering to the finish. By going south of the high, I hope to motor if necessary to get in position to broad reach to the CRB. I know Peter is going to lose sleep over this. Sorry, Peter.
Our position at 3 pm hst on 7/30 is 36d13m N by 150d19m W.
Scott and Stephen made breakfast this morning of bacon and pancakes. Great job! It got everyone going.
Every other day, we put on our harnesses and grab the bucket. We start at the front of Riva and give it a good salt water rinsing. It is amazing how thick the coating of salt becomes after a couple of days. We could scrape it off and get enough to use for cooking (actually, we are running out of salt and may have to resort to our deck supply).
We have inventoried our water and fuel and we are in good shape. We have used about 30 gallons of water out of one tank and have tank #2 in reserve. Fuel is also in good shape. We have about 3/4 of the main tank, 30 gal reserve tank, and 36 gals on deck. We have run the engine for 42 hours at 1200 rpm when sailing and at 1800 rpm when we need to motorsail. The fuel consumption curve appears to confirm our burn rate.
We just saw a tuna boil and Ryan and I saw a huge fish jump 10 feet out of the water chasing another fish. We think it may have been a large tuna or maybe a billfish. We are dragging lines hoping for something a lot smaller.
Riva is so smooth through the water. We have been sailing all night at 8-9 knots on a beam reach in 10 knots of apparent wind. The seas are very calm which I think is due to our proximity to the high. Whenever we drop below 8 knots, it seems as though we are not moving. However, we put almost one hundred miles good toward home overnight. That was a real morale booster to the crew. I did caution them that the elation may be short lived as we move into very dead air later tonight and possibly for the next 2-3 days. We don't plan on motoring until the boat speed is below 4 knots. It doesn't pay a good dividend to motor if you are sailing as it does not give you the best bang for your buck. So, as long as we are plugging we won't be chugging.
Dave
Hey everyone! Well as you know, we changed course and are now heading straight for Portland. I hope it pays off. We still have not found the cake mix. We just saw a HUGE sea turtle swimming in the ocean. It was really cool. Our wind is keeping us moving at about 6-8 knots and we are heading for home now. Hope everyone out there is doing good!
Signing off Greg
I think most of the details have already been said by Dave and Greg so I don't have too much to talk about... It feels really good to be moving toward home even if the wind is going to lighten up. we are projecting crossing the halfway point tonight or tomorrow which means brownies with frosting! (since we can't find the fabled cake mix). Greg and Dave are up on deck now trying to squeeze every bit of boat speed out of the 8-9kts of wind that they can, keeping the boat speed around 7-7.5kts. Gonna lather up with sunscreen and go see if I can help. Miss you all a bunch, see you all soon!
Scott out!
I want brownies, an to taste the other wine i was given by a girlfriend of mine in Hawaii. I promised myself not to drink until the half way point and i feel healthy as a fox. That's all i have to chime in fer the current moment. cheers to all!
Ryan signing off
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Halfway ahead!!!
WHO:
Event Coordinator: Scotty VB.
Music Coordinator: Dr. Greggy D.
Entertainment Director: Stephen J.
Healthy Meals Specialist: Ryan T.
Foredeck Breakdance Demonstrator: Tommy T.
Transportation and Lodging: Prof. Diesel Dave
Guam...Pull
WHAT:
HALFWAY PARTY
WHEN:
Saturday, July 31, at 4:30 p.m. Hawaiian Standard Time
WHERE:
SAILING VESSEL RIVA
37 DEGREES 11 MINUTES NORTH
147 DEGREES 37 MINUTES WEST
WHY? IF YOU HAVE TO ASK, DON'T COME.
RSVP VIA SAILGUAM@YAHOO.COM WHICH WILL RELAY TO US
Expected weather will be partly cloudy with a beautiful sea breeze of 10 knots from the Southeast. Light jackets are recommended.
SEE YOU THERE!!!!!!"
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Delivery crew update
Date: July 28, 2010 6:01:00 PM
Hi everyone. The wind has gone very light at 6-8 knots true from 145deg. Our heading is 024T. So at least we have a little angle to work the chute. Stephen has been trimming for a couple of hours, sitting in the shade of the main and working hard to keep the boat moving. Riva's speed is close or better than the apparent wind speed, but still only averaging 5.5-6 knots. We got the commander weather! Thanks Scott. It confirmed for us that we had the correct strategy to head for the 40/150 position and then get new info for the next major decision. We motored all night at 6 knots and this morning the wind increased to 6-8. We set the gennaker and finally are making decent progress. Fuel conservation is very important. We need two days at least to get across the dead air zone which should begin at 40N and extend up to 45/46N. Hopefully we can have some fully charged low pressures to accelerate us to the finish at the Columbia River (Cape Disappointment). I don't think the crew will be disappointed at all. It is cool that they now watch the instruments and the ocean. Scott is talking to the spinnaker trimmer about whitecaps and wind angles. They are trying to get the most out of the light wind and are doing a good job of it. We are not fishing due to the 4 pounds of fish we already have in the fridge. Something severed our lure with the steel leader. I assume it had sharp teeth because the cut on the steel was pretty clean.
How is the blog going? We have been getting emails that say there is nothing on it. Scott, do you want me to post directly to it? I definitely have the time. Mary is forwarding all our emails to friends everywhere which is very cool. Everything is working fine. Autopilot is great and keeps us on perfect track. Stephen wants to break out the racing chutes (that's Stephen for you) but the gennaker is doing great and I see no need for complicating matters with only a couple of us that really know how to set/control/take down a full spinnaker when the conditions become gnarly. The reefer went up to 38 deg and we found that the thermostat had dropped out. It's back in, but the plate temp had gone down to -18 in the meantime. It's still recovering 2 hrs later.
The wind picked up at 1100 to about 10-12knots True from with an AWA of 115 deg. Boat speed now at 7.5-9.5.
Our 3pm hst position is 32 10 by 154 57.
Captain and Commander Dave out.
Today has been a frustrating day because of the lack of wind. Stephen has put his whole day and night into the chute to keep the boat moving, it seems to be working, we'll look up at the gauges and often see boat speeds above the apparent wind speed! Fortunately the weather is great, we are trying to get under some clouds for much needed shade. Spirits are high but everyone is tired. Keeping our fingers crossed for more wind! That's all for now, miss you all, see you soon!
Signing out Scott
Aloha world!! We have managed to get some exercise by pumping the geneker, and i am learning more an more everyday! I am having a blast just cruising out here with the boys, and have completely settled into this relaxing lifestyle. Hope everyone is healthy an happy and we'll see you soon!
Cheers, Ryan
The wind just now picked up and we are moving at about 8 or 9 knots with Stevieboy on the spinnaker. The weather is really sunny and very hot, so we made a little fort with bed sheets to protect us from those harmful rays. There are whitecaps now and we are starting to move faster as I type. Other than all of that, we've just been playing cards and messing around. Lets see if we can break our current speed record for this trip (currently 9.9 I think). I hope everyone is having a good time. See you guys soon!
Singing out Greg
Sunday, July 25, 2010
The delivery crew leaves Hawaii at 1600 Saturday
This note from Dave shortly after departure yesterday:
"Wow, we are finally underway. We check off everything on the list that we had down plus some extra little items we thought of at the last second. It sure is a good feeling to cast off, knowing that you have done everything possible to make for a safe journey. The boys are quiet up on deck taking in the scenery of Northern Oahu. We are currently close-hauled with 17 knots apparent with a heading of 025T degrees over ground. I hear things rolling around in the cabinets that I have to find and secure, but other than that, all is well."
Friday, July 23, 2010
Last diesel dock before Astoria....
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Standings

I met with the race committee to check the math on the finish as well as the procedures for documentation. They have good numbers. It's always worth checking when we are seperated from third place by 6 minutes over a 10+ day race!!
We are getting Riva ready for the trip back to Astoria. Dave Moran and his crew of 5 including his two excellent sailor sons will be bringing her back. Estimated time is 17 days.
To get back it is necessary to head north for quite a while, to get around the same Pacific high pressure area that gave us the wind to get to Hawaii in the first place. Problem is that high moves around a bit.
The wind circles the high pressure zone clockwise (counter clockwise slouth of the equator.)
It a huge factor in racing in the Pacific Cup. Before and during the race, all eyes are on the formation of that high pressure zone and lots of speculation on where the edge will be. It is the edge of the zone that has the wind we want. The inside of the high is the dead wind zone.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
Fessing up:
One small note in the interest of accurate reporting:
The "helicopter shot" is what we call a "photo illustration."
Fake.
Yep. Fooled ya.
But it really FELT like that!
Monday Update

One reason this bar is well known is the number of times sailors say " and I'll buy you a drink at the Kaneohe bar, the implication is that it takes a ton of determination, perseverance, suffering, danger, and time to get there .
We have some great video and additional pictures to post but we are working through some darn technical issues. Check back, we expect to post throughout this week.
Race standings: are slow to come out, boats are still finishing, here's our best info so far.
Division C, our division, is being described on the PacCup web site this way:
"The real battle, however, is found in Division C. The five top boats are separated by less than eight hours in predicted time. Any error, or a spinnaker wrap, or failed gear, can drop a boat from one to seven or more places. The racers are finishing as this is written. Current results are posted on the website."
We are in a battle for third place by a scoring difference of 6 MINUTES - for an 11 DAY RACE!!!
We think the scoring is off, but we will see.
More info later.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
How big was that boat??
Yacht Club. Notice how small some of the other finishers are?? As small as 24 feet! Makes Riva look like a cruise ship!
Landfall
We will be posting more as we can get awake and some daylight!!!
Saturday, July 17, 2010
100 miles to go...
We just made our 100 mile call in to the race base station at Kanahoe Yacht Club, via Single sideband radio.
While we're on the subject of time:
The boat runs on PDT until we cross the finish, then our world world will lurch 3 hours earlier further messing with our internal clocks. We have been on a watch system that divides the crew into two groups, either capable of running the boat, with all hands on deck in case of something hairy.
We are running 3 hour shifts from 6PM to 6AM, and 4 hour shifts from 6AM to 6PM. The odd number of three hour shifts during the night means that the crews alternate schedules every day.
Shifts are Kerry, Dave, and Chris, with Scott, Steve Nelson and Dale on the other. We meant to float the 4th man but we were too rummy the first couple of of days out, and by then it seemed like we should leave it be!
It's pretty interesting to step out of the world of normal time, and into a whole different set up. I'ts great to be up in the middle of the night, lots of solitude and stars. And it's kind of refreshing to sleep during the day - which we have to do to get required hours of sleep in. Maybe the whole world oughta switch to that.
Once we cross the finish line we will be met by a race committee escort boat. I think it's about an hour to get through the Sampan channel to Kanahoe Bay and to the Yacht Club Docks.
Once we get cell service we will begin posting pictures to the blog.
Stay tuned for our finish!!!
Scott
PS Caught 2 Mahi-Mahi last evening. What an amazing coloration in real life.
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Friday, July 16, 2010
369 miles to the finish, bearing 216 magnetic.
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Thursday, July 15, 2010
Surfing - How does that work?
Normal maximum hull speed for Riva is about 9 knots under full sail with big wind. Fully powered up.
A lot of people think that is really slow. But when you are a couple of feet from the hull cutting through the water, heeling over at 25 degrees, spray and wake everywhere, it feels like you are screaming along faster than anything motorized going ten times faster. All wind and water sound, no engine. A total thrill ride.
Surfing the hull is a whole other thing.
Imagine all of the above, but add waves anywhere from 5 to 10 feet tall, or taller. A huge mass of water, rolling toward the stearn of the boat, with a steep face that presents itself to the back of the boat. The stern rises noticeably, quickly, and if the helmsman has enough speed by powering up with the wind angle, the hull literally breaks loose from the normal physics of the water and slides down the wave face, exactly like a surfboard. Only this surfboard is 46 feet long and weighs 24,000 pounds. We watch the speed indicator go up from 9 knots to 11, 14, 16 knots on a regular basis. We have had many 17 knots bursts. Kerry set the record day before yesterday with 18.2 knots. When this is happening the sensation below decks is amazing. Dave describes it as a continuously increasing sound of the rush of the water, the vibration of the hull (it hums), and the water flying by the window. Usually when we get a particularly fast or long one, a whoop goes out among the crew, and someone shouts out "seventeen two!"
To be at the back of the boat watching the bow dip far below eye level, then surge forward, is definitely an amazing experience.
Surfing doesn't really happen that often. Riva has been ocean racing for 8 years offshore. Washington and Oregon coast, Strait of Juan de Fuca, and including one prior Pacific Cup. We have surfed more this race than all others added together. We have basically been stringing one small or large surf together one after the other for at least three days now. Pretty cool.
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Thursday race results
The race committee is projecting our arrival at 10AM Sunday.
Our navigation software is projecting arrival on Saturday about 2PM.
We will be in the first wave of boats to make the harbor.
Today is:
Hot.
Awesome.
Dialed in.
Going very well.
Winds 20-25 knots.
The boat is Surfing constantly. 12 to 14. Occasionally 16.
We have not been able to post pictures, but we will as soon as we make landfall - actually probably on the way into the harbor. Satellite phone has been not workable for picture transmission. Baud rate is 19,000. Remember your old 54K modem. No wonder.
More later.
SC
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Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Job descriptions
The helmsman steers the boat. This duty usually rotates among the crew because of the concentration it requires, especially in big seas and heavy winds. A common shift is a half-hour to an hour at the helm.
The pit crew runs the lines which control the spinnaker pole, the halyards which raise the sails,and the lines (sheets)that control the sides of the spinnaker, jib and mainsail. These guys relax in the cockpit until all hell breaks loose. They fix it then go back to relaxing.
The foredeck crew. These are the bad boys of the sail crew. They may have to climb the mast at night to retrieve a lost halyard(on a harness and safety line.)Foredeck crew have to be prepared to take a wave over the bow. They need to be fast on their feet because the bow moves around more than any other part of the boat. They almost always are tethered to the boat by a safety line, especially at night. These guys are tough and strong. They better be. The conditions are among the toughest.
The navigator. Uses GPS and electronic charting to determine location and course.
The tactician focuses on race strategy considering the course, the conditions, and the competition.
Lots of these jobs are mashed together on a recreational race like the Pacific Cup. On a single handed sailboat, one person does them all!
Other jobs:
The galley chef. Gotta eat!
The electrical engineer. Monitoring electrical generation and consumption.
The sanitation engineer. (Plumbing does not always work.)
In an ideal situation, the culture of the crew is a very positive. Everyone jumps in to help if something needs to be done. There are good problem solving skills. There are good people skills, and conflicts can be resolved quickly and constructively. And everyone works to improve their skills on a regular basis.
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Wednesday Update.
Today is kind of a lazy day. Sea state is down, wind is down. I wish we had about 5 to 10 knots more wind, although we are getting 20+ now. But the wind is up and down.
We are out of foulies and into shorts. Lots of rain squalls passing through, creating interesting variation in the wind direction and speed.
Low on diesel, we are conserving electricity. May shut down the reefer tomorrow.
We have plenty of non-perishables.
We are ranked in the middle of the pack for our division, yet we could jump up considerably any day. It is close.
We like our decisions so far. We report our positions at the 10 AM roll call, then at 5PM the rankings that incorporate the individual vessel ratings are announced.(on the sideband radio)
Everyone got a shower/cleanup yesterday, that was REALLY nice. About time.
No dang fish yet. Might not need that wasabi.
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Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Tuesday update:
Deception has seawater leaking through the rudder bearing, taking on about 20 gallons per hour. Bailing.
Rhumb Boogie has broken their backstay mount. That is the attachment point for the wire that holds the mast up at the back of the boat. They are jury-rigging.
Trial Run has a crack in their gooseneck. That is the junction between the boom and the mast. Have doused their mainsail and proceeding under jibs alone.
California Condor had two rudders, one broke. Not redundant, so they are jiggering.
Most of these boats have yet to withdraw from the race, but they are compromised.
Also ur friend Jeff Duvall(from Portland)on Bequia is returning to San Francisco after a rudder failure. They are proceeding back to San Francisco under emergency back up rudder. (We are all required to carry one.) We will miss seeing Jeff at the finish.
This damage is not uncommon is a Pacific race with good wind and larger wave conditions, especially with all of us pushing our boats to the limit for speed.
Riva is in pretty good shape. We continue to have energy problems and are about to shut down the refrigeration. Not a biggie, but it will change our menu! Water is holding out. We have to open up the reserve diesel tank today to see what remains there. We budget for a certain amount of consumption. Every gallon charges our batteries for an hour. Every gallon weighs 8 pounds, so we take a conservative estimate of what we think we will need. Not more.
It probably seems ironic that a 25,000 lb sailboat would worry about excess weight, but the weight of the boat is incorporated into our rating. Random additions above that are not.
We had some rudder bearing problems yesterday, with seawater entering through the bearing and the hull. Only about 4 oz though, and it has stopped. Using our emergency satellite phone, we called Steve Rander at Schooner Creek boatyard in Portland, and got some advice on this. Made us feel better.
I'm thinking the problem is probably due to the huge load on these parts as we reach. That means the wind is coming at us at a 90 degree angle. It is a more stressful point of sail.(On the hardware. But on us too!) We are now on a "Run" - wind coming at us from the stern. Much better. Boat is level not heeled over. Perceived wind on deck is much less because we are going with it. So it's warmer. Should now be a run to the finish.
Riva made 226 miles yesterday. We also crossed the half way point at about 7:30 this morning. That means 1040 done, 1040 to go. We are a long ways from dirt. (Except below decks.)Tradition calls for something special to celebrate. We are all REALLY looking forward to the one beer we had designated for this.
It is 20,000 feet deep here. The sea is the most amazing dark blue color, about the same dark blue as Riva.
We are fishing, but not catching yet. Dragging a hand line.
A squid jumped up on deck, forgot to take a picture of it. There are flying fish out here, we are waiting for one to come aboard. Helmsmen (not us yet) have reported getting hit in the face by big ones.
Water temp is up to 65, up from 50 in SF.
Thanks for the notes too all the crew, forwarded from Scott.campbell@columbian.com. Send more! It is great to hear from you.
Thanks for all you family people and friends who encourage us to pursue our adventures, we miss you. We think we return appreciating home even more than usual.
PS Rowland Thompson I am looking for your boat.
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Monday, July 12, 2010
Monday update
Actually, that sounds worse than it was.
A crash jibe is when the wind gets behind the mainsail and fills it from the other side, causing the whole boom and sail to crash over to the opposite side of the boat. This is bad. It is hard on the equipment. Worst case is if it happens to catch a crew member on the way over. Usually crash jibes are controlled by careful helmsmanship and also by a "preventer" which is rigged to hold the main in place even it it does fill from the wrong side.
In our case, it grabbed the binnacle, which is the equipment pedestal directly in front of the helm (Steering wheel), it includes the compass, engine throttle, and radar head. and tore it off. On lots of sailboats this can rip out the whole steering system. That is a really big problem.
But no! upon examination it turns out this is designed to be less catastrophic than is could have been, because the steering stuff is separated from all that. So we picked it up off the floor of the cockpit, put it back on, and we are back in business! Mostly! Sure looked bad, though.
This all happened at 3AM while the entire crew was up dealing with rough seas, big winds and a spinnaker change.
No crew were in the way, we are all pretty alert about staying out of the way of that possibility, thankfully. But we had not yet set our preventer. Rough seas compounded the problem, waves on the quarter push the back of the boat in places the steerer does not want it.
Anyway, glad we got through that.
In other news:
It is raining. But the rain is warmer than back home!
We only escaped our foul weather gear for one day so far on this trip, that was a few days ago. We are living in our foulies, and it don't smell too good.
We are now in direct downwind mode, so the wind has clocked around to be directly from behind us. That is what we have been waiting for. We are surfing the boat almost constantly now. Kerry hit 18.1 knots early this morning, that is the speed record for the boat. I hit 16.3. Steve hit 16.9. Dave had 16.4.
This is as much fun as there is in ocean sailing.
We are making great progress, we made to 200+ mile days back to back.
Our standings started at 7th in our division, moved to 5th, then 4th. We are climbing up the rankings and expect that we will continue to do that.
The crew is happy, working extremely well together,and we are all looking forward to sunny days in the sailing days ahead, as well as seeing you all again!
SC
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Sunday, July 11, 2010
What is a round up?
This is all quite dramatic, but usually there is no damage. We are now sailing in swells coming from our starbosrd(right)quarter. Wind speed is 28 knots. We have a reefed (Shortened to reduce area) mainsail and an asymmetrical spinnaker flying. This sail is specialized for the wind conditions we are in.
We are setting speed records on Riva. 2 miunutes ago Dave hit 16.6 knots as we surfed down a wave for about 25 seconds. Most of us have hit 14+ knots. It is a rare thrill on a sailboat. It feels crazy fast.
We are gearing up for our 10:00 roll call. We expect this 24 hour period to be our best yet. We have been sailing at 9 and 10 knots with frequent bursts much higher.
This is physically demanding, controlling the helm in these conditions requires intense concentration. All crew are doing extremely well, lots of big smiles even though we are back to being in our wet foul weather gear and the skys are cloudy.
We are looking forward to more sunshine, and for the wind and swells to clock back to more directly behind us. Sailing will be easier, more comfortable then. Maybe tomorrow.
Scott
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Saturday, July 10, 2010
Riva is surfing waves under her first spinnaker of the race..
Late breaking: Kerry just hit 13.4
SC
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Short update
Last night the clouds broke and: A MILLION STARS!!!
I had forgotten how incredible the view is out here. Milky Way is everywhere.
The ocean has phosphorescence in it, so it glows as it is stirred up by our hull passing through water. It looks like we are gliding on a glowing carpet.
We are screaming along in lumpy seas at max speed upwind, about 9 knots. This will be a good day for speed. These are ideal conditions for Riva relative to her competitors.
SC
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Friday, July 9, 2010
The daily roll call....
This happens every day at 9AM. The entire fleet of 70 boats tunes into channel 4146 for the morning's business. First is any emergency communication. There was one this morning - a J30 that had to withdraw from the race due to severe electrical problems. They went back.
The there is a roll call where every one of us has to announce their latitude and longitude position as of 8AM that morning. Most everyone records this data. We can then plug it into s special program that draws out our relative position to each other's boat.
Here's Dave and I doing this morning's roll call:
(This is also a test to see if the picture will transmit over the satellite phone.)
We have a solution..
We also found a drain hole that was leaking cold out of the reefer. Plugged it.
We have also re inventoried our supplies and loaded the back end with the non perishables, This is mostly how we had it organized anyway, but we have confidence now in our game plan. That will let us focus more on sailing fast!!
Currently sailing at almost 8 knots. Excellent conditions, like a day sail with the family. A dramatic difference from our 2006 race where we got beat up for two days in huge wind and wave conditions, including one wave that pooped on the crew at 3 AM. (That means it broke into the cockpit right on top of the crew, kind of a seawater bomb.) I happened to be off watch at that time. So was Dale. Thank you for taking that one Wylie, Nelson,Jim,Lane,Joe,and Bob!
Misc notes:
Ocean temp was 50 degrees on day one, now up to 55.
Clarity of water is awesome, turning to an amazing dark blue.
We may fish for Ahi tuna today, they are near.
SC
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3:32 AM Friday
We are settled into our watches. We have 4 guys on my watch, three on the other. We are working on some kind of a rotation system to even that out, but not yet implemented.
We are technically in seventh place in our division, which is not great, but that is only after one day of racing. Riva doesn't much like the light wind we have had, so some of the other boats had advantage. There are at least ten more racing days, lots of time to jostle.
Every one of these voyages inevitably has a bug or two. right now ours is fighting our energy consumption. Seems like our refrigeration and freezing system has a problem. It wants to run for 6 hours a day. Should be one or two. This means we are having to charge with the engine alternator for twice the time we expected, thus burning twice the diesel. Problem is at that rate we will run out about 2/3 rds across. This is an example of one of the tech challenges. It is part of the race, and how we choose to creatively solve this - and any other of the problems we will face, will determine if we win or lose. Kind of like life. But sailing life!
We expect to be shedding our foul weather gear as things get more tropical. Not yet, it's still chilly and damp at night. Gore tex will go, t shirts will replace.
Thanks everyone for following this blog, we have hundreds of followers. We will try to update as much as possible. Still working to see if we can get a low res picture through the system to the blog, it is not too easy.
If you want to get a message to us, feel free to email it to scott.campbell@columbian.com. I will have it forwarded to us.
Bye for now.
Scott
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Thursday, July 8, 2010
Update via Single Sideband Radio...
We can see about 5 of the boats we started with, the fleet is not spreading out that much, because of the light wind. This was expected and predicted by our forecaster,we will be sailing into much better wind soon.
We are getting settled into our routines, life out here has a very pleasant rhythm, and it is coming together nicely.
Whales all over the place yesterday, and phosphorescence is making the sea look very cool.
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Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Golden Gate in the rear view mirror.
Docked....
The St. Francis Yacht Club right nea rthe golden gate bridge. Race starts in 1 hr 15 min...








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