Peregrine Transpac

THE PARTY - 2am July 24

2007-07-31T10:43:00.001-07:00

The PACIFIC Yacht club threw a smashing party for the Peregrine. Nick Reingold was one of the many guests and provided the following photos of the crew's arrival in Honolulu:

Departing the ship.

Up the Gangplank.

Simon, Nigel, Jeff & Andy.

3rd for Division 6 official standings - first boat to arrive for Division 6

2007-07-31T08:11:00.000-07:00

For those that want the details, visit: http://www.transpacificyc.org/
click on the 'July 29 Final Standings' to see that Peregrine was listed as offiical 3rd for Division 6.
But they arrived FIRST so we think of them as the winners (we are biased).
Click on "Daily Arrivals" to see pictures of the Peregrine Crew on arrival in Honolulu.

We had a LOOOOOOONG trip back from Hawaii (but of course, not as long as their trip there).
More details later.
Tama for the Peregrine crew.

They are in cell phone range!

2007-07-23T21:02:00.000-07:00

The Peregrine was within 100miles from the finish around 1:30pm today.

Just heard from Navigator Westbrook. They expect to cross the finish line around 2am and land in Hawaii around 3am. Nick Reingold is hoping to be there for the big 'landing'. I (Tama) am flying out tomorrow and so will be missing the big event. But we are sure that our friends at the Pacific Yacht club have a grand reception planned!

A lot of photos and stories will be coming soon!

Arriving Tuesday morning - 2 am

2007-07-23T21:01:00.000-07:00

We are within 150 miles of the finish, poking along in light morning breeze towards Molokai and the finish off Diamond Head. Yesterday, the stove broke, so we've been reduced to salads and "ice" coffee. We added more miles on the Cal 40's overnight, but still not enough. If only we had two more days of racing. Except then we'd still be racing.

Beautiful moon and stars last night, with a brief squall after dawn that we exited stage left as per the instruction manual.

See everyone soon!!

5 days to shore

2007-07-23T20:58:00.000-07:00

Friday: "Being Not for the Benefit of Mr. Kite."
The day was sticky with light showers as we approached what we think was a frontal zone between the warm moist tropical air being rotated up from the South around tropical storm Cosme and the drier air of the Pacific high. As night approached, we penetrated a squall line and the winds began to build. At first we were excited, since we'd resolved to sail aggressively to try and get ahead of the Cal 40's. So we left the big spinnaker up. The first squall was great, with Nigel at the helm as 27-28K winds began driving us through the water at 12K. In complete darkness, Andy took us through the second with precision at top speed of 15K, water shooting past the gunwales on either side like a firehose. Then it was Jeff's turn on the helm. The breeze picked up to 30+ knots, and we hit 16.5K. Then we wiped out. No problem, ease the sheets, boat comes up, off we go again. Then we wiped out again. This time, the spinnaker sheet got tangled over the back of the mainsail boom, and in trying to get it free, the wildly flopping kite got nicked on the mast or something, and quickly ripped itself to shreds. We dropped it down, poled out a blast reacher, and motored directly down the great circle, rather chastened.

WEEK 2 News from the Peregrine: Day 8, 9, 10 and 11

2007-07-19T11:58:00.000-07:00

They are sailing on in! Here is the recent news from the Peregrine:

Monday:
When we got down to 24N, we hit some good breeze and turned the boat west. She began surfing down waves, getting the crew all excited, and they couldn't be deterred from heading west all day, even though there was a tropical storm approaching from the south that would bring more breeze to our course if we just headed down to it. The result, we ended up sneaking back into the lower part of the still troublesome Pacific high, and ran out of speed.

Tuesday:
Turned south in light breezes and fought our way back down to 23N, once again just sneaking in ahead of the CAL 40's. The last of the frozen spaghetti was inspected, sniffed, and tossed.

Major catastrophe on Wednesday:
Jeff lost the toilet overboard. We're traveling light, so the toilet was only a large plastic bucket, but it's not the cash value that concerns us. A broadcast was made on ship-to-ship channel 4A warning all vessels in the vicinity to be on guard for a partially submerged PVC container labeled "Shit".

Thursday:
Trade winds continue to build. We're now getting 20K regular breeze and surfing down long rollers at a top speed achieved (by your humble correspondent) of 14.7K, accompanied by a yell of "yikes!" 14K seems like a lot of speed for one's bedroom.Our VMG (velocity made good to Hawaii) is finally coming up, and we anticipate arrival in around 96 hours (sometime on Monday). It's a drag race to the finish. At this point, a feat of magic would be required to beat the cal 40's in our division, who have motored down the course beautifully.We were sighted by a 60 footer from the Thursday start, Topango, who jibed to port and slid down to leeward to inspect us. The took some photos of us, we took some photos of them, we chatted on the VHF radio, and they powered off over the horizon.

Day 6: Message from the Peregrine

2007-07-16T09:59:00.000-07:00

Fresh from the Peregrine:

It's Sunday! We've been sailing for almost a week, and only now are we beginning to see signs of the developing trade winds.The boats in the later starting groups, having the benefit of better initial breezes, are roaring up our tails, but we are still fighting hard within our division, against the cannily sailed Brilliant and the tough Cal40's Far Far and Psyche, who are shooting around behind us to the south.

Last night we drank our last two cans of Tecate, the excuse being it was Saturday night and if we didn't drink them now, they wouldn't be cold anymore. The rum is also going mysteriously fast. Is someone a secret off-watch grog tippler? Perhaps.

We continue to eat well and stay healthy, and the boat is a dental hygenist's dream. The crew appears to be egging each other on in a kind of flossing contest. Strands of used floss are caught in the rigging and flutter like fairies in the night. Yesterday we were visited by an albatross, and today we saw two tiny birds fluttering above the waves, only to realize they were flying fish. Cool! Love from all to all.

Mail from the Peregrine - Days 2, 3 and 4

2007-07-13T11:32:00.000-07:00

Today we received the mail from the Peregrine summarizing days 2, 3 and 4 of the race:

Tuesday: Day 2
Like Ernest Shackleton once wrote... "South!" We are driving south like crazy, to avoid a high pressure system containing light headwinds that lies right on the direct path to Hawaii. We plan to come around underneath it and head down to the strong winds of the trades. Weather is gloomy and the wind is off the nose, so we are beating down the course.

Over the evening radio call, other boats report dining on sushi and stroganoff. We have a delicious meal of spagetti, followed by dried pineapple of an almost molasses like quality.

Wednesday: Day 3
Morning roll call. All boats are hailed over short-wave radio and report their 6AM position. The much-vaunted transponder system was supposed to make this process obsolete, but due to a programming error, they have failed in their only useful task to the racers.

We are the most southerly and least westerly boat, putting us dead last. Navigator Jeff mimes hanging himself, then mimes shooting himself in the head as a coup de grace. But Andy reminds everyone that things are exactly as we planned. Our boat needs brisk wind abaft the beam to perform its best. By heading south, we are staying in those breezes, and it shows. We've gone twice as far as the boats that struck out due west. But, they went in the direction towards Hawaii. We hope that our south move will pay off as we get to the strong trade winds quicker.

In the middle of the day, the clouds burn off and the sailing turns glorious. We whip through smooth seas with our big jib top set, making 6 to 8 knots on 10 to 14 knots of breeze.

Suddenly, the foul weather gear comes off, revealing the foul smell of the the clothes underneath.

The night is even more beautiful, as the breeze holds steady and we cruise along under an incredible dome of starry skies, graced by the occasional meteor. A pod of whales of an unidentified species surfaces alongside the boat and cruises with us for a while. They are long and sleek, with black smooth backs and a small dorsal fin.

Thursday: Day 4
Morning roll call and the race is crystallizing into two strategies. Five or so boats are challenging for the southermost position. While other boats are struggling west through the light adverse winds.

Forecasts show the high we've been dodging will slide west and blump out into a long fat sausage of high pressure, almost 2000 miles long, right along the direct path from LA to Hawaii. That's good news for us, 'cause it will make life tough for the Transpac boats that depart on Thursday, and even Monday. But it's bad, because it forces us ever more southward to get away from the light, calm breezes that will lie in that high pressure zone.

It's looking like a long trip. At least the weather is awesome where we are.

Major crisis: the catering crew somehow packed only three Tecates and a bottle of rum. We shared one can of beer this morning, carefully sharing out the beer like castaways in a life raft doling out water.

At 8am this morning, a spinnaker hove into view on the horizon behind us, about 5 miles back. Like Jack Aubrey fleeing the "Waakzamheid", we cracked on all sail (our biggest spinnaker and a staysail) and heated up. Slowly we drew out of cannon range to safety.

Day 4 at sea ....

2007-07-12T19:27:00.000-07:00

If you have been following the race using the transpacific yacht club web site, you will see that Peregrine is doing extremely well, taking a decidely southerly route to hit the best winds. In the meantime, Laurie Smith has sent me a variety of great photos of the crew leading up to the days before their departure including some quality time for Simon with Hazel on the evening of the Pre-Race Party:
Here is also a great photo of the crew after packing up their gear....

And a shot of the crew waving as they motored out of the harbor

And, the best of all: THEIR START

They're doing fine!

2007-07-10T20:03:00.000-07:00

Got our first email from the Peregrine today:

Hello from Peregine at sea. We started right on time, and the fleet headed across the Catalina channel mostly on starboard tack, hoping for a right shift that never materialized. The breeze built steadily to 20K as we approached the West End, but then died off almost immediately after we rounded. Then a long slow night of variable breezes from the south-southwest. Hard sailing for a Hobie, which likes things a little freer.

Crew already remarkably ripe.

Well, what did you expect? Want to see where they are??
Go to the transpacific web site and click on 'TRACK CHARTS'. Peregrine is part of the CLASS VI fleet.

And they're off!!!!

2007-07-09T19:11:00.001-07:00

After a swim for Nigel to scrape those barnacles off the boat (yes, really, they made him do it!), the Peregrine made it to the starting line.

The race began with a shot from the race boat and a big puff of smoke.

Hazel, Laurie and I stood at the rail at the park and watched it happen along with dozens of other spectators, 3 helicopters and a small aircraft.

The Peregrine...

Last we saw, they were a dot on the horizon...

Sailing out of the bay....

2007-07-09T19:04:00.001-07:00

We reached Long Beach just in time to see the Peregrine motor out of the harbor, past the Queen Mary and on their way to the start site.

The ship with orange smokestacks is the Queen Mary.

The start of race day....

2007-07-09T18:45:00.000-07:00

Today is race day.

They began the morning loading up Andy's truck with 2 weeks worth of food. The winds are not good - they are weak and going the wrong way! The trip may take them an extra day or two! Better winds are not expected until Thursday....

Simon with Nigel.

Below: Andy, looking dashing as usual.

Jeff & Nigel and the loaded truck.

But before departure - first a nice breakfast by the pool. And a few last-minute uploads of weather reports......

At left: Laurie with Simon & Andy

At right: Jeff and his trusty laptop.

This will be the last you will see of the swarthy sailors for a couple weeks. Wish them well!

Yesterday, Simon's comfy Chevy Van decided to blow a smog pump so they were forced to all squash into Andy's van.

TWO DAYS TO GO

2007-07-07T11:16:00.000-07:00

Tama - the temporary communications officer here. Half the team is off shopping for food and libations. Jeff is frantically trying to debug his navigation software ("Why does it crash when people are watching?"). (Jeff thought that was a mean thing to say but it does sum up the last 3 months of his life.)
Tonight: A party is planned. But we'll see. Knowing this crew they will be down at the docks scraping barnacles (see last post).

Four Days to the Start

2007-07-05T23:32:00.001-07:00

Four days until skipper Simon Garland and crew Nigel Garland, Andy Hamilton, and Jeff Westbrook start the Transpac race from Long Beach, CA to Honolulu Hawaii on board "Peregrine", a slick, fast, and extremely cramped Hobie 33.

The crew are gathering in Los Angeles at Jeff's house in Brentwood. Two fridges are groaning with enough frozen food and water to get us through the trip, with MRE's and freeze dried dinners as backups. A pair of parrots has been sighted in a nearby tree -- a good omen for a trip to a tropical paradise. Their squawking keeps everyone up. Peregrine sits tied up at Long Beach's "Rainbow Harbor," gathering barnacles that will have to be scraped off before departure. A single barnacle can reduce our speed by over ten knots, our skipper says, as he sips his beer and encourages his crew to scrape harder.

Once the race starts, you can track our progress on-line at
www.transpacificyc.org