At todays position report we learned that we are on the right team concerning the Storm Trysail Trophy. Oaxaca has sailed up to second in the Santa Cruz class and Azure also holds that position in the Cal 40 class. We are leading and extended the distance to next boat again and have close to 100 miles + rating advantage to number 2 in our division. Our team; Naughty blue Tequila (not team 113) have 1,2,2 and the next team have 3,4,5. It is close race in the two other classes but especially Oaxaca has had a great comeback after a slow start, so we have good hopes.

If we succeed with finding Honolulu, and also maintain our lead in division 9, we will have a trophy for the division, but also a Navigators trophy. Judging by the number of sailing boats around us, and planes that we guess are going to Hawaii, we are confident that we will find our way.

We have to admit that we did not manage to grab the following trophies this time:

– Barn Door: First monohull to finish. Since we are still out on the blue and Comanche got there a couple of days ago, this will be tough to claim..

– Merlin Trophy: Best elapsed time (Monohull with normal keel etc). The Rio 100 took this one.

– Best multihull: Looking at us, at least we look like half a multihull.. Anyway, the quickest one did the 2225 miles quicker than us, in 4 ½ days!

– Since we are struggling with uploading photos, we may have to admit losing out on the media trophy as well.

– Maybe one of us should try to go for outstanding Crew member?

As you can see, there are trophies that are going to be handed out. 3 would be a great number for us!

Noe som er litt rart med dagene til havs er at de virker på utsiden så like, men likevel har de ganske så forskjellig stemning. De første to til tre dagene går med til å finne rutinen; sove- spise-trimme seil-rore- osv. Innimellom disse gjøremål skal tannpussen og andre nødvendige ærene finne sine faste plasser. Så når det er gjort begynner deilige dager. Man tenker at dette kan godt vare evig. Rutinelivet ombord er topp. Ingen hast eller forstyrrelser. Men så, når man begynner å nærme seg land, tre fire dager før landkjenning, har man plutselig fått litt for mye av alt, det er nok roring, frysetørretmat, nok skifting av seil osv. Nedtellingen starter for alvor og man starter hver dag med en liten nedtelling og beregning av tid til mål.

Vi er nå kommet til stadiet Nedtelling. Tre dager igjen!

Vi ligger med en klar ledelse i vår klasse, og samarbeidet i team 113 går fint, Azure er oppe på en 2.plass og Oaxaca har seilt seg opp til en 2.plass. Så her gjelder det å holde båter, mannskap og seil helt og surfe inn til mål.

The personal hygiene is now finally at top level. This has probably got to do with both water temperature, which is OK and air temperature which at daytime is slightly higher than what`s comfortable. All on board have spa time on the aft deck with a bucket of salt water, at least once a day!

We have stacked up with a little bit too much of the fantastic freeze-dried food, so there is a chance that 2 of us will continue directly to Japan. Regarding the fruit it looks perfect, as we now have 5 oranges left.

With 650 miles to go, we have a comfortable lead in our class. If we don`t do any big mistakes and keep the gear together we are very optimistic. Today Azure passed Vivo in the Cal 40 class, and Oaxaca is also moving up on the list. Maybe we have a good shot on the Storm trysail trophy?

The next 24 hours may be a gybe bonanza as the wind shifts by 20 degrees quite often. For the last 2 days it looks like there will be more east in the wind and we will most likely enter the Kaiwi Channel on port tack coming from North east.

Yesterday was our until now definitely best day. We smashed our competitors with 20 miles or more, and we did set a boat record (also including the time as she was named Cubaneren) for sailed miles in 24 hours. 215,4 is only 0,6 miles behind an average of 9 kts. In reality, we have sailed a little bit longer as the numbers are from the position reports and distance left to the finish. Most of the miles were sailed with the S4 and one reef in the main.

30 minutes ago, we did a gybe! The first gybe in the race for us, after about 1400 miles of sailing. We should have planned it slightly better as Maren got some bruises from ropes tangled around her arm during the process. From pointing about 20 degrees north of Honolulu, we are now pointing 10 degrees south. That has something to say when there still is 800 miles to go. Probably a new gybe tomorrow though.

When we were long distance cruising, we very often had sundowner drinks. In these days, we have the full moon, and that brings up several good drink opportunities! A challenge of course is that the sundowner and moonraiser is happening at the same time. As also the moondowner and sunraiser are. In the meantime, you could of course enjoy the moonshine!

About 14 hours ago we passed the half-sailed distance, and that was celebrated with 3 sips of a nice home-made beer along with egg and bacon for lunch. The first non-freeze-dried meal so far.

From position report to position report yesterday we came 196 NM closer to Honolulu. The first 2 of those hours were not in very favorable conditions, so now we are really moving. We have one reef and S4 (spinnaker) up, and over the last 2 hours Ian has had the helm and done 19 miles. If the conditions keep up like this, we will in other words actually have a chance to do more than 210 miles in 24 hours. The previous record for this boat is 206. We are now leading the class and are actually gaining ground also on Free, the Swan 46.

Not positive messages attached with todays position report:

At approximately 0200PDT OEX suffered catastrophic rudder damage,
which caused some further undetermined damage to their hull.
MAYDAY was issued.
The decision was made to abandon ship to the the life raft.
Within the hour Pyewacket was in touch with OEX
crew, and they have the entire OEX team aboard Pyewacket and all are
returning
to mainland. Good Samaritan Pyewacket has also retired from the race.

To all luck, also everyone on the other, now total 8 retired boats are good, although the Transpac 19 didn`t turn out as planned. There have been several boats with rudder issues, and one with mast failure.

During the day we have lost our Mast head VHF antenna, the theory is that a bird has robbed it. There are no big consequences for us as we have connected the back up instead, but of course, we will not have as good range on our VHF.

Were we are now it is fantastic sailing, 20 kts of breeze from perfect angle, pointing straight at Honolulu between 8 and 14 kts of speed!

Post of the day from Nådeløs, www.cubaneren.no

Today we have been lucky to have a chat with our busy captain. Definitely not a rookie in sailing, but first time on Transpac.

1. Please tell a little bit about yourself:

a. I am 29 years old and grew up in Orinda, CA. Social status: figuring it out haha. I currently work for Elvstrøm sails as the Bay area sailpoint/ West Coast Rep and Hansen’s Rigging. I enjoy both of them greatly and couldn’t be happier with this decision to working in the boating community.

2. You have got several boats, what types and when do you sail them

a. The main boats I own: Lido 14, Flying Dutchmans. The collection grews and shrinks as needed (is there ever a thing as owning too many boats?) I mostly sail the Lido with my family and very close friends on a San Pablo Dam (a lake in my home town). I learned to sail the Lido with my father and younger brother. It is still my favorite boat to sail due to all of the memories associated with it. The Flying Dutchman came about due to my skipper Zhenya on the Melges 24 taking me out on his FD. I was hooked from then on out and ended up buying one (despite Zhenya repeatedly telling me not to). I sail the FD weekly with friends in the south SF Bay and have many great laughs and learning experiences. This boat has helped me become the sailor I am today.

3. What is your best sailing moment?

a. This is a difficult one. Almost all of the times I got sailing are great moments. I like sharing the time with my friends and family. It brings the people around me together.

b. The most difficult sailing moment was actually a couple of days ago in fluky conditions in the middle of the Pacific!

4. Nådeløs is a Wasa 55. What made you decide to buy this boat?

a. A few reasons: 1) the week before meeting Karl Otto and Maren, I was shopping around for a boat that met a few criteria: live aboard, ocean going, can be raced. I checked out several other boats but there was always an issue or two that made me reluctant. Too pricy, too beat up, not a good layout, not the right feel or vibe you could say. I narrowed my list down to 3 possibilities. The day I saw the Wasa for the first time was when I was sailing with my Uncle and Veronika (current TransPac crew) in a race. When we arrived at Encinal yacht club, there was the Wasa. Rodney told me I had to go take a good look at the boat and meet Karl and Maren. When they mentioned that she was looking for a new owner and the price range, the rest was history. It feels like fate that I met Karl and Maren and their Cubaneren. I see this friendship lasting for a long time.

5. Nådeløs is a Norwegian word and would directly translated mean Reckless or no mercy. How come you have chosen this name?

a. It started with wanting to keep the theme of the boat since it is unlike anything else I had ever sailed on or seen for that matter. Since the boat is from Norway, I decided to honor this. I pulled up Google translate and started typing in names that I liked. Nådeløs popped up when I typed in Relentless and it stuck. My favorite boat growing up was 20000 leagues under the sea and the Submarine was named Nautilus and her skipper Nemo was relentless and ruthless. Some may say I am a little reckless and maybe ruthless from time to time.

6. Probably the youngest skipper in this edition of the TransPac. Has that been a driving force in all the preparations that must be done to come to the starting line?

a. My age didn’t have much to do with it. It was more to fulfill a dream I had to sail the world (a few remember when all this came about). The Trans Pac I feel is just a jumping off point for what is to come. Preparing for this race has been nothing short of extremely difficult. For the past year, I would go to work for 8 hours and then come back home(the boat) and then spend the rest of the evening working on all of the little details to get the Wasa to the point that I wanted her to be in. The Category 1 offshore race boat standards is a long list safety checks that had to be met to be able to compete in this race. I had friends and family cheering me on and sometimes alerted me to some harsh realities that I was dealing with. I would like to thank my Uncle George and Aunt Kim for really lighting my fire in the final 3 weeks to pulling everything together. It feels like a miracle that I made it to the startline.

7. Could you ever have found a better crew for this race? (Yeah, not very journalistic, but yes will work)

a. I really don’t think so. After these 4 days at sea, the knowledge and skill of everyone on board has been priceless. Karl and Maren probably know the Wasa 55 better than anyone else and Veronika with her sail trim and fine attention to detail makes this easier on my role as Captain and person in charge. It was weird having the boat pulled out of the slip a few of the times with me below deck working on last minute details. I am sleeping well during my off shifts knowing the boat is in great hands.

8. A bit over 1/3 of the race is done. Has it been as expected so far and where will it end?

a. I honestly didn’t fully know what to expect, I entered into one of the most prestigious offshore races in the world without ever completing an ocean passage, only coastal races on others boats. I was extremely nervous in the moments leading up to leaving the dock. So far, the boat and crew is performing beautifully and I couldn’t be happier. The chart plotter says we are 1445nm from Hawaii and I am optimistic with the outcome!

Back with the crew again, and just so we have said it; Ian tried to extinct us yesterday when he grabbed his foredeck dressing (the swimsuit) that had been sitting around in the bathroom dripping wet since the start. Earlier on the blog we had some complaints about smell from the toilet since we could not fill it with water. This shorts have most likely not been totally innocent either. When it got in motion it took out most of the living life that came in its way.

We are part of a three-boat team. Our Nemesis from last time, Team Azure in their Cal 40 and the Santa Cruz 50 Oaxaca. We should probably be called Team 113 as we believe that is the total age of the three boats in total and also happens to be the number of years since the first Transpac race was held.

The race is arranged every second year, and only abrupted by wars, this edition is the 50th, a great anniversary. Having sailed a bunch of races around (being a Norwegian), I am thinking that the Transpac is something special. It is the oldest of the real classics in terms of ocean races. For normal people, the longest ocean race, and as being a category 1 race in terms of safety, it is a long way to go to be able just to get to the starting line. Despite of that, 92 boats have found the way, from Hobie 33s, Cal 40 and Santa Cruz class, up to the foiling MOD 70s, Comanche and other state of the art racing machines. We are thrilled that we can join this, 2 of us also did two years ago, 2 are rookies.

Two years ago we had to accept being defeated by the Azure team. After we sailed back from Hawaii to the west Coast, we were hanging a lot with Rodney and Ted especially, and even though we were not too happy for them in the race, they were not so bad after all. They have invited us to fight for the Storm Trysail Club Trophy together with Oaxaca. Azure won the last race and Oaxaca has got several top results lately, so we have high hopes for success. We are all in different classes and the point is to have best possible results, position not corrected, for the three boats in total. In other words, you should cheer a bit for the two others as well, not only for us. Until now, it unfortunately looks like Azure could need some cheering as they were number 4 on the last update, but there are still some miles to go.

Attached is a photo of the birthday celebration with delicious cake from on board Nådeløs today!

Yesterday at noon, we decided to go for an early asymmetric setting. Of course, we had been a little optimistic, but after rearranging and added a reef in the main the course was not too bad. Well, looking only at where we were pointing, it was bad – Marquesas, but on the other hand, we haven`t been there, but we had also a plan of not sailing in to a light wind area just in front of us. Our boat speed increased by 2 to 3 knots, so that justifies pointing off the course with a quite some degrees. Will be interesting to see how it all will turn out!

Today there will be a birthday celebration on board Nådeløs. Karl Otto, the navigator, turns 41. For the first time in 5 years, it is not going to be a double birthday with Eirik. 2 years ago, he was the navigator on this boat and it was celebrated common 82 years birthday. Happy birthday to you too Eirik!

After around 44 hours of sailing, we should probably start to orientate ourselves with where our competitors are. Division 9 is unfortunately quite small, only 4 boats. We also think that it is a strange mix, but that is how it is with rating sailing.

Judging from the first reports of results, it looks like it is «Free» a Swan 46 that is the boat to beat. This is a luxurious ship that was fast out from the start and has sailed great in the bumpy conditions we have had in the beginning of the race. We have not studied them at all before start so are now studying the Transpac handout, and it may look like Free is equipped with an asymmetric in centerline. Our best shot would be that over the next days with lighter conditions may favorize us, and for the last half, we may point straight at Honolulu while Free may have to sail longer distance?

Blue moon, a Jeanneau 52.2 is in our class, and to say something about size, it would not be a problem to fit 2 Nådeløs boats inside. How will this one perform?

Our third, class competitor is «Traveler» a North wind 47. It looks to be a rock solid ship that we will not survive against in a physical war, so we will try to run away from them instead!

The first day has been more or less as expected, with salt and water everywhere. We drag salt into the boat with the foul weather gear, and there are also a couple of places with local raincasts inside the boat.. The only place we do not manage to get water into is the toilet as the intake for water to that is over the oceansurface all the time as we are healing 30 degrees. I leave it to your imagination to describe the smell!

We did some very good first 10 miles of this race in light upwind, but the next 10 in somewhat more heavy breeze on the nose was not our favorite. After stumbling around the north tip of Catalina Island we have been on a sharp reach using the new genoa and varied between full main, and 1 or 2 reefs. It has been OK, and at least there are boats around us, so we are satisfied this far. At this stage it is about not loosing the race, our best part begins in a couple of days when we can hoist the nylon!

09.07: We`re back and ready for Transpack! This time on Nådeløs, which in fact is our good old Cubaneren that we sold to Ian in San Francisco after our long-distance cruise which ended 2 years ago after the last Transpac. In other words, Maren and Karl Otto are this time crew, as also Veronica Schølgl. The captain on board is Ian Ferguson.

It has, as it always is with the big offshore races, been a lot of preparations to do, but we should be all set now with the start coming up tomorrow.

The blog platform from our cruise 2 years ago is still «floating» so we will use that also this time to describe how life on the ocean is on the way towards Hawaii (or more correctly Oahu and Honolulu).

For you who followed us last time, and maybe want to do so this time too, you know that our internet connection is more or less equal in speed to how it was in 1988. For new followers; you may (if we are lucky) have a chance to send us bottle-posts that bounces effectively out in space before it will find us hopefully on the blue surface.

More information about ourselves, our competitors and other more or less useful stuff is coming up!

We forgot to post anything yesterday, but it was also quite rough all day. The grib files told us we should expect 25-30 knots of breeze which we most of the time also got. The thing however is that you should always prepare for gusts with 50% higher wind speed in squalls than forecasted. Normally we do not cruise on 30 knots forecast but being confident in the boat and gear and with a strong wish to get the boat north we decided that it would be OK. Well – we found that squall with gust at 47 knots, lasted for a minute, and apart from us building up more respect for the forces of the nature nothing really happened. We had reefed a lot and the boat was balanced so after all it was just a new experience for our book. Our top speed on the trip was 13.2, which is not too bad for a 46 tons ship. Swell from w/nw has been around 4 meters high and the same has the waves following the wind direction. This has made even this boat roll and move a lot, but Cottee is now certified as an ocean sailor!

We are now about to start the climbing up the river in towards Brest. It will for sure feel like climbing a river because we have not timed the tide very well as we will have falling water the whole way in and can probably expect up to 5 knots of current on the narrowest passages. Hopefully we will be docked before 2200 ready for a good night sleep!

Cottee, Maren and Karl Otto

We are now rounding Cap Finisterre – End of land. Back in the days when this cape got it`s name the earth was still flat, so our position here now would really be to balance on the edge! These capes, high mountains on «corners» of land to get around, are always a challenge. Here, like with many other capes, two oceans are meeting and that creates a funny wave pattern. 2-3 directions old and new ones. Combined with the «fact» that there is normally headwind when you are passing big capes it`s not too easy. Anyway – we are here and can start the next stage of the trip.

We may not have too much time to cross this Bay of Biscay. We will have quick conditions in the beginning and hopefully the whole way. If we get to Brest later than Friday evening, we may get nasty conditions. We are planning on getting there early in the afternoon. The tricky thing with crossing at this time of the year is that you have to hang on to the east of the depressions which are filling in from west. Hopefully we manage to stay east and north of this depression all the way over, so we can have the wind on the tail.

Mads has not exactly recommended us to go on this window, but as long as we are quick it should be good. With 200 NM pr. 24 hours we have a fair margin. With 180 NM pr. 24 hours we have no margin.

We found a 40 feet fishing boat out here which tells a little about the conditions here now.

Cottee, Maren and Karl Otto

Most of the first 24 hours along this coast has been in rough conditions. The wind has as expected been blowing from north. Through the night between 20 an 30 knots, but during the day it has decreased and finally the waves has also come down to a reasonably level, so it is comfortable on board. We are outside Figuera Da Foz now when the sun is setting and are not expecting much wind through the night so around midday tomorrow we will enter Spanish Waters.

The Bay of Biscay may give us some challenges. Close to our route it will be 2-3 small but very aggressive low-pressure systems. Most likely we will be just ahead of them, but we will have to make a smart decision tomorrow afternoon if we shall cross the bay directly. We have had a short chat with Mads, our weather guru today and he will give us some good advices tomorrow.

We have had some training sessions with Cottee today so she has now learnt to; Sit, sit as a teddy bear, lie down, present herself with the right paw and fetch and deliver various things we throw away. We have also had a walk around on deck.

Cottee, Maren and Karl Otto

This story is written at the exact same place as yesterdays! The yacht we are on is named Sana, but yesterday we thought that was two letters short.

When we started the trip towards north yesterday, we knew it was going to be rough. We did not expect it to be as bad as it turned in to, but even in 30-40 knots of wind on the nose and 4 m steep waves this ship made a fair progress between 5-6 knots. OK – occasionally it was some slamming, but not much at all and all in all it was a «happy ship» and we were satisfied with the situation. Not many boats would have managed what (In)Sana did!

On the other side – at one point, (In)Sana started to think by herself, and pretty self-destructive thoughts too. As Karl Otto and Cottee were having a nap inside an alarm started screaming! No indications on any panels, and the boat felt as before. Once on deck we discovered immediately that the garage on the transom was open. As long as the alarm was on it was not possible to close the garage, but some times it stopped for some seconds so we could close it with the buttons. We had a short discussion and turned around back to Lagos to sort out the problem.

The last time we had to turn around on a sailing trip was exactly on the same day, 5 years ago. That time we were sailing Cubaneren around the south coast of Norway from Bergen to Åsgårdstrand and got stuck in solid ice in a narrow sound, Blindleia. As the say, both on the ocean and in the mountain, turn around if the weather turns against you!

In Lagos we gave the garage an all the stuff in it a good fresh water rinse. The technichians at Hallberg Rassy called us and gave some good advices about how to disconnect the hydraulics and now we are off again with the garage closed and no opening possibilities for it either.

We have planned for laSAgNA for dinner today and are looking at two days by engine. First in headwind and later in no wind. Right now it still looks OK to cross the Bay of Biscay in a couple of days.

Cottee, Maren and Karl Otto

We are off from Lagos. One day after schedule as the winds are not playing on our team these days. We will have a not very comfortable first day and night, but from tomorrow morning the wind will decrease and hopefully we will have nice conditions from then and until we have crossed the Bay of Biscay.

Postponing the departure with one day gave us an opportunity to explore a little bit of the area. We have met Arve and Jannicke Eriksen which are here with their Bestewind 50. We have had lunch and dinner together, nice conversations and we also borrowed their rental car for a trip to Sagres and the Cabo Sao Vicente. We walked around the fortress, had a look at the weather and the waves we are heading towards right now, and experienced the enormous forces from the underwater caves on the tip of the Cabo. When the big swell and waves hit the coast and fill the underwater caves with water, air is pushed vertically up 50 m where there is an opening with a vertical storm is blowing – fascinating!

A lot of new sounds and movement for Cottee, but she seems to be settling down well on board so far.

We will round the Cabo Sao Vicente in about one and a half hour. Hopefully we can obtain some positive speed over ground when we will point the bow towards north.

We have been offline for a long time now. We are back to «normal» lives again, Karl Otto is working at Elvstrøm Headquarter in Denmark and Maren is busy with refits and fixing on the house back in Åsgårdstrand. Octopus is well docked in Aabenraa, and suits as a very nice apartment. It is work in progress also on that boat, with new sails, some deck hardware and refit inside as well. We will get back to that during the spring time.

On Saturday we will set off from Lagos, on the Algarve coast, south in Portugal with Sana. Sana is a Hallberg Rassy 64 which is going back to Scandinavia for the summer, and we are basically going to sail as far north as we can during the eastern. We will try to keep the good old blog, which at some point will need a «rebranding» as Cubaneren still is in San Francisco with Ian, updated. If the sat communication works and we stay afloat we will give a daily report from the Iberic-Atlantic coast, The Bay of Biscay and the English Channel trough the eastern days. We are expecting a pretty cold passage, as the water temperature is about 12 degrees Celsius. It is still some days until we are there, but it looks like we will hang on to the south part of a depression across the Bay of Biscay giving us favorable wind conditions for that part. The first 2 days we are expecting to motor a lot of the time in headwind.

We are looking forward to spending some time on the big ocean again!

Maren, Karl Otto Book and the new crew Cottee (our dog)

We were «surfing» in at 10 kts of speed under Golden gate at max flowing tide around noon today. Pretty well-planned departure time from Honolulu to get that right!

On the way in the last 100 miles we had some nice spinnaker sailing, Code 0 sailing and in the end enough fuel to get in in no wind. Outside Farallone Islands it was whale bonanza. They were huge, probably the Blue whale, but we have to confirm that after having looked in a book that shows how they do look. One whale thought he was a spinner dolphin and took a spin in the air, creating a big splash in the landing. Two other ones did a blowout and rolled 50 m in front of Cubaneren. Yeah it was spectacular. This happened on Karl Otto`s watch, Maren got to see some frightened ducks.

We have had a fantastic reception here at San Francisco Yacht Club by Torill and Bob who also have followed us on our trip. Torill is from Stavanger but have lived in America for 38 years, Robert is form here but speaks fluid Norwegian. We have got clothes washed, been served lunch and dinner and feels like being kings!

Mvh / Best Regards
S/Y Cubaneren NOR 8620
Maren Magda and Karl Otto Book

Two days ago, we thought we were going to have landfall today but instead we have probably set a new slow record with just not manage to sail 100 nm in 24 hours (direct line). We have had very nice, light spinnaker-sailing all the time. The wind direction has been from 270 (west) and our heading has been ideally 90 (east). The strength of the wind has been 5-9 kts giving us gybing angles here on the swelly ocean around 100 degrees. We have managed to keep the boat going all the time and this is good exercise!

The swell here is amazing now. It is at least 250 m between the tops and the height is impossible to say accurate but a guess on 4 m would not be way off. We don’t really notice it on board but it is fascinating to see. Tomorrow the wind from NW along the coast is going to be back and we guess the big swell is pushed in front of the wind.

We have seen whales today – big ones, but they have been busy with their own so we were not closer than 150 m. It was another sound on the blowout than from the dolphins. The dolphins are by the way around us all the time.

The breeze should begin to pick up now and we are expecting nice speed on the last stretch in towards Golden gate. We should pass under the bridge in the morning (15 hours from now). Still weekend in San Francisco though!

Good luck to our sailing league team – Åsgårdstrand in this season`s last match against the other 14 best clubs in Norway. Goal number one is to keep the second place in the total, but wouldn`t it be nice to win this weekend’s match?

.. But no wind to really sprint in!

Slow progress with no wind and current against us was what we had to deal with through the night and up until 1600 (local time). For the last 4 hours we have sailed with our biggest spinnaker (S2), and now that is our only alternative as we are out of fuel. The gauge for the main tank did not move for the last 3 hours before we shut the engine off but we still have probably 20 l (5 gallons) on the small extra tank so we have enough to get in to the slip.

We have got a question from Berit, Sindre and Håkon about how much garbage we have counted on our trip. This garbage patch out here is circulating around the pacific high-pressure system as that is the driving force for the ocean current. On this trip, back to the mainland we have been north of this, at least for the last half. The first 2 days after we left Hawaii was not too bad either. Day 3-8 was like doing a slalom run between the plastic. After that it has not been too bad. With bad we mean we have counted 5-10 pieces in the half hour we have had lookout, the other days we have seen 2-5 pieces. The last two days we have not seen anything. Off course it was a lot of plastic, fishing nets, buoys, bottles, Styrofoam etc when we did not have the official look out too. As mentioned earlier, during the race to Hawaii, we sailed in the middle of the garbage patch and that was bad. We haven`t seen anything like that before. We believe the North Atlantic is not as bad as this since all the countries surrounding do have garbage handling systems which probably is the problem here.

Yesterday we thought that this report was going to be the last one but it will probably be at least 30 more hours until we are docked. 190 NM to Golden gate now and light but at least sailable conditions as we have made it to the south side of the remnants of the low-pressure system that has blocked the normal wind pattern. Normal wind will be back on Friday. Thanks for all the bottle posts again, you have made us speak and discuss again! Also thanks to Jack Bauer which as entertained us during the engine hours!

Right now, we have 275 nm left to go on this ocean crossing. It`s the 15th day at sea for us which means we will do the crossing probably in less than 17 days. The distance in direct line is 2250 but by the time we get to San Francisco we will have sailed close to 2650 due to the detour north around the pacific high. We have been north of the high, but there has not been an easy trip the last bit with 2 high-pressure ridges going from south to way north of us (up to 45-50 degrees north) and now the remnants of a low pressure that we also have to power through. Hopefully we will get some wind in the morning, otherwise we will spend some more time out here as we will run out of fuel in 12-16 hours. It looks like we will approach land on a west/south west wind which is unusual for this coast.

Thanks for the bottle posts with updates! Bob and Torill in SF have arranged a slip for us for a couple of days in San Francisco yacht club, which will be great! Alexandra; congrats with the bronze medal, and yes, maybe we should join that «Duck kid?», which is a boat, (andunge) championship one year. It ended up in a discussion over maybe we should try a year with doing as many Norwegian championships as possible in one season. Kristine; Sounds like busy days! When it comes to the election we may have been smart to vote before the last rush from the politicians. Lucky for us maybe, we haven`t got any news from the campaigns so we have voted based on the programs, not really on the people.

The first welcoming committee, dolphins, have been around today. Otherwise it has been an indoor day with «new» 24 episodes. Pasta with peperoni and pesto for lunch.

Humm. It is more and more a silent ship here as all topics are finished. OK; we have had perfect sailing conditions during the day, flying both our A5 and Code 0 (although not at the same time). We got visited in the morning by an Albatross, the sunset was spectacular and the moonset was epic. The moon is big now, probably just 2 more nights until it`s full. Anyway – no news to report, same old!

It is on the other hand good therapy to do some lonely long crossings occasionally. No internet makes the mind work a bit better and dig up knowledge from the old days as there are no alternative. However – 14 days is the point where our minds don`t manage to dig up more.

If you have some good gossip about yourself, someone we know, someone we don`t know, a good story or whatever..! Drop us a bottle post so that our throats won`t dry up.

435 NM to Golden gate – we will have the weekend in San Francisco!

After tricky sailing in the first part of the night with big wind shifts and variable strength the wind dropped and we have been running the engine since. We are expecting to do that through this night too but after that we will have wind to sail on in to the coast. It`s not going to be the easiest sailing as we must pass a low-pressure system on the way. We still haven`t decided if we are going to go north or south. If we are going north we will have a period of wind from the east (yeah – the exact bearing to San Francisco), and if we are going to pass to south of the system we will have a bit longer way to go and get a sharper angle to sail on the wind for the last 250 NM. The decision will be taken during the next 12 hours, again in cooperation with our weather guru back home, Mads.

Karl Otto woke up to the smell of fantastic bakery this morning; bread, cinnamon rolls and raisin buns. maybe – but haven’t got any translation program for that last bakery. (rosinbolle – hakke google translate!). In other words – a great food day!

WHAT! Someone was just making noise on the VHF – that must mean we are not totally alone out here! 575 miles left to go, and yes, we have seen two other ships today too.

Hopefully we will have OK, or at least relatively quick sailing conditions for the rest of the trip and it looks like we will arrive in San Francisco some time on Thursday.

If you are sending us bottle post you would like to have replied, please write your e-mail address as we cannot see where they come from!

After running the engine for 12 hours through the night we have been sailing as high as we can on port tack the whole day. We have more or less been able to stay on the rhumb line sailing in 5,5-6,2 knots. In wind between 8 and 12. Going upwind is not the funniest but it has not been too bad either, not too heavy wind, not too light.

Yesterday evening we had movie session, seeing three episodes of 24. Last night we also saw two ships, the first ones in more than ten days. One of them passed only 2 miles in front of us, and after not having seen anyone in 2 weeks that almost felt as we should have changed course to have more distance between the boats.

Apart from that, not much to report today. We have had some good dialogues around selling Cubaneren, and buying another boat, and what if we do not find a buyer for Cubaneren. We have concluded that both options are good as we do have a fantastic boat. On the other hand, we are very motivated for trying to do this boat change to try something new.

697 miles to Golden Gate. Expecting the wind to veer from NE to E and then S during the night and drop. Hopefully we can glide at proper speed with our Code 0 most of the time but we are expecting to run the engine occasionally too.

We had to go by engine a bit longer than we hoped for last night, the wind did not pick up before the light got back. We got 27 hours by engine and together with our first run we have now totally 46 hours. We still have more than half of the fuel left, meaning we should be able to go 2 ½ more days, 300-350 more miles (if needed). Right now, we have fantastic sailing, A5 (asymmetric) and full main, 12-16 knots of breeze and pointing straight at San Francisco (following the great circle – shortest route will be more accurate). Distance to Golden Gate is now 1175 miles.

Yesterday we had an impressive visitor, an Albatross. Our host for the Transpac race in Long Beach have a lot of knowledge about this animal through her engagement at the aquarium there. We hope it is OK to share that information and looks forward to seeing you at Shoreline when we are passing there in a couple of months again Jane!

The adult plumage of most of the albatrosses is usually some variation of dark upper-wing and back with white undersides.The wingspans of the largest great albatrosses are the largest of any bird, exceeding 340 cm although the other species’ wingspans are considerably smaller at no more than 1.75 m. The wings are stiff and cambered, with thickened streamlined leading edges. Albatrosses travel huge distances with two techniques used by many long-winged seabirds: dynamic soaring and slope soaring. Dynamic soaring involves repeatedly rising into wind and descending downwind, thus gaining energy from the vertical wind gradient. The only effort expended is in the turns at the top and bottom of every such loop. This maneuver allows the bird to cover almost a thousand kilometres a day without flapping its wings. Slope soaring uses the rising air on the windward side of large waves. Albatross have high glide ratios, around 22:1 to 23:1, meaning that for every metre they drop, they can travel forward 22 metres. They are aided in soaring by a shoulder-lock, a sheet of tendon that locks the wing when fully extended, allowing the wing to be kept outstretched without any muscle expenditure, a morphological adaptation they share with the giant petrels. Albatrosses range over huge areas of ocean and regularly circle the globe.Their adaptation to gliding flight makes them dependent on wind and waves, however, as their long wings are ill-suited to powered flight and most species lack the muscles and energy to undertake sustained flapping flight. Albatrosses in calm seas are forced to rest on the ocean’s surface until the wind picks up again. The North Pacific albatrosses can use a flight style known as flap-gliding, where the bird progresses by bursts of flapping followed by gliding. When taking off, albatrosses need to take a run up to allow enough air to move under the wing to provide lift.

Life is good on board and at daytime it is still shorts temperature. We have been digging out the thin wool clothing for the first time since some time in the Atlantic for the night sailing. Taco Lunch and freeze dried something for dinner today.

Today has been sailing wise pretty boring as there has been no wind, but on the other hand we have had time to celebrate Marens 37th birthday!

In Norway there is a song about «maybe the king will arrive to the party» and so on.. Maren was singing that song yesterday and although our own king unfortunately could not show, another majesty did. You were all invited by the way but last time we saw other people (or at least a ship) was on our second night after leaving Oahu. This is a pretty isolated place to have a birthday, about 1300 NM to San Francisco, 1100 NM to Honolulu and the same to the closest of the Aleutian Islands to the north west, so we do understand that it was hard to get here. So, who showed up here was the king of the sky – an Albatross. We have never seen this fantastic bird (airplane) other than on television before and he did a fly-by three times with about a half hour in between. We are saving that photo + some more facts about the bird for tomorrow.

Karl Otto made some fantastic Cinnamon rolls and they were served on the birthday present – freediving fins.

It was taco lunch today but after the cake we are not sure if it is room for dinner.

Maren says thanks for all birthday wishes and will probably not celebrate this isolated.. again!

The last 30 hours and probably quite some time to come too we have been flying spinnaker and asymmetric in fantastic conditions. 14-22 knots of breeze and boat speed between 7,5 and 15. OK, through the night we took down the spinnaker and went wing on wing with the jib to windward and heavy weather jib + main to leeward which is a very easy setting to sail with and in the afternoon, we had a couple of squalls so the sail setting was chosen to get some good sleep.

Our progress has been good so far and we are leading the race against our 4 competitors in our routing program. Every second day we are downloading weather forecast and routing. Predictwind which we are using have 4 weather models which again give 4 different routes to sail between the waypoints we are setting. We are trying to guess (together with our weather guru back home Mads) where we can be during the next 5 days and then we ask the routing program which is the quickest route. On downwind as we are sailing now, we have used the polar diagram (theoretical speed on all wind angles and strengths) from an IMX 40 but we have tuned up the speed a little bit. We are sailing a little bit quicker than this right now and the explanation is probably that it is always a little bit more wind in reality than the forecasts. Another thing is when sailing downwind on the ocean the boat is doing more downhill than uphill.

Tomorrow it`s party day! Maren is having birthday and we are going to have cake. You are all invited we have enough. At the end of the day tomorrow we may also celebrate half the distance sailed.

The bottle post link on the blog has had some issues but is working now. We cannot see what`s going on at face before we get to normal internet connection again, this also explain our lack of interest about what is going on there.

After the Transpac race we got visited by researchers. For the eight year sailors are logging visual marine debris between Hawaii and California. This area has got a not too lucky nickname; Great Pacific garbage patch. When sailing over here in the race we had garbage, of course mainly plastic, around the boat all the time. We hit some things in the night time but never too big to make a problem for us. A couple of the other boats had to stop several times to clean keel and rudders and the Rio 100 crashed one of their rudders. It has been a lot less on this trip so far but on day 2 we had to take down the headsail and stop the boat to get rid of something that braked the boat speed by 2 knots.

How it works is that we are logging visible garbage to one of the sides each day for a half hour. Everything out to 60 feet (20 m) on one side of the boat which does not sound too much but in the speed of 7 knots it is 260000 m2, approximately the same as 45 soccer fields. We are doing as best as we can but the waves are high and our boat is low. Yesterday it was no wind and we see that we are probably under reporting on the normal days out here since we saw a lot more garbage in no wind. Especially the very small plastic fragments which really are the worst as the small fish eat them and after a while there is no more room for normal fish food in the stomach.. I have heard some place that if we are keeping up the same speed as today with dumping plastic it will be more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050.

In the afternoon yesterday the wind disappeared and the engine did the job through the night. In the morning we came out on the other side and have had a quick spinnaker ride today. 15,1 knots boat speed is until now maximum and that was even with the watt&Sea hydrogenator in the water. Very good sailing conditions but the weather is now grey and we have had some squalls. Max wind speed in a squall was 33 knots and then we dropped the spinnaker for 15 minutes.

Lunch and dinner today is chicken in some kind of Indian sauce – pretty nice!

1620 miles left to go to San Fransisco.

Yesterday evening just before it got dark we got a visitor. He struggled a bit with finding the way to the reception but managed after flying around Cubaneren several times. We are talking about a bird that we don`t know too much about but he was very keen on a free ride in the headwind. He had been flying around the boat most of the afternoon, feeding on flying fish. A fantastic flyer, gliding almost all the time, yet very powerful in the maneuvers.

When the sun had set he tried a couple of places before settling down. First he was going for the mast top but realized that would probably be an extremely bumpy night as we were sailing upwind in 2,5m of waves. The next place was to try to get on to the radar dome that is always horizontal. Between Panama and Costa Rica we had a guest there over the night but that was a small one. This big bird simply could not fit in the long wings between backstays and various antennas. This ended in a lot of wing flapping and what looked as an attempt on rape on our AIS antenna. Where he ended was on the bow at the pulpit. We thought that a bird living out here in the blue should have Donald Duck – swimming feet but this one had claws. After a couple of dives with the boat were the bird lifted off and came back again the wind eased off and even though it can`t have been the most comfortable ride it was definitely the only available and he stayed with us until sunrise when the fish was beginning to fly again and he could fly in to the breakfast buffet.

Life on board is now very easy as the wind has disappeared and we are motoring NE. Hopefully we will have the wind back tomorrow morning (in 10-12 hours from now) and that will be wind from behind that will hopefully give us pleasant spinnaker sailing for the next week.

Hamburgers for lunch today and cinnamon rolls for dinner. Shower, shaving and tanning the rest of the day. Could be worse!

We have sailed 600 miles now from Honolulu in a bit less than 4 days. Average at approximately 155 per day is ok taking in to consideration that we are not sailing downwind. As mentioned, we have sailed 600 miles and are now 200 miles closer to San Fransisco than when we started, so we are on a slightly detour. We have reached the point where normally we should ease on the sheets and slowly turn more and more east. What has happened during the last 24 hours is that the wind has shifted slowly towards north so now we are pointing as high on the wind as we can and struggles to point straight to north. Ready for tack?

It is just incredible how salt everything gets. Our wire lifelines are now all white, the sails have got plenty of the white stuff, mainsail up to the sail numbers. After 3 hours on the helm it is necessary to rinse face and hands with fresh water before sleeping otherwise you can`t open the eyes after 3 hours sleep.

Today we have also had some time together in the cockpit, discussing the future, plans, sailing and people. A good thing with being out here in the blue is that you get to be creative with your mind and reality check will not be before a couple of weeks anyway.

Lunch today ended up with being freeze dried Mexican something, very good so hope we have more left of that one. It will be freeze dried for dinner too, hope it won`t be the stroganoff which is not stroganoff but mushroom soup!

Still thousands of flying fish and some birds out here. Cubaneren is chasing up the flying fish so we tend to be followed by the birds for often up to a half hour as we are a good place for hunting.

Getting in to the rhythm on the ocean always take some time. The first 48 hours are often easy as we start by having enough sleep and all other primary needs. That means you don`t sleep the best quality sleep those two days which in turn makes the third day a bit rougher. We are also running three hours watches so that is also something to get used to. Today we have slept 9 hours each so tomorrow we are in to the system.

Kristine has asked about what we are discussing while sailing. Today it hasn`t been too much as we have been together only in watch shift, but during lunch today we were talking a bit about the election which is coming up back home, were we have already voted, and what if the ones we have voted for are making fools of themselves just before the election day and if we have voted wrong for that reason.

We have got a couple of bottle posts (and welcome on board in San Fransisco Berit!), but we have also got an e-mail that the bottle post link does not work. Obviously, it works sometimes? We`ll send a question to our webmaster and he will look in to it. News from the mainland are very welcome!

Lunch and dinner today; rice with chicken in red curry. Pieces of pineapple will be mixed in to the dinner serving to make the portions to proper size without too much effort.

Flying fish and flying birds today as well. We have also seen a couple of jumping squids

We have sailed 325 nm since we started at Honolulu 48 hours ago. More or less straight north since pointing straight towards San Fransisco would mean 2200 miles hard on the wind. The normal scenario is that when sailing from Hawaii to the mainland you should do as we are doing, cross the tradewind and after having sailed north for 700-1000 miles you should be able to ease off the sheets and after a while set the spinnaker and point straight on to the destination. Some 500 miles from land there will be a gybe and as the wind picks up closer to the coast you will reduce the sail area a bit the last two days on a quick reach. Normal scenario is when the pacific high is stable and you basically just sail around it, downwind all the time. Pass to west and north going to the mainland and east and south going to Hawaii.

This trip may be a bit different. Where is the Pacific high? Where it normally would be situated it is a weakening hurricane «Kenneth» messing it all a bit up. Having said that it does not look too bad as a big low pressure system is taking a trip south from Alaska during the next days. We will hang on to the outer edge of that and it should give us nice sailing wind. How the weather and temperature will be is another part of it..

The drive unit for our main autopilot shut down today. We have a backup, a small tiller pilot that steers well with the wind from the side as we have now or when using engine so no big problems. We have also picked the unit apart and together again and it`s working now. Autopilot is of course an important device when sailing doublehanded but on the other hand, we still like to hand steer and in these big waves the autopilot is steering too much to try to keep the course instead of joining the waves a bit, making the boat find the best way to go.

Animals to report today: Flying fish and birds. No turtles or whales.

To go out for a long ocean crossing is always a bit emotional. Especially when leaving a place that we have learned to love. The Aloha spirit is strong on all the islands. For those who have not been in Hawaii – you are always greeted with an «Aloha» here, and by the aloha spirit it means that I want to do to you what you want to do to me. The friendliness we have experienced and all you including Hawaiians have been great. We`ll be back!

We are close to have been sailing straight north for 24 hours. The wind is as predicted, and will be tomorrow too so more about that then. Even though the water is splashing over the boat rather often we are not complaining about the temperature. The sun lotion is in use on places that has not seen the sun too much before. (no pictures)

Dinner yesterday, lunch and dinner today was a pasta bolognaise prepared before we left but now it`s finished. Will be exciting to see what (if) we can cook anything tomorrow – or it will be back to the freeze dried already on day 2!