It's Anyone's Guess

by Greg Harms, June 30th, 2008

Apparently this is a La Nina year in the Pacific. So maybe that explains the bizarre weather patterns during the 2008 Vic-Maui. La Nina means unusually cold water in the eastern equatorial Pacific. Wait, aren't we experiencing Global Warming? Yeah that must be it. Global Warming. Who bloody knows? Whatever it is; little frigid sister, or hot headed monster, it has temporarily turned the trade winds off.

God help the skippers & navigators in this race when the crew asks what is happening with the weather. "Where is the high moving today?" asks the crew. "Well", says the on-board magician weather prognosticator "this year there isn't one, instead of a high, this year we are going to get a bunch of lows. Break out the blade, we're going to sail upwind to Hawaii."

Or maybe not. Your guess is as good as anyone's. The crews on the boats are just going to have to cope with Neptune's strange breezes, with the hope that best direction will eventually become clear. Kudos to the boats that figure out what to do!

Strum, Zulu and Red Heather are all in light and confused air where the trade winds are supposed to be. The rest of the fleet is about to be caught up by the effects of a passing low pressure system. Have a look at the FIS tracking chart and click the Wind and Barometric boxes to see for yourself.

After 7 days at sea people on boats tend to get whimsical. Here's a couple stories from Blackwatch and from Passepartout. If any of you are receiving sea tales from the boats, send them to us so that we can share their stories.

Blackwatch, June 28th

There was blood on the foredeck, blood all around, blood on the spinnaker, Doug Foreplay puts a little of himself in every job and changing out the chute in 25 knot winds wasn't any exception. Not to worry, Doug bled profusely from a small cut on a finger that required no stitches, but did get him a little sympathy from Captain Dan who put him at the helm instead of washing dishes. Not to be excluded from the bloodletting, Shakespeare put a nice cut in his knee dangerous place, that foredeck. Nurse Dorothy examined both wounds and decided amputation was not necessary. A quick word to those unsung heroes of the galley, especially Chef Dan and Mother Dorothy for their excellent food preparation lovingly assembled for our consumption by Capt Dan's 1st mate, Shawn, who waits at home on the widow's walk. Also thanks to Pyrot Jim and Foreplay for the many times they've done the dishes. Shakespeare tries to avoid the galley, preferring to pen this nonsense instead. We were sorry to hear of Something Wicked's misfortunate and our best wishes to them to make a safe return to port. We hope to see some of them in Maui.

The elite cadre of night helmers now numbers 4 as Doug Foreplay thrusts his bloody finger into the fray. A midnight spinnaker drop went off as easily as if it were daylight, a tribute to Captn Mad Dan's repetitious repetitious repetitious preparatory commands, pleas, sobs and begging. The weather is gorgeous, blue skies, blue water, 20+ knots of wind and grog all around. A pod? of porpoise has been pacing us for some time now not even breaking a sweat keeping up with us at 7+ knots.

Fair winds and copious amounts of grog to all.

Passepartout, June 28th

The food continues to be great and the crew is working well together. Steak, warm garlic bread and salad with a choice of three dessings for dinner last night, steak sandwiches for lunch today and spaghetti with home made meatballs and sauce tonight. French toast and bacon for breakfast today.

We lost one crew member (Jerry) at the last minute due to medical issues and we could use him now - especially to helm when it is rough - and when I have stuff to fix. It is calm right now - 12 kts from the starboard quarter - flying the full main and a spinnaker. Three foot waves. We could use more wind.

Our very expensive 3 year old carbon fiber main is not doing well. It ripped again. We have white tape to patch the black sail. By the time we get to Lahaina we will look like JP Patches.

The watermaker is working only intermittently. We will have to start rationing if I can\'t fix it in the next day.

Our strongest competitor has turned out to be Seeker. We owe them 20 hours as a result of our handicaps. It is pretty clear at this point that they know how to read a weather chart and they know how to sail thier boat. It is going to be tough to beat them at all much less by 20 hours. There is still plenty of time left in the race for things to happen.

Passepartout, June 29th

Aloha from Passepartout. A few minutes ago I went forward to help with a sail change and got thrown off my own foredeck. I was reminded that during Swiftsure (a good practice for this race) I was told that our crew was really devided into two groups, the Twenty Somethings and the Village Elders. The Twenty Somethings have taken over the foredeck (thank God). In case you don't know which group you fall into just look in the mirror. The coast of Washington was pretty discouraging. Oregon was better but the race is really exciting now. I still think Seeker is our biggest threat. Turicum could also beat us. There will be no rest until we pass that bouy off Ka'anapali.

We are excited to see the Becklunds again. I hope we can find a way to retaliate for their great hospitality.

Pete & Crew

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