tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-201976322011-12-14T18:55:27.700-08:00... will sail again on the Pacific Cup - the "Fun-Race to Hawaii", starting<br />in San Francisco on Monday, July 3rd, 2006<br /><br /> Read here messages coming directly from the boat during the race. See the "Links" section below left for messages from Cirrus during the races in 2000 and 2004Cirrusnoreply@blogger.comBlogger371100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-2344272936371926342007-02-17T10:28:00.000-08:002008-12-09T23:17:05.480-08:00

It is almost embarassing - half a year is over, and I have not even gotten to posting the arrival photo. So, here it is now. On the picture from left to right: Donna, Greg, Marie-Pierre, Ulli, Bill, David.Don't know why I can easily do daily reports when on the boat, but as soon as I set my foot on land things seem to take forever. Well, herewith I am claiming all applicable excuses!It is not

Cirrusnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1153597309590169332006-07-22T12:35:00.000-07:002007-02-17T11:32:52.710-08:00

Today is Thursday, 20 July 2006. We have been back in Hawaii since Monday. Tomorrow is the Awards Ceremony at KYC, and then it is really over. Talk about post-partum blues! A couple days ago I was the King of England and today I’m a bagger in a supermarket checkout line. Being skipper in an ocean race is pretty heady business. The commander of a space shuttle mission does not have more

Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755115401748664570noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1153188400843575492006-07-17T19:03:00.000-07:002006-07-17T19:06:40.856-07:00

I was fortunate to be invited to go out with Ron Dodini & Charlie and Mary Jane Roskosz to greet Cirrus as she came across the finish line. What a beautiful sight!

Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755115401748664570noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1153166017619393452006-07-17T12:53:00.000-07:002007-02-17T11:31:28.391-08:00

Only 25 miles to go! This will be the last email for this trip, although I should be careful with such a statement, since last time our troubles really began a this point, and I had to add a long mail describing all the things that had gone wrong. So keep fingers crossed!Last night and this morning was awesome. Wind increased but the sea remained more or less flat, waves were only 2 - 3 feet. The

Cirrusnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1153158999309766932006-07-17T10:53:00.000-07:002006-07-17T10:56:39.330-07:00

I have just spoken with Bill. Cirrus is expected to cross the finish line at approximately noon, Hawaiian Standard Time. They are having a perfect morning...blue skies, clear water, great boat speed and building excitement. Watch this spot for Ulli's report and for arrival pictures which we will get posted as soon as possible.

Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755115401748664570noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1153090880811933232006-07-16T16:01:00.000-07:002006-07-16T16:01:20.866-07:00

Where are the trade winds? They are supposed to be with us at this time and distance to Hawaii, combined with some good waves, about what we had a few days earlier. Instead we have almost flat water and very low wind. Not a single white cap visible up to the horizon. In addition the wind is not coming from straight easterly directions as forecasted, but more from south-easterly to south. We are

Cirrusnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1153024245728595032006-07-15T21:30:00.000-07:002007-02-17T11:35:13.486-08:00

NOTE: this mail goes out via satellite; our radio is malfunctioning, UlliThis morning brought a little surprise with equipment failure, where we never had a problem, the radio. I was sitting at the radio at roll call time, but couldn't here a thing. I scrambled to check the other candidate frequencies, but they weren't there. Finally, I thought to have heard an extremely faint voice reporting

Cirrusnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1152942509064819242006-07-14T22:40:00.000-07:002006-07-14T22:51:45.106-07:00

Complain about your food situation, and you will be served. Following Greg's advice we used the green-yellow lure this time, as he knows from his previous life that this is the most appealing to fish. He was right. The lure is the size of a big thumb, painted in a violent green, with green and yellow extensions coming from it. At first glance - except for the color - it does look like a squid.

Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755115401748664570noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1152913574222450482006-07-14T14:46:00.000-07:002006-07-14T14:46:14.256-07:00

After changing into some new sails yesterday evening we continued at a good clip, and made a 151 mile day. Unfortunately, Green Buffalo and Hooligan each made 25 more than us. There goes the chance. I wonder why Hooligan was doing so poorly on the day before. They may have had some problems, which they obviously have overcome. I took a look at the boat behind us, Cassiopeia. They are some 90

Cirrusnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1152866124387767032006-07-14T01:34:00.000-07:002006-07-14T10:20:46.723-07:00

Donna says, upon seeing this arrangement of sails, "Where's the kitchen sink?"

Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755115401748664570noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1152865991066952452006-07-14T01:24:00.000-07:002006-07-14T01:33:11.086-07:00

(Note from Valerie: this picture was sent before the post about "shore power" and 9 hours before the picture of Cirrus in her new clothes.)Cirrus continues to cut through the Pacific waters. As reported, we lost our boom on the 6th day out, and had to continue without a mainsail, just using the spinnaker alone. But even with that handicap we are successfully defending our position as 4th boat

Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755115401748664570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1152858745415268392006-07-13T23:32:00.000-07:002006-07-13T23:32:25.466-07:00

Mental shore power, that is. Our secret weapon ashore, Valerie, informed us about the ongoing "Get Cirrus Home" contest. This was enough of a kick in the ... to get the inertia out of the system. Conditions remained wild all afternoon and evening, and still are. I did my last weather faxes and emails after dinner (shrimps and bow-tie pasta. Excellent. We missed the chilled Chardonnay), and got

Cirrusnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1152822370266859702006-07-13T13:26:00.000-07:002006-07-13T13:26:10.320-07:00

That was a wild night! Wind picked up quite a bit under squally conditions, and we got close to loosing control over the boat. But we managed, and all is well. The sails may disagree.With the good wind yesterday we made 162 nm, a very good result for us given our sail outfit. We remain on 4th place in Division A, and only 8 miles behind the 3rd boat, which is now Hooligan, who had been passed by

Cirrusnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1152740163311169582006-07-12T14:36:00.000-07:002006-07-12T14:36:03.326-07:00

You can rely on old traditions being cherished on Cirrus, and one of them is to blow a spinnaker. It happened yesterday during dinner time. The lightweight 1/2 ounce spinnaker, so carefully sewed by the Canadjian tag team, disintegrated explosively during a challenging squall. After thorough and careful evaluation by this highly qualified crew we decided to not fix the spinnaker, because we could

Cirrusnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1152738692620803152006-07-12T14:09:00.000-07:002006-07-12T14:24:46.476-07:00

Bill clearly takes the business of opening a celebratory bottle very seriously. Given the angle, we assume no one was hit by the flying cork.

Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755115401748664570noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1152668160970356332006-07-11T18:36:00.000-07:002006-07-11T18:36:00.980-07:00

Decisions, decisions, decisions, that's what a hard working racing crew is facing. Should we make the boat lighter by throwing one or more crew overboard - illegal by racing rules - or do we jibe now or later, or do we have the Champagne with the caviar or wait for the main dish? Yesss, we made it to the half-way point and had our party!At about 5 pm yesterday we reached the top of the hill -

Cirrusnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1152661516861749762006-07-11T16:37:00.000-07:002006-07-11T16:45:16.883-07:00

It needs two of the tough Canadjians (Greg and MP) to fix two spinnakers along the bottom edge. Each spinnaker seam is some 30 feet, and each stitch is set collaboratively. Yet they still seem to be having fun! (Ulli)

Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755115401748664570noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1152571257887260692006-07-10T15:40:00.000-07:002006-07-10T15:40:57.983-07:00

This isn't a fast race by any stretch of the imagination, competing in slowness with the 2000 and 2004 races. And having only one sail up doesn't make it faster for us. That is saying you need to have at least one sail up, and here is where our next little problem came up.In our strive for best use of very limited resources, we decided this morning, about 5am, under a full moon, to jibe the

Cirrusnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1152479456399132132006-07-09T14:10:00.000-07:002006-07-09T14:10:56.406-07:00

Well, the event of the day was definitely the breaking of the boom. We are doing quite fine since then, except that, as already mentioned, the rolling of the boat is really becoming a nuisance. We haven't addressed that part yet, but the mainsail had been packed nicely and stowed away. We do not see a chance to raise it again during this race. I have successfully send a picture to our pit-crew

Cirrusnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1152469002324013942006-07-09T11:15:00.000-07:002006-07-09T17:00:05.096-07:00

This picture of the broken boom, and Bill and Greg securing the main sail, was transmitted by short wave radio.

Valeriehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03755115401748664570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1152442883997543562006-07-09T04:01:00.000-07:002006-07-09T04:01:24.046-07:00

Exactly at midnight, under a full moon, it happened.A loud "bang" sounded through the boat, followed by a yell from the night watch in the cockpit. And not much after, an "All hands on deck" call was made. The boom broke.The boom is the pole which holds the lower side of the mainsail, and is fastened to the mast by the gooseneck. Faithful readers might remember the "Gilligan's Gooseneck" story

Cirrusnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1152392484089524922006-07-08T14:01:00.000-07:002006-07-08T14:01:24.136-07:00

Last afternoon had been hot and slow. Eventually, with our moving away from the High, the sky turned cloudy and it became cooler. But then, very suddenly, the clouds disappeared and wind slowed down considerably. The High seemed to have suddenly expanded. And indeed, as we later noticed from the weather charts, the High had almost explosively stretched by a few hundred miles. There went our hope

Cirrusnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1152307286474136382006-07-07T14:21:00.001-07:002006-07-07T14:21:26.480-07:00

Boy, is this ocean crowded! You can't do anymore a decent day's sail without running into some ship. This night we noticed a light at the horizon, and, after starting the radar, realized that it was not a racer, but again a big ship. And we kept seeing it at a constant angle, which meant we were on a collision course. Again. Calling them on the radio had no effect. No answer over 10 min. Then we

Cirrusnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1152307286356715572006-07-07T14:21:00.000-07:002006-07-07T14:21:26.406-07:00

Apparently there had been a discrepancy between our performance calculation and the official one of the Pacific Cup Race Committee, which, with a little bit of helping from our end, was resolved in our favor ;-).One problem is that there is really only one criterion to judge performance: crossing the finish line! Everything else is undefined. Nevertheless, we all want to know where we stand in

Cirrusnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1152221465535794932006-07-06T14:31:00.000-07:002006-07-06T14:31:06.990-07:00

Sailing with the new, blue-white spinnaker up was such a treat. Moderate winds at under 10 kn, and a rather flat sea let us drive fast, close to hull speed *), which is some 8.5 knots for Cirrus. However, the night was so much lighter in wind than the day, that we came out only with an under 7 kn average for the day.Fortunately the conditions were slow for everyone, and we ended as 1st in

Cirrusnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1152142153809361672006-07-05T16:26:00.000-07:002006-07-05T16:33:50.956-07:00

Agnes took a ton of pictures during the Division A start on Monday and I sent a few of them over to Lisa Niemczura, the Pacific Cup co-webmaster (with Walt). And she posted them. Check it out: Division A Start Photos . -- Chris Doutre

Cirrusnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1152125461856720112006-07-05T11:51:00.000-07:002006-07-05T11:51:01.920-07:00

Things seem to be settling into their tracks. Seasickness is an issue of the past - everyone is fine again. After almost 2 days for me without anything to eat, the Lasagne for dinner was even better than usual. Plus a wonderful green salad - might have been the last one for the trip as green stuff doesn't last well - and all accompanied with a great Bordeaux. Although I have to admit the wine

Cirrusnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1152052365004881752006-07-04T15:32:00.000-07:002006-07-04T15:32:45.023-07:00

As you may have noticed recently, the "Position Tracking - Race" link on the left below has been showing the 2004 race. Well, it's just been updated and is now showing the 2006 race. Don't forget to click on the little red balloon pointer to get the boat's position, course, and speed.  --  Chris Doutre

Cirrusnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1152045083249422382006-07-04T13:31:00.000-07:002006-07-04T16:01:02.366-07:00

This race may well go into the history books of Cirrus as the "seasickness" race.We had a tight start with almost all boats of our division crossing the start line pretty much simultaneously. Something more seen in buoy races, where seconds count, not so much on ocean races, where the risk of damaging the boat is not worth the gain of a few seconds. Also unusual was that the boats were staying

Cirrusnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1151972705687034752006-07-03T17:14:00.001-07:002006-07-04T14:48:01.240-07:00

This morning at 11:15 am PDT, Cirrus crossed the Pacific Cup start line with the rest of the Division A boats. All except for Cayenne that is. That boat had a noticeable lead right from the get-go. But Cirrus was holding her own between California Girl and Hooligan (I think), followed by Cassiopeia and Green Buffalo, dicing it out for clear air as they all beat towards the Golden Gate

Cirrusnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1151818691304797102006-07-01T22:25:00.000-07:002006-07-01T22:42:54.293-07:00

Cirrus underwent a bunch of little repairs, like replacing engine hoses, hydraulic cylinders for the rigging tensioning, got a bottom cleaning, caulking (lots of it) to seal the interior against water dripping into the bunks and a whole lot more. She is now waiting in the docks of the Richmond Yacht Club, eager to be released! We are flying our battle flag, as you can see.The starting gun will

Cirrusnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1150042625068212952006-06-11T09:16:00.000-07:002006-06-11T10:01:26.503-07:00

Delivery of Cirrus from Hawaii to San Francisco Bay did not go without problems, but eventually she docked at the marina of Richmond in the evening of June 5, 2006.Congratulation to the crew, and welcome to the mainland!The left picture is the farewell picture as Cirrus departs from Hawaii on this delivery, and the bottom one shows the crew standing on the dock of the marina of the Richmond Yacht

Cirrusnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1148817307477631222006-03-01T12:00:00.000-08:002006-05-28T05:02:31.690-07:00

HAMs may also be interested to listen in to the radio communication during the race. A quick link to the full radio communication schedule is available from our Links section for 2006.Briefly, daily roll call begins at 0900 PDT at 4146 kHz, but time and frequency will/may change during the race. The informal radio hour - "Happy Hour" - "Children's hour" is at 1700 PDT at 4146 kHz.Ulli

Cirrusnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1147979360877211582006-03-01T11:00:00.000-08:002006-05-22T10:03:14.836-07:00

If you associate HAM only with breakfast, you will be learning something new here. HAMs are the amateur radio operators, who do - among many other things - span a wide network of radiostations, dedicated to help sailors around the world. In our region we have the Pacific Seafarers' Radio net . If you have a shortwave radio, you can even listen in; you don't need the fancy HAM equipment.While

Cirrusnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1144518138125471132006-03-01T10:00:00.000-08:002006-05-08T13:15:52.753-07:00

Weather analysis and forecast are available from NOAA through short wave radiofax and online sources. The marine charts relevant for us are found here. The "Pacific Surface Analysis" chart shown on the left is the most important one; these are updated and reissued every 6 hours. By clicking on the weathermap picture on the left you will always see the most-up-to-date surface analysis. We will be

Cirrusnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1142097277081499182006-03-01T09:00:00.000-08:002006-04-07T09:49:09.120-07:00

The picture on the left *) shows an example of Cirrus clouds, the namegivers for the sailboat Cirrus, and the picture on the right how an artist rendered Cirrus' logo. *) from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Cirrus_clouds2.jpg

Cirrusnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20197632.post-1135690792060692172006-03-01T08:00:00.000-08:002006-04-08T10:55:44.086-07:00

Cirrus is going again on the Pacific Cup, the sailboat race from San Francisco to Hawaii. You are invited to follow our trip on this website.Is Cirrus a seaworthy sailboat?Cirrus is a veteran on the Pacific. Her first Pacific Cup was in 1998, followed by the next Cup in 2000, and then again in 2004. So with all trips back and forth, she has navigated the waters between San Francisco and Hawaii

Cirrusnoreply@blogger.com1