you know there is a saying among the theater folks : when the dress rehearsal, the final practise run before the premiere, goes really bad, then you are set for bold success at premiere. By that measure, Cirrrus will just fly through the race!

What happened? As you know, Cirrus' home port is on Oahu, one of the Hawaiian islands, while the race starts in San Francisco, going back to the village Kaneohe on Oahu. Obviously, Cirrus needs to be delivered to San Francisco before the race. Cirrus left Kaneohe for San Francisco on the morning of Saturday May 13th, virtually exactly as planned - 10:00AM PST. Many friends on dock to cheer them on, air horns from other boats, lei (the Hawaiian flower necklaces) from friends for crew and boat, and a Hawaiian blessing complete with Okolehau (an old time brandy made from sugar cane.) The weather was perfect with a steady wind, clear skies and a calm sea. Sails were raised almost as soon as the boat cleared the marina and they disappeared from sight very quickly. The crew, Bill Myers as skipper, Marie-Pierre as mermaid, Nancy Piper as therapist, and Chris Doutre as radio operator - if you think this sounds wild, you don't know Cirrus yet ! - looked relaxed and very happy. Boat looked neat and ship shape. They should have a wonderful time.

So we thought.

Next thing we hear was that they had a reef in the main, going close hauled, heeling at 40 degrees, in 6 feet bumpy waves, still going at 7-8 knots. Or in layman's words: plain misery in too much wind and waves, and all coming from the wrong direction. The head (i.e. the toilet) was leaking, water dripped into the bunks from a leak, the traveller had a defect, and a few more things to make life on board even more miserable. Conditions worsened, and forced them on a course due south, or basically back to where they had left from three days ago. Everyone was still ok, but bruised and wet. A NOAA weather forecaster, whom they had contacted, confirmed that a "November-type" storm was out there, and that he didn't see any way for a sailboat to make it to San Francisco for at least another week. With that magnitude of delay the crew would no longer be available, and a new crew was not in sight. Bill decided to cancel delivery.

Which meant he cancelled the race.

When he called me with the bad news yesterday late evening - of my time, Hawaii and Germany are 12h apart - I was just doing my workouts, trying to get myself into "shipshape" conditions. I didn't continue. My highlight for this year just collapsed. Apparently, others felt similar. What then began reminds me a bit of the "Gilligan's Gooseneck" story from the 2004 race (see day 6 under Cirrus' Daily Email Messages), only it was not about hardware. Magically a solution comes in sight when the situation is almost hopeless. It so happened that Donna Austin, who will be crew on Cirrus for the race, has a daughter, Lindsey, who is an experienced sailor, and who has offered to do the delivery, as she happened to be available during this time. One thing came to another and at the end we now have a full delivery crew consisting of the old crew - yes, despite all odds all of them found a way to make it! - plus Donna and Lindsey. And another problem apparently got solved in passing: Caroline, who had been crew in 2004 was also scheduled as crew for this year, but unfortunately had to withdraw. She will be replaced with Greg Yankelovich, who had been crew in 2000, whom we could finally convince to join again. We now have a full crew, in both directions.

Cirrus Screwed Dress Rehearsal - How much better can it get?

Back to my workout,
Aloha,
Ulli

Today, with extremely light winds, and very calm seas, in the middle of the Pacific High, Bill decided it was time to address our furling line situation. As you may remember, it chafed through on our first day out, after several hours of heavy duty as a "reefing" line. Since then, Bill has re-attached the broken ends to each other, but in the original incident, when the furling drum spun free, many turns were lost from the drum, so there was now no way to furl the replacement storm sail fully, not a good situation, especially when our course will be taking us into an oncoming low pressure area with stronger winds. So Bill furled the sail as much as he could, added more turns to the drum, and furled it to the max again. So now, this (smaller) sail can furl and unfurl completely. The bad news is that, with that knot in the line, there is no way to furl and unfurl our full genoa. The other bad news is that our full genoa went overboard during the original struggle. All is being logged and will be addressed in due process. Meanwhile, due to the efforts of Bill, with the able assistance of Donna and Lindsey, our furling system works perfectly with the storm sail. As Bill says, "At the moment, our limited furling capability is fully adequate for our limited requirements."

Hi to everyone ashore. We are currently motoring across the high, making seven knots, and charging all our batteries and every iPod, camera, and PalmPilot in sight. We said Aloha to the pineapple crown this morning so I guess that means fresh fruit with lunch. -- Chris

I just finished my 0000 to 0400 watch. We have now been motoring for 26 hours at about 6 knots (2200 rpm), occasionally 6.5 during the day (2500 rpm). We are at 31 north latitude, 144 west longitude, in the middle of the (mostly stationary) pacific high. The seas are almost completely flat calm , and the winds are following at about 3 knots. The sky is beautiful and clear and I saw a spectacular meteorite tonight; extremely brief, but very bright and fast-moving. I saw no ships, but MP saw a freighter from 12 miles out on her 2000-0000 watch. Since we are keeping Hawaiian Standard Time, the sun comes up around 0400. Very nice. We expect to pass our half-way point (1034 miles to go) sometime this afternoon. I suspect there will be something special to eat tonight. Not that it hasn't been pretty special every night. We had Valerie's famous crab Parmesan quiche and spinach quiche, with white rice, last night. Nancy did her usual magic in the galley. And lunch was one of my favorites: tuna salad, along with chicken salad; this time Donna did the galley magic.
I talked to Lou on the radio last night; he gave us some weather info from his contact at the NWS at UH. It appears that we will hit some strong favorable winds in the next few days, sweeping us to SF at a brisk pace. Thank you Lou!
I should mention today's steering scare; it was nothing, just my imagination. I woke up this morning with a start because I kept hearing this loud squeaking that seemed to be in sync with the rudder movements. So I rushed on deck, where all were assembled, just in time to see Lindsey shoot some oil into the Monitor wind-vane mechanism. It was not steering the boat at the time, just idling, but it sure was noisy. Problem solved, back to sleep for me. - Chris

WHAT IS A NAUTICAL MILE? AND HOW DOES IT DIFFER FROM A "NORMAL" MILE AND A KILOMETER?
A nautical mile is based on the circumference of the planet Earth. If you were to cut the Earth in half at the equator, you could pick up one of the halves and look at the equator as a circle. You could divide that circle into 360 degrees. You could then divide a degree into 60 minutes. A minute of arc on the planet Earth is 1 nautical mile. This unit of measurement is used by all nations for air and sea travel. A knot is a unit of measure for speed. If you are traveling at a speed of 1 nautical mile per hour, you are said to be traveling at a speed of 1 knot.
A kilometer is also defined using the planet Earth as a standard of distance. If you were to take the Earth and cut it in half along a line passing from the North Pole through Paris, and then measure the distance of the curve running from the North Pole to the equator on that circle, and then divide that distance by 10,000, you would have the traditional unit for the kilometer as defined in 1791 by the French Academy of Sciences.
A nautical mile is 1,852 meters, or 1.852 kilometers. In the English measurement system, a nautical mile is 1.1508 miles, or 6,076 feet.
To travel around the Earth at the equator, you would have to travel (360 * 60) 21,600 nautical miles, 24,857 miles or 40,003 kilometers.

Cirrus experienced an "episode of blue sky" at dawn this morning. This was followed fairly quickly by the typical coastal "whomp" of fog settling down all around and in a half hour they were "socked in solid." They had become optomistic about their arrival given two days of 7-8 knot speeds but the winds have dropped off and they are only making 6 kn. now. This seems almost intolerably slow to them which I suspect is caused by anticipation of the end of the journey and the almost total lack of visibility. They now anticipate arriving closer to Tuesday than Monday. Given Bill's history, they will probably arrive right in between the two.

As of 6 AM HST their position was Lat. 34 deg. 40 min. N, Lon. 132 deg. 30 min. W. Course is 062 True at 6 knots. They have, you will note, turned NE again. If there is going to be rough weather it will come down the coast from the north and Bill would like to be above the entrance to the Bay as they approach rather than beat their way in. A look at the weather prediction would suggest that this won't be a problem but that is my opinion from many miles away!Relative wind is 160 at 5 kn, true wind is 233 at ll kn. Barometer is at 1019, rising steadily. Seas at 220, 2'. Air temp. is 59 deg. F, water is 54 deg. F.

They had a 138 mile day, with 520 nautical miles to go. We are hearing from friends and it begins to look like they will have a fine welcoming committee. If any of you in the Bay Area want to be there - they are planning to go into Richmond Yacht Club - Slip C21. I hope to talk with them tonight from Lou Ickler's and will update the blog if there is anything new. Aloha - Valerie

Evidently, I have been maligning Bill and Cirrus. I received an e-mail from Frank Plasil who was a member of the delivery crew in 2004 in which he stated that, "...I must take issue with one of your statements..." regarding Cirrus "never" arriving during the day time. He pointed out that, "Actually, we did arrive during daylight...as I remember very vividly. It is written up beautifully in Marie-Pierre's 'Carnet de Voyage'." Frank went on to translate a passage from the "Carnet" which he describes as "very beautiful and fills me with nostalgia."

"San Francisco appeared very early this morning through the ususal coastal fog. The red disc of the rising sun pierces the fog above the Golden Gate...Cirrus continues on its course while the red sun changes slowly to gold and dissipates the fog to allow us to pass. We pass under the bridge which marks our arrival. We have reached our goal. One hour later, Cirrus docks in the little port of Richmond in the north of the bay of San Francisco. Valerie, and some friends, waited on the dock with champagne and croissants. The breakfast of Gods!"

Yes, they have arrived during daylight hours. May they do so again!

By the way, if anyone is interested in purchasing a copy of Marie-Pierre's book (it is in French but even if you don't read French the illustrations are fabulous), click on her name on the crew list to the left...ordering information is all there.

Since some time yesterday afternoon they have been experiencing "dead calm" with the exception of "occasional gusts" of 1 or 2 knots. Hard to imagine anything more discouraging on a sail boat. Obviously this meant motoring and, as of this morning, they had enough fuel to motor for another 26 hours. This is the time for all the FOC (friends of Cirrus) to chant, dance, pray, light candles.....do whatever works to invite more wind to fill the sails and gentle her in to SF Bay. When Bill called this morning at 7 AM the wind was just beginning to pick up a little.

In addition to the lack of wind, they still have fog all around. They are able to look straight up overhead and see the sky. Moon and stars at night. Clear and lovely. But the view out to each horizon is no more than 200. Radar works but it is an additional strain.

The 6 AM HST statistics placed Cirrus at 35 deg. 39 min. North and 130 deg. 07 min. West. Their course was 046 True at 4.9 knots (under sail.) The relative wind was 105 at 4 kn. and true wind 200 at 7kn. Sea direction was 210 at about 2 feet. Barometer 1021 and, while it had been slowly rising over the 24 hour period, was now steady. Air - 59 deg. F, water - 54 deg. F.

130 nautical miles made good in 24 hours with 390 nautical miles to go. GO, CIRRUS, GO!

Yesterday Cirrus made her first tack of the entire trip - from starboard to port. The conditions are reported to be "perfect" and the tensions have drained from their voices. They are happily moving at 6-7 kn. on a beam reach. All reefs are gone and the heavy weather jib has been stowed and replaced by an old 120 that seems to be doing the job.

At 6 AM HST they were sailing a course of 070 true at 6.7 kn. Latitude 36 deg. 37 min. N, Longitude 127 deg. 13 min W. Relative wind 240 at 7 and true wind 280 at 12. Barometer 1018.4 and rising very slowly. Sea direction 280 with swells of about 3'. Air temp. 57 deg. F, water temp. 54 deg. F.

They put another 152 nautical miles behind them and have only 238 to go. Bill estimates a midnight Monday arrival. Maybe, with a little more wind (which is often the case closer to the coast) they could come in earlier but who knows. Sailing is, after all, never done on an exact timetable!

As of 7 AM HST Cirrus only had another 68 miles to go. I'm sure they are greeting this news with mixed emotions. Soon it will be time for a hot shower, an uninterrupted sleep, clean clothes...but the end of a wonderful adventure approaches and that is like saying "good-bye". Bitter-sweet. Bitter-sweet for me too as this will be first time I won't be on the dock to greet them.

They partially furled the jib during the night to make for a little more comfortable driving but all sails are fully deployed now and they are, as Bill put it, "on a sled ride to the gate." They are sailing on a beam reach in about 12-13 knots of wind and making boat speeds in the 7-8 knot range. ETA is still about 6PM HST/9PM PDT. Anyone want to start a pool?

Details as of 6AM HST: Lat. 37 deg. 25 min. N, Lon. 124 deg. 10 min. W. Course 075 True at 7 kn. Relative wind 256 @ 9kn, True wind 300 @ 13. Sea dir. 320 at 4' Barometer 1015 and steady. Cloud cover 100% Air 53 deg. F, Water 52 deg. F

They are at the San Francisco Buoy - sailing at 8.5 knots. I heard cheering in the background. They can see San Francisco and, although they are still in fog, it is shining brightly in the sun.

Cirrus crossed beneath the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay at 5 PM HST or 8 PM PDT. The sun is just setting. There is no fog - it is "absolutely gorgeous."

Cirrus happily arrived at the dock at Richmond Yacht Club at 9:00 PM, PDT. Several friends were on the dock to greet them with the most excited and anxious, probably, being Chris' wife Agnes. There was a party in full swing when Bill called and, clearly, he was anxious to get back to it.

WELL DONE CIRRUS AND CREW!

Photos courtesy of Dave Littlejohn