Yesterday I was monitoring the AIS receiver at my house to see what was going on in the neighborhood. As is often the case when there is a heavy marine layer (fog), the AIS signals were propagating from a long way off, some as far as 700 nautical miles. But something much closer to home caught my eye: several Class-B AIS vessels having Polynesian names were tightly grouped near Point Reyes and Drake’s Bay:

July 31, 2:00PM
A little snooping with Google revealed that these were six Polynesian-style 72-foot sailing canoes, en-route from Hanele Bay, Kaua’i, Hawaii to San Francisco. These vessels began their voyage in Aukland, sailed through the South Pacific, to Hawaii, and will be arriving in San Francisco tomorrow (if the wind doesn’t die completely). Here’s the website for the Pacific Voyager’s project: http://www.pacificvoyagers.org/
This looked like a great excuse for a field trip, so we packed the camera and binoculars and drove out to Pt. Reyes – it’s less than an hour from our place. As we approached the lighthouse, we saw one of the boats a short way off shore, struggling to work its way into the southerly and very light headwinds:

The HAUNUI
The seas were calm, winds light, and the fog overhead slowly drifted past. These probably weren’t the conditions the voyagers were hoping for! We walked to the lighthouse and saw three more of the fleet trying to work their way south. One was almost to the point, and the other two were slowly tacking back and forth, not making much progress. After watching for a while, we drove down to Drake’s Bay, where we say HAUNUI working her way into the calm waters. There was a large white motorsailor in the bay, which we later learned was the EVOHE, the support boat for this expedition. As we were leaving Drake’s Bay, the HANUI began slowly sailing back out to sea.
The fleet had been planning to enter San Francisco Bay this evening (Monday) with the 5:00PM flood current, but they are now planning on a Tuesday arrival. The wind has not been cooperating at all, instead of the typical 20 kts from the NW, they have been seeing 2-4kts from the South (and I’ll bet some of this “wind” is actually caused by the weather buoy rocking back and forth):

Here they were as of 1:00PM today:

These are the three trailing canoes, with their support boat in front. I’m no longer receiving the AIS transmissions from the leading three canoes, there are gaps in my coverage off of Pt. Bonita. I suspect they are waiting for the rest of the fleet to catch up. This has been a tough slog as the fleet approaches San Francisco. UTO NI YALO has only made twelve miles in 23 hours, for a VMG of 0.5 kts.
These canoes will be open to the public when they arrive in San Francisco (on Treasure Island). According to the published schedule, open house will be on Aug 6th.

Here is our return track from Kaneohe Bay to San Francisco. If you download the Google Earth .kmz file (VALIS – Pac Cup Return 2010.kmz) you can see the hourly conditions we were experiencing.

Also, at long last I have finally completed the videos for the 2008 Pac Cup:

Race Video: http://www.sailvalis.com/Pac%20Cup%2008/Race/index.htm

Return Video: http://www.sailvalis.com/Pac%20Cup%2008/Slides/index.htm

The “flv” file is pretty low quality (but small), and the “wmv” file is slightly better (and larger).

Congratulations to VALIS 2010 crewmember David Nabors, on his impressive win in the Windjammers race from San Francisco to Santa Cruz!  His boat Temerity won first in division, and the Santa Cruz Cup, for the first to finish (boats with PHRF > 72).

Here is our track for the 2010 Pacific Cup. Notice the great-circle path, and below that the rhumbline. The typical track to Hawaii is south of the rhumbline. This was a very strange year indeed!

VALIS – Pac Cup 2010.kmz

Saturday, August 14, 3:30 PM. Position: 38-01N, 124-03W Speed: 6 kts. Course: 090 magnetic Motoring, 2000 RPM.
Other than a pleasant four-hour interval of sailing this morning, we have been motoring. Our fuel supply is good, and we are nearing the Golden Gate. We should arrive in Sausalito by 7:00AM Sunday (give or take).
We are still too far out to see land (we are about 50 miles due west of Point Reyes), but we are seeing lots of ships. The sky is overcast, but visibility near the water is good and we can see out to the horizon. Our AIS system tells us when a large ship is approaching, but we still need to scan regularly for smaller vessels. We’ve only seen the big ships though. One, a U.S. Navy vessel, is warning everyone to keep clear of their live-firing operation, and fortunately we are many miles from the danger zone.
Yesterday we had a pod of dolphins swim by and play in our bow wave. There were perhaps six of them, and they really seemed to enjoy cutting back and forth across our bow, and jumping into the air. They stayed with us for about ten or fifteen minutes.
Today we saw a seal (or sea lion), just a few feet from VALIS as we sailed past. The creature was lying on its back, flippers held up to the overcast sun. Later Rich and Dick spotted a small shark’s fin.
While we were sailing this morning, Paul and Carl decided to check the engine’s oil level (good), and fuel filter (some sludge in the filter’s sediment bowl). OK, let’s change the filter so the engine doesn’t quit when we really need it! What could possibly go wrong? Air in the fuel lines, that what could go wrong. And it did. After replacing the filter, the engine ran for a few seconds, then sputtered and died. It took us over an hour to bleed the air out of the fuel injection system, and at times we seemed to be hopelessly befuddled. Finally, we got the fuel running air-free through the apparatus, and the engine began to purr contentedly. Which was a good thiing as the wind had dropped to practically nothing.
We’ve been motoring since then, and will probably be motoring all the way to Sausalito.
Tonight we will be watching for the Point Reyes lighthouse, then the light on South Farallon Island. We will be passing east of the Farallones, and are planning to enter the Golden Gate shipping lane just outside the shallow fourfathom bank. The current should be favorable for our passage down the channel and under the bridge. The seas are very calm, and it should be a smooth ride.
This will be our last blog entry from VALIS, but I plan to post photos in the coming weeks, so do check back.
Than you for following our voyage, Paul / VALIS

We have run out of wind. Just as predicted, after an evening of generally good sailing, this morning at 10:00AM the wind stopped. Our boat speed dropped under four knots, and it was impossible to steer a useful direction in the leftover swells. So, also as predicted, we started up the diesel and are now steaming towards San Francisco at about six knots. The main and genoa are furled to protect them and the rigging from the slatting, and the staysail is up, sheeted hard amidships to reduce the rolling and perhaps coax a fraction of a knot from the residual wind.
Under these conditions the Monitor self-steering windvane is useless, and we have determined that the autopilot is indeed broken, so we are hand-steering. This is more tiring than you might guess, and after an hour of staring at the compass the helmsman can become quite fatigued and even hallucinate. The sky is a uniform grey so there are no landmarks to steer by, only the small spinning compass dial. This evening instead of the three-hour watches we have been standing we will try two-hour watches. The trick is to balance on-watch time and off-watch sleeping time. We think the 2-on, 6-off schedule will work well enough.
We are still working on that tuna, and last night we had a great meal with stir-fried rice, and baked tuna with a home-made teriyaki sauce (Mae Ploy chili sauce with soy saucce mixed in).
Arrival at the Golden Gate bridge will likely be in the early AM hours on Sunday morning. This will depend on how much motoring we do and how much sailing.
Paul / VALIS

August 12, 2:30 PM PDT Position: 39-02 N, 129-59 W (359 miles to the Golden Gate Bridge) Speed: 7.2 kts, Course: 085 degrees magnetic
We are screaming home, with great winds and six-foot seas, and pointed directly towards the Golden Gate Bridge. We expect the wind to drop by tomorrow morning, but we are still on track for a Sunday arrival.
Yesterday saw us break our return-passage 24-hour speed record, with an 8PM – 8PM run of 170 miles. The skies have been cloudy, with occasional drizzle, but there have been patches of blue. At the moment we are enjoying some sun, sailing fast through the sparkling dark blue water.
This morning the autopilot shut itself off, which caused the boat to head off-course into the wind. Carl was on watch, and he quickly grabbed the wheel and put us back on course. We re-engaged the autopilot, only to have it shut off again after a few minutes. We then reconnected the Monitor windvane and it is once again steering us smoothly towards home.
The autopilot does consume a lot of electrical power, and the batteries have been depleted pretty far, so the low battery voltage may have caused the autopilot failure. We haven’t wannted to run the engine to charge the batteries as we will want the fuel for motoring later, but we relented and charged for two hours. For now there’s no need to disengage the Monitor (which is mechanical and uses no power), but when we begin motoring we will try the autopilot again. It’s always possible that the autopilot is sufferiing from the effects of salt water (and not low voltage), and if this is the case once the Monitor no longer has the wind it needs to operate we will hand-steer instead. VALIS was hand-steered all the way to Hawaii, so this shouldn’t be a problem.
Our AIS system is once again detecting freighters, but over the last couple of days only one or two have been close enough see by eye. We are also seeing the vapor trails from jet planes, some obviously heading towards, or leaving from San Francisco. Signs of civilization!
And that’s about it. Nothing very exciting, but these days we enjoy the simple pleasures of our fairly random discussions, the beautiful surroundings, the way our boat responds to the wind and waves, and the anticipation of seeing our loved ones very soon.
Paul / VALIS

Wednesday, August 11, 3:45PM PDT Position: 39-35N, 133-17W Speed: 7 kts, Course: 087 degrees magnetic
Today we just sailed. Sailed fast, too. This is on track to be our fastest day yet. perhaps 169 miles in 24 hours (from 8:00PM to 8:00PM). The wind has been a steady 16-20 kts from the north, and the seas about six feet from the north and northwest. We have reefed the main and genoa to balance the boat, and the ride has been fairly comfortable. There have been interludes of sunshine, but the day has been largely grey and cloudy with occasional drizzle. We should have another day of these conditions, then the wind is supposed to get much lighter and be swinging around to come from the west. The last day or two of our passage may be slow.
For much of the day we had two albatross circling the boat, and occasionally coming in for a water landing. When they want to set down, these large graceful flyers put their feet out as skis or brakes, and glide in for a pretty abrupt landing. They would float for a few minutes then take off for another circuit or two around VALIS.
We will sail through the 500-miles-to-go mark around 6:00PM this evening, and the crew is definitely thinkiing about home. Of course predicting the exact time of landfall is impossible, but a Sunday arrival seems like a distinct possibility. As we get closer our arrival will become much clearer.
Lunch today: Tuna. Dinner: Tuna. Breakfast tomorrow: NOT TUNA!
Paul / VALIS

Tuesday, August 10, 11:30 AM PDT
Position 40-00N, 137-25W Hove-to for fish cleaning (and cockpit cleaning).
Dick was becoming frustrated by the lack of fish. Last night he pulled in the line and found it had snagged a paper towel (probably one of ours), which no doubt had scared off any fish. This morning he put out the line as the sun came up, and within ten minutes had hooked a large tuna, about 40 inches long and very thick. Getting it on board was a struggle, but Dick, Carl, and Rich did it. The fish was quickly anaesthetized with “fish juice” (cheap vodka) in its gills, but the boat was a bloody mess by the time it was secure. We hove-to to wash the cockpit, the rails, the navigation equipment, the sheets, and Dick’s boots and foulies. It took many buckets of salt water and some scrubbing to rince everytthing down.
Carl and Dick then proceeded to clean, scale, and slice the beast into many tuna steaks. Our fresh meat supply is no longer a problem, and I think we will be bringing some home with us. Fishing operations aboard VALIS are suspended for the duration.
Any minute now we will resume sailing for San Francisco.
Photo: Dick and Carl display the catch.

Monday, August 9, 4:00PM PDT
Yesterday we were motoring. Then we were sailing, Then motoring. Sailing again. This went of for most of the day, then as the sun began to sink in the western sky the wind steadied and we sailed through the night. Still no fish, we had a simple dinner of coleslaw and soup, which we all enjoyed very much.
During the afternoon we began to see swells from the north combining with the swells from the west which we had become quite comfortable. The new swells , while still small, created a much different boat motion, and during the night these northern swells became dominant.The wind also picked up occasionally, to a high of 20 kts. We spent the night sailing into the larger seas and stronger winds. Actuall, these were still quite moderate, but we did discover several places that were no longer safe to stow coffee cups, etc. Sleep was a little tough to come by as well.
We can tell that we are closer to San Francisco; the evenings are much cooler, and the sun is setting earlier than it was in Hawaii. We wear our foulies during night watch, and perhaps an extra layer of clothing. The ocean’s phosphorescence is shanging too. We still have the blue star, sparkler, and flashbulb styles of illuminated lifeforms, but the foam from the breaking whitecaps and our bow wave gives off a soft green light that is quite beautiful.
In the morning the wind began to die again,and we have resumed the motoring / sailing pattern. Around noon we sailed under a brief rainshower, and a few of the clouds carry some extra wind (or a patch of dead air).
There’s a line in the water, but no fish yet. We had quesadilas for lunch, and are currently sailing at over six knots, pointed approximately towards San Francisco (822 miles to go).
Position: 40-04, 139-53 W.
Paul / VALIS