Tonight we attended the Pacific Cup awards ceremony. We didn’t win anything (except a West Marine goodie bag), but it was nice to see in person all the friends we had made during the race. Here is a photo of the race crew of VALIS, standing on the dock (Left to Right: Andrew, Daniel, Paul, […]

Here is the combined trackfile for our voyage to Vawaii. There ae a few gaps (technical difficulties), and the last few miles before the finish line are missing (more technical difficulties). Aloha, Paul To Hawaii.kmz

VALIS crossed the finish line Tuesday evening, July18, 21:54:41 HST (Hawaii Standard Time).  The finish process went like this:  HF (long-range) radio check-in at 100 miles to report our position and ETA. HF radio check-in at 25 miles to update ETA, tell the race committee how many “souls on board” VALIS carried, the draft (how […]

What a difference a day makes! We are sailing in light seas and glorious winds, heading towards Kaneohe Bay. VALIS is now in the home stretch, having crossed the “100 mile” line. As we sailed within 100 miles of the finish, we noted the time, and our postiion, and then radioed these along with our […]

Yesterday was another slow day. Not our slowest, but still frustrating. We were running under asymmetrical spinnaker and reefed main all day and through the night. For dinner we had chicken, bean, rice and cheese burritos. In the evening the wind picked up, and we had a few heavy rain squalls — at least we […]

Here we are, slowly moving towards Oahu, or sometimes the Big Island, or sometimes Maui, or Kauaii. Generally in the right direction, though. Our position at 6:30 PM PDT is latitude 23deg 28min N, longitude 152deg 43min W. Our speed has been around 3 to 4 knots for most of the afternoon. Yesterday, the winds […]

July 15, 2006 Latitude 24deg 19min, Longitude 150deg 43min Course 210deg magnetic, Speed 5 knots VALIS doesn’t have a “park” gear, but for most of today it felt like it. Yesterday’s winds continued through the night, and gradually lightened after sunrise. They finally dropped to less that five knots, with no discrenable direction. We spent […]

Good evening from VALIS, and a rather tired crew. Last night, due to strong winds (where did *they* come from?!?) we dropped the spinnaker and put up the white sails (Main and Genoa). We made fairly good time, but it was a challenge keeping them filled because of high swells and a poor wind direction. […]

(With Bob Hope and Bing Crosby) Actually, it’s still just the four of us onboard VALIS, but we are rolling along pretty well ourselves. Right now (July 13, 3:42PM PDT) we are at latitude 25deg 59min N, longitude 145deg 38min W. We are sailing 255deg true, at over 7 knots directly towards Oahu. Today we […]

Finally, some wind! We are sailing towards our destination with wind at 17 knots, and a boatspeed of 8 knots. This is a big improvement over the last couple of days. Our position as of 5:40 PM is 26deg 52 min N, 143deg 09min W. We have dropped one position in our race division, but […]