(sorry about the sparse postings, we had email blogging problems) In an exciting photo-finish, VALIS raced Music to the Pacific Cup finish line, with Music beating us by a mere 30 seconds (of course she started a day after we did…)  Our finish time was Sunday, Jul 27, 2008 13:03:38 HST, for an elapsed time of […]

Hello from VALIS and her crew, as we approach Kaneohe and the finish line. As we get closer, the margin of uncertainty for our arrival time is getting narrower and narrower. Today John took estimates/guesses from each of us and put them on the whiteboard. They range from 11:47 AM PDT, to Midnight, all on […]

Aloha from the crew of VALIS! We are watching the sun set on another medium-adventure day here in the Pacific, and what a sunset it is. All day we have been seeing rainbows, because squalls are usually accompanied by rain. Twice today we have had mild deck-washers, which some of the crew used to their […]

Aloha from VALIS, at lat 26 deg 45 min N, lon 144 deg 31 min W. We are sailing in light air at a speed of around six kts, on a course of around 210 deg mag. This is a bit more south than we would prefer, but as the wind picks up we should […]

VALIS had another daily-record run at this morning’s 9:00AM roll call: 168 nautical miles made good towards Kaneohe. This was the best 24-hour run in our division, and in some others. The low numbers indicate the lighter winds we have all been seeing, often dropping below ten knots. This morning at 6:00 AM we crossed […]

Today we celebrated our fastest 24-hour run: 193 miles made good towards Kaneohe (from 9:00AM Saturday to 9:00AM today). As it turns out, this was the fastest Saturday-Sunday run in our division, as well as in divisions B and C! This didn’t do much to help our overall standing, but it sure didn’t hurt, and […]

Today is Saturday, day five of our Pacific cup, if you count the day we started as “Day Zero”. This seems to be the thing to do, so please mentally re-number the previous postings. Regardless, I’m still pretty sure today is Saturday. It is easy to lose track when one day leads into another and […]

Greetings from VALIS! We are about 600 miles west of San Diego, and heading a little north of Hawaii. We still haven’t put up the spinnaker, since the angle isn’t right – it will be soon, though. Winds have been great, usually between 15 and 20 kts. We have been sailing 7-8 kts, with bursts […]

Aloha from VALIS! It is Wednesday evening, and we have just had a great dinner of Macaroni and Cheese (Thank you, Noelle!) This pre-cooked meal plan is very nice indeed! Michael has prepared a per-day meal plan, and we are (mostly) sticking to it. In the morning we have a “buffet-style” breakfast (grab whatever you […]

Greetings from VALIS! We are currently at lat 36 deg 46 min N, lon 125 deg 04 min W, (about 150 miles due west of San Simeon). Now that the wind has picked up we are making good speed on a southwest course, averaging between 7 and 8 knots. The crew is in good spirits, […]