Sorry for the delay, but VALIS did finish the race, crossing the Kaneohe Bay line in light headwinds around 1AM Tuesday (July 22) Hawaii time. After redress for the time spent assisting Sweet Okole, we finished in a fourth-place tie. Details and photos to follow when I don’t have to use the phone to do […]

Last night VALIS received a request for assistance from Pac Cup boat Sweet Okole. We were about 30 miles away we were both sailing towards Kaneohe Bay, so we plotted an intercept course and reached their location in the early morning. We were unable to establish radio contact until 9:30AM. At that point they confirmed […]

3:30 PM PDT, Sunday, July 20 Lat 24d 05m N, 155d 05m W Speed 7.7kts, Course 220d mag. 215 miles to go! Today we heard a whale! We saw it too, a small dark one pacing the boat as we raced along, 8 kts towards the finish line. But the first indication was a strange […]

Saturday, July 19, 11:30 AM PDT Lat 26d 26m N, Lon 152d39m W Speed 7 kts, Course 215 deg mag (straight towards Kaneohe, 408 miles to go) We had a nice night. It wasn’t fast, but we kept up a decent speed and general course. There were a few small squalls, with rain, wind shifts, […]

3:00PM PDT, July 18 Lat 28d 04m N, Lon 151d 01m W Speed 7 kts, Course 210 deg mag. Wind 19 kts 540 miles to Kaneohe! It’s a pretty lazy day here on the ocean. Last night we had a bright half-moon and occasional cloud cover, but were able to see many stars, as well […]

July 17, 2:00PM Lat 29d 11m N, Lon 148d 10m W Speed 7.5 kts, Course 240 deg mag It’s a sunny day out here in the Pacific. The crew is in a great mood, or asleep (even better!). It’s been a busy 24 hours, with two different spinnaker “events”, caused by a slipping guy — […]

Last night we got word via satphone that Pac Cup racer “Tiburon” had lost their rudder. They were taking on a small, managable, amount of water, and were using a drogue to steer. They were not in immediate danger, but they probably did not have sufficient water to last them while they sailed / drifted […]

3:00PM Wednesday, July 16 Lat 30d 13m N, Lon 145d 16m W Speed 7kts, Course 323 deg mag. Yesterday’s half-way party finished off with a great meal of salmon cakes with Hollandaise sauce on a bed of Thai rice, prepared by Lin. As sunset approached we doused the large spinnaker and replaced it with the […]

Tuesday, July 15 — 3:15 PM PDT Lat 31d 17m N, Lon 141d 56m W — Halfway between San Francisco and Kaneohe Bay. Our first clue was the VALIS Tiki Drummer. His spontaneous outburst interrupted our steering, slumber, cooking, etc, and the infectious rhythm soon had the entire crew jumping in time to primitive music. […]

Noon, Monday, July 14 (PDT) Lat 32d 09m N, Lon 138d 08m W Speed 7 kts, Course 240 deg mag Wind 14 kts Yesterday around this time the wind was falling again, but we were in good spirits. Today we’re in even better spirits! After our CHicker Biryani dinner we had another spectacular sunset and […]