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, Ville).

Tomorrow morning Daniel and Andrew fly back home, Ville and Paul’s
family return to California on Sunday, and the return crew (Paul, John,
Phil, and one more person TBD) prepare for the trip back. There is a
weather seminar tomorrow, followed by a meeting to generally discuss the
return trip. Some boats have already left under sail, some have been
loaded for transport on a ship, some will be stored in Hawaii for a
while, and others will be leaving over the next several weeks, via Kauai
in some cases.

We plan to leave early next week and sail directly to San Francisco.
“Directly” means first sailing north to get around the western edge of
the Pacific High, then turning right and heading for the West Coast. We
may end up motoring through the northern portion of the Pacific High, or
we may get favorable winds early enough so we can sail. The tradewinds
near Hawaii are a bit confused right now, but are expected to return to
a more normal pattern in the next few days. If necessary, we will wait
to leave until the winds are favorable for a departure. We will
continue to update the blog once we are under way.

Aloha,
Paul