Let me get right to the interesting part: Yesterday we saw crew friction, if not dissention, and outright violence. It seems that Phil and John were preparing our dinner of baked beans and sliced hot dogs, and the question was raised of how many hot dogs to use. John suggested that five be cut up, but Davey, watching from the cockpit, insisted that eight be used. Phil, in blatent disregard of both of these suggestions, cut up an entire *ten* hot dogs. John was dumbfounded, and reminded Phil that we still had perhaps two weeks to go with the supplies on board, and he warned of the prospect of eventually having to eat canned tuna and chicken for every meal. His cries for moderation went unheeded, the dogs went into the beans, and all were consumed. Only time will tell if John’s dire warnings will come to pass. The psychic wounds, however, may never heal.
Other than that, things went fairly smoothly yesterday. We did break the jib furling line, so we dropped the sail on deck and raised the staysail for the night instead. This was a bit slower than we would have liked, but not too bad. Through the evening the wind slowly shifted towards the east, allowing us to sail closer to due north (we had slowly been forced to the west these last few days). At the moment we are sailing slightly to the east, and the forecasts tell us that this favorable trend will continue as we approach the Pacific High.
Around 6:00AM PDT this morning Davey and John saw the dim lights from another long-liner fishing boat. They slowly faded during Paul’s watch, never being more than a glow in the northern sky.
After sunrise we found a spare line to replace the jib furling line, and we are now sailing with reefed jib and reefed main, probably a knot faster than we had been with the smaller staysail. You can see in the attached Google Earth file where we turned and ran down-wind while we were repairing the furler (just before noon). The seas continue to subside, and the sailing is reasonably comfortable as we head north. Our position at 2:20PM PDT is latitude 33deg 57min N, longitude 159deg 06min W — about the same latitude as Marina Del Rey in Southern California. Our course is about due north, and our speed is about 6 knots.
The weather remains somewhat overcast, and the temperatures are gradually dropping. We can now sleep comfortably below, but the evening watch requires more than the shorts and t-shirts we had been used to. The wind and rain are less squally and more stable as we sail into these cooler waters.
One final thing I am reluctant to mention, but feel I should in the interest of completeness: The Captain’s bottle of Scotch seems to have “evaporated” quite a bit more than normal. The last time he had opened it was when he and Ville celebrated crossing the halfway point to Hawaii. Imagine his surprise when he looked at it and noticed it almost empty. Perhaps Daniel or Andrew have more information about this? As you may remember, there was a similar incident involving Bailey’s Irish Cream during the 2003 voyage.
Until Tomorrow,
VALIS

valis-jul31.kmz

Seas, squalls, and not much sun — that has been the situation the last few days, and yesterday was no exception. Nothing major, but enough to have us reefed down and not sailing as fast as we could if the swells were smaller. Our course continues to be west of due north (see attached Google Earth trackfile), but the weather forecasts indicate that the shifting wind will soon let us sail more north, and even towards the east. Our strategy (and we’re sticking to it) is to sail up to 40deg north latitude before turnig right. We may be able to “cut the corner” a bit on this turn, but if we get too aggressive we risk facing headwinds from the lower edge of the high (this is the same high that went so far south during the race). “California Girl”, who left a day before us, continues to fight her way east, and has apparently tacked, since she is a bit farther south and much further east than she was yesterday. We don’t want to do this, since even though we would get to to the California coast sooner we would still have to slog north to San Francisco, facing some fairly high winds. It will be interesting to compare notes when we all get home.
Last night the seas were up, perhaps 8 feet maximum, and we were pretty battened down as the spray flew across VALIS’ decks. Nobody felt very much like cooking, so we had “cup of noodles” (with real chicken flavor!) for dinner. A few times the cockpit got a good dollop of seawater, which sloshed back and forth before draining through the scuppers. We had several strong rain showers which, along with the sea spray, are keeping the topsides nice and clean.
The radio net for returning Pacific Cup vessels was uneventful, anthough we did again have to relay messages from several boats to Kaneohe Base. We learned that Rainbow (the catamaran that was an unofficial Pac Cup entry) departed Kaneohe for Seattle yesterday. Also, Contessa, who had to turn back,has re-started her trip to California. The crew of “XL” (sunk by a whale) is safe on shore in Honolulu, having been picked up by freighter Maersk Darwin and then transferred to Cammi I, a fishing boat headed for Honolulu. They were being interviewed on Honolulu TV.
During John’s watch (schedule: Davey, John, Paul, Phil) he saw some strong lights glowing on the horizon, directly ahead of us. This was a fishing boat (probably a long-liner, according to Davey), which proceeded to pass us on our starboard side as it steamed south. It remained a bright blur on the horizon, except for a few occasionas when both it and VALIS were on the top of a swell and John could make out individual lights.
This morning the seas were calmer, so Phil and John made scrambled eggs, with onion, bacon, and cheese mixed in. Very tasty! Even though the seas were down, there’s always someone who didn’t get the memo, so we still have the occasional drenching and bouncing around.
Our current position (July 30, 1:00 PM PDT) is latitude 32deg 05min north, longitude 158deg 07min west. We are sailing in 20 knots of wind, heading 320 degrees true, at 6 knots.
Regards,
VALIS

valis-jul30.kmz

One day is pretty much like another here in VALIS. We continue to sail north, at about 6 knots (sometimes less, sometimes more), with 15-20 knot winds and 6-8 ft seas. Our current position, at 1:12 PM PDT, is latitude 30deg 10 min N, longitude 156deg 58min west. Now that we have made it north of 30 degrees latitude, we have about 600 nautical miles to go until latitude 40, where we stop heading north and turn right towards California.
It is starting to get a little cooler, but not much. We have seen no ships since we said goodbye to “Stray Cat Blues” after leaving Kaneohe Bay. The evenings bring squalls, with rain and wind, and we sailed through the night with a reefed main and staysail (a smaller sail than our big genoa), but today the genoa is back flying at the first reef. VALIS is getting regular salt-water rinses on deck as we push through the swells. Wew generally stand our watches tucked under the dodger, only venturing out into the cockpit (and invariably getting a drenching) when necessary. In between the squalls, the skies were clear and the stars bright. It was quite an experience to be sailing under the milky way, and directly towards the North Star, with spectacular meteorites leaving their glowing trails across the sky.
Our midnight radio schedule was an exercise in patience and frustration, as poor radio conditions and seemingly hundreds of Vietnamese fishing boats, all talking at once, made communications difficult. Often a boat’s position had to be relayed via two other boats before Kaneohe Base could hear the information it needed. As far as we could tell, no additional boats have had to turn back. Our midnight-to-midnight run was 146 nautical miles; our best yet on this return.
Attached: The Google Earth trackfile for our noon-to-noon run
Best Wishes,
VALIS

valis-jul29.kmz

Good afternoon from VALIS!
We are at latitude 23deg 09min N, longitude 157deg 16min W, sailing at about 6.5 kts on a course of 15 degrees magnetic (mostly north, a bit to the east).
Last night we reefed down twice as some moderate squalls moved over us. We had heavy rain and winds up to 30 knots, and we were watching the squall clouds on radar (and visually) as they approached. We remain well reefed, with winds around 20 knots. Seas are moderate — about 6 feet. In between squalls, we saw quite a few meteors. The moon is setting early, so much of the night is dark, letting us see the starry sky in full gloiry.
Phil tried to catch another fish yesterday, but there were no bites so we baked the frozen chicken and ate it with a salad and rice.
This has been a rough return trip for some of the Pacific Cup fleet. On last night’s radio net we learned that “Basic Instinct” has had some sort of rigging failure in heavy weather and is returning to Hawaii. They had left two days before us, and we suspect that they ran into a squall, since there is no major weather activity in the area. We hope to learn more. Another boat, “Locomotion” has also turned back to Hawaii, due to an autopilot failure. You may remember that “Contessa” also had to turn back two days ago because of generator and watermaker problems.
So far we are holding up well. We are trying to keep the boat moving, but without putting undue strain on anything. We are still planning to sail north to about 40deg latitude, cut through the high (or over it, or under it, but close to the center where the winds are light), then turn east towards San Francisco.
Here are our daily runs so far, from midnight to midnight:
July 25-26: 34 nautical miles (a short day, and not counting the distance from the marina to the finish line)
July 26-27: 144 NM
July 27-28: 138 NM
As of 2:30PM today we have run 94 miles since midnight, so we have been making good speed.
The Google Earth trackfile for the previous 24 hours is attached.
Best Wishes to all of you,
VALIS

valis-jul28.kmz

Today we continue to sail just a little west of due north, towards the Pacific High (a moving target to be sure). Our speed is typically 6+ knots, and the seas have calmed from yesterday. Our position at 1:40 PM PDT is latitude 25deg 45min N, longitude 158deg 18min W.
Last night we reefed the main and genoa, since we were pounding into the swells and heeling a bit more than we liked. Reducing sail put VALIS more “on her feet”, and only diminished her speed a small amount. This morning the wind and seas lightened, so we are once again under full sail.
Yesterday, Phil put out the fishing line. It trailed astern for quite a while, but finally in the late afternoon he had a bite. This was a large fish, and Phil valiently brought it in to where we could just get a glimpse of it before it slipped off the hook. We pulled the line in for the evening, but it is once again in the water, and we hope it will bring us our dinner.
Attached is a photo of the crew as we were preparing to leave Kaneohe Bay (photo taken by “Stray Cat Blues’)
Left to right: Davey, Paul, Phil, John.

Here is the Google Earth trackfile for the previous 24 hours or so (through noon today).

valis-jul27.kmz

Greetings from VALIS, sailing home.
Our noon position is latitude 23deg 18min N, longitude 157deg 52min W. We are sailing due north (true north) at a speed of about 6+ knots. The weather is good, with 12 knot winds from the northeast, patchy clouds, and warm temperatures.
Last night we got a VHF radio call from “Stray Cat Blues”, who were too far from us to be seen, but still close enough for short-range radio contact. They thought they might have seen a flare coming from our direction, and wanted to make sure we were OK, or if we had seen anything. We had seen nothing unusual but agreed to stay alert (we are all a bit anxious in the aftermath of XL’s sinking). Shortly after this, the Honolulu Coast Guard contacted Stray Cat because they had heard our conversation, and wanted more information about the possible flare sighting. On VALIS, we also spoke with the Coast Guard, and at their request ran our radar for a while, looking for any blips. Again, we saw nothing. Stray Cat thought it may have been an airplane’s lights, or it could have been the light at the top of VALIS’ mast, or any number of innocuous sources, so we aren’t particularly concerned. The Coast Guard did send out a plane to search the area, and we promised to contact them if we saw anything.
At midnight PDT, the radio net for returning Pac Cup vessels commenced, but we had to switch frequencies several times to work around other signals. The boats reporting in were California Girl, Locomotion, Spirit, Green Buffalo, Rainbow, Orizaba, Basic Instinct, Stray Cat Blues, Contessa (Contessa is returning to Hawaii due to gear failure), and of course VALIS. There was also a sailboat checking in who was returning from Lahaina, after participating in the Vic-Maui race. It was good to hear all our friends on the radio. The net is being run from the Kaneohe Yacht Club.
We started running a watch schedule last night, with four three-hour watches starting at 10:00 PM PDT. We will shift this to a 9:00PM start as we get further east. We are standing watch in first-name alphabetical order, so first up was Davey, then John, Paul, and Phil. So we aren’t stuck with the same watch every night, we rotate: Phil, who had the last watch last night, gets the first watch tonight, followed by Davey, John, and Paul. The conditions were changable last night, with periods of light winds followed by mild squalls. It was interesting to see how the swells varied throughout the night, with long periods of mild seas, in between the larger (but still moderate) seas.
Breakfast this morning was cereal topped with dried cherries, courtesy of Phil. Phil has rigged the fishing pole with a new lure we bought before we left, and he is intently trying to bring in tonight’s dinner. (I’d be happy with canned chicken… paul)
Attached is a Google Earth trackfile of our departure from Kaneohe Bay.
Aloha,
Paul/VALIS

valis-jul26.kmz

Good morning from VALIS, heading north.
Yesterday we learned that “Mureadritta’s XL”, one of the Pacific Cup sailboats heading home, was sunk by a whale — the crew is all safe and aboard a fishing boat which is taking them back to Hawaii. The sinking took place about 200 miles north and slightly east of our current position. I have included the email message about the sinking that was sent to the Pacific Cup. We heard on the evening radio net that they got between a whale calf and it’s mother.
Also, Contessa, a boat from the race that left for home on Monday, has turned back to Hawaii with generator and watermaker failure.
Rest assured that we are all well on VALIS and everything is looking good for our passage to San Francisco.
Regards,
Paul
—————-
Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2006 10:55 AM
To: PCYCboard; Pcyc_Committees
Subject: XL SINKING
I just got a call from Antony Barran. XL (Class D) was holed forward of
the chainplates and sunk by a whale at 26-10, 156. He got a call from
the Coast Guard an hour ago saying EPIRB had gone off, then 15 min later
a sat phone call from the life raft. Delivery crew is his Dad (Nick), a
friend, an Eagle Scout who wanted to make the delivery and a woman,
whose connection I don’t recall. All are OK with sufficient supplies.
Coast Guard plane is on the way. Antony called from airport en route to
Honolulu.

———- Original Message ———-
To: (valisblog@sailvalis.com)
From: Paul Elliott (valis@gmn-usa.com)
Subject: Coming Home
Date: 7/25/2006 7:54:36p
I inadvertantly re-named two of our crew. We are:
Paul Elliott, John Clinton, Phil Littman, and Davey Glander
Sorry, Phil and Davey,
Paul

We are under sail and heading for home. Valis and her crew left Kaneohe Bay Tuesday at 6:45 PM PDT, along with the sailboat “Stray Cat Blues”. We are now about ten miles north of Kaneohe Bay, heading due north (magnetic), under full sail and with the Monitor windvane steering. Stray Cat Blues is heading a bit to the east, and has faded from view.
We are traveling at about 5-6 knots, close-hauled, and heeling 15 to 20 degrees. The swells are moderate. As you may know, Hurricane Daniel is heading towards Hawaii, but it is weakening, and we will be well north of it’s effects by the time it approaches the islands.
Our crew on the return is Paul Elliott, John Clinton, Ed Littman, and Davey Glanders (Davey was race crew on the boat “California Girl”, but we persuaded him to help us bring VALIS back).
There is a radio net set for the returning Pacific Cup boats, and we plan to participate. Our positions should be reported on the Pacific Cup website, but we will still report in to “Yotreps” as before.
Aloha Hawaii, Hello San Francisco!