Attached is the google earth track file for the last 24 hours or so. I understand that some of the previous track files may be missing or incorrect — I will upload a corrected and combined trackfile when I get to Hawaii.
Aloha,
Paul

valis-jul12.kmz

The last 24 hours has been frustrating, not that we’re complaining…
Current position as of July 11, 2:58PM: Latitude 27deg 46min N, Longitude 140deg 50min W.
Sailing at 5 knots, southwest towards Hawaii (you were expecting somewhere else?)
During our 9:00AM rollcall, our reported position gave us a day’s run of 110 miles, our worst to date. The good news is that we are still ahead of four boats in the standings (please don’t forget our day-late start). Most everyone around us did pretty badly speed-wise as well. The weather forecasts are now predicting 10-knot tradewinds, rather than the 15-knot speeds that had been shown earlier. This may be a very slow race, or the predictions could be wrong (they usually are, we just don’t know in which direction). Yesterday we jibed the spinnaker several times to keep going in a useful direction. We are definitely getting better at spinnaker technique, although no one would mistake us for racing pros.
At 3:00AM this morning we were equally close (or far) from the race starting line and the finish line, at 1053 nautical miles from both points. Having passed this halfway-point, we are still in the light airs of the Pacific High’s southeast corner. Winds have been less than 10 knots, but how much less is hard to say, since the anemometer at the top of the mast spins as much from the boat motion as it does from the wind itself. As I type, we have just had a small squall give us a little much-appreciated wind and rain, but it seems to have passed us by now.
Back to the halfway point: Ville and Paul were on watch, so we took a crowbar, broke into the medical locker, and toasted ourselves with the “medicinal” scotch (Bowmore 17-year) on this momentus event. We did not forget to give a little to King Neptune as well. We also lit some left-over fireworks.
Yesterday’s dinner was salad, rice pilaf, and mahi-mahi steaks. Very nice!
See the attached google-earth trackfile to see our wanderings.
Aloha,
The Crew of S/V VALIS

valis-jul11.kmz

Greetings from VALIS,sailing slowly towards Oahu.
(My name is Paul Elliott, and I am writing this in third-person to gain much-needed objectivity.)
Our position at 6:60 PDT is 28deg 243min N, 139deg 22min W
We are sailing at about four (Ouch!) knots, pointing a little south of the Islands. We are trying to keep from heading too far north, so today we jibed the spinnaker, putting the pole on the Starboard side. This lets us head south of due-downwind. The winds should be bettr as we get farther south, and we expect some increase in any case (didn’t I write the same thing yesterday?) Yesterday we had a 9:OOAM-to-9:00AM run of 157 miles, and while this isn’t spectacular, it was better than some of the competition. We continue to distance ourselves from last-place in the standings (don’t forget our day-late start), but the race still has 1083 nautical miles for us to go.
Yesterday we caught a nice Mahi-Mahi (pink squid lure). We managed to board it without a net, and Andrew volunteered to convert it into steaks. This 45-inch fish will be feeding us for several days. Pictures attached: ” Paul Proudly Displays His Catch”, and “Andrew Deals With the Consequences”.
Aloha,
SV/ VALIS

Here is our July 9-10 trackfile:

valis-jul10.kmz

Here is a picture of Ville, steering by compass. When the spinnaker is up we have to steer very carefully to keep it flying. By the way, we have *no* idea who was steering at the time of the rip, so you should not infer anything from this photo (nor from this disclaimer).
About our watches: We had originally intended to have a complicated system, with longer watches during the day, and shorter watches at night, and with individual crewmember rotation, but we have settled on a very simple plan instead: We have two watch teams (Andrew and Daniel, Ville and Paul). Formal watches begin at 9:00PM, run for four hours, and end at 9:00AM. this means that there are three watches, so, for example last night Andrew and Daniel started at 9:00PM and came off at 1:00AM. Then, Ville and Paul stood wach from 1:00AM to 5:00AM. Andrew and Daniel then were on from 5:00AM until 9:00AM. Tonight, Ville and Paul have the early and late watches, and Andrew and Daniel have the middle watch.
We have discovered that hand-steering under spinnaker is tiring, so during our watch we will trade-off the steering job every hour. The other on-watch crewmember will help with sail trim as necessary.
During the day, we trade off the chores informally, but Paul is responsible for the radio communications and weather file download. Usually Paul and Daniel confer to decide on the weather/course strategy.
-Paul

Attached is the trackfile for the previous 24 hours (more or less). We had a very nice run of 179 nautical miles from 9:00AM yesterday to 9:00AM today. We need to keep up this pace!
-Paul

valis-jul09.kmz

Greetings from VALIS on the high seas!
Our position at 2:37 PM PDT is:
Latitude 29 deg 14 min North, Longitude 136 deg 19 min West.
We are sailing towards Hawaii at about 8 knots in 13 knot winds.
Today after the morning race position reports (a radio schedule where all vessels in the race report their 9:00 AM positions), we discovered that we are no longer in last place, which is pretty good, considering that we started 23 hours, 15 minutes late! We will keep trying to gain on the other boats, but there is still a long way to go, and anything can happen. By the way, placement in the fleet depends on both position, and on the vessel rating, which is a kind of handicap.
Our boat uses a fair amount of electrical power, but we have a large battery bank, and three 100-Watt solar panels. We ran the engine (with the propellor in neutral) for a couple of hours two days ago, and we will probably want to charge for an hour tomorrow. One nice side-effect of running the engine for charging, is that we get hot water for about a day afterwards. We have definitely taken advantage of this.
We had tuna curry over rice for dinner last night, and it was declared “delicious” by all. Breakfast today was cereal, or whatever you could find.
Our first repair at sea: Today, after radio roll call, we discovered a tear in the spinnaker. This was probably caused when the sail collapsed (as it will do if the wind is light and the swells are large enough), andwhen it re-filled, it caught on the tip of the upper spreader (on the mast). We quickly hauled down the sail, and after cleaning the torn edges with acetone, repaired it with sticky-back sail tape. The tear was about 4 feet in length. Attached are photos of the rip, and the repair. The tape is holding well for now…
More postings to follow…
Regards,
Ville, Paul, Daniel, Andrew

Good afternoon from VALIS, going faster.
Position at 3:00 PM PDT: Lat 30deg 19min N, Longitude 133deg 14min W.
Course is 225deg magnetic, speed is an encouraging 7.5 kts. Wind is about 13 knots out of the northeast.
We are still sailing around the southeast corner (ridge) if the Pacific High. Weather forecasts look encouraging, and we are trying to stay in the 10-15 knot wind zone. We are sailing to a waypoint about 150 miles in front of us, but our course in any case is almost directly towards Hawaii.
We have been flying the symmetrical spinnaker since yesterday afternoon, and it is a very nice sail. Our 9:00AM yesterday to 9:00AM today run was 162 nautical miles, which we feel is pretty good for us, for this part of the course. We have been hand-steering almost exclusively, to keep the spinnaker filled as the swells slew the boat around, and as the wind varies in speed and strength.
Last night we had spaghetti for dinner, with a very nice meat sauce that Andrew had prepared and frozen before we left. Evening watches started at 9:00 with the Ville/Paul team, then Andrew/Daniel at 1:00AM, and finally Ville/Paul at 5:00AM. This morning, Daniel made pancakes, eggs, and bacon for breakfast, which was enjoyed by all (our appetites have definitely returned).
Oh, yes — yesterday, we almost caught a fish, maybe. The pole started straining, so we hauled in the line, but the leader had broken. Today we might rig a heaver leader.
I am attaching a google earth file of our last day’s sail.
Aloha,
Andrew, Daniel, Paul, and Ville

valis-jul08.kmz

Good afternoon from VALIS, going slow.
Position at 2:00 PM PDT: Lat 31deg 56min N, Longitude 130deg 17min W.
Course is 225deg magnetic, speed is a frustrating 5.5 kts. Wind is about 8 knots out of the northeast.
We are sailing through the southeast corner (ridge) if the Pacific High, trying to balance wind speed and wind angle (thus our boat speed), with the distance we have to sail. We can get more wind by sailing more south (and farther), or sail a shorter course by sailing more north, but getting less wind and therefore going slower. In addition, we are trying to guess what the conditions will be several days ahead of us, so we can position ourselves accordingly. If it is any consolation, the rest of the race fleet seems to be sailing both north and south of us.
I forgot to mention, early AM on July 6, we had our Independence Day Celebration, in which we lit a couple of small fireworks off the stern. Woohoo!
Yesterday, we dropped our genoa and staysail, and put up the heavy asymmetrical spinnaker. Then the wind dropped, so we took taht down, and launched the new light-air asymmetrical spinnaker — very nice! At dusk, the wind looked like the wind was building, so we took down the light spinnaker, and put the heavy one back up. As it turned out, we could have left up the light one.
Today, we decided to head a little further south, which put the wind more behind us. This let us drop the heavy asymmetrical spinnaker, put up the pole, and fly the new, light-air symmetrical spinnaker. We’re not going too fast, but we would be going much slower without it.
I am attaching a google earth file of our last day’s sail.

valis-jul07.kmz

Today, we are flying our new light-air symmetrical spinnaker. Here is a photo of Daniel and Ville, keeping an eye on the sail (uh, it’s on the other end of the boat, guys!).