Greetings from Andrew, Daniel, Jim, and Paul:

Daily runs from the log of the VALIS:
July 15-16 Noon: 184 Nautical miles on the log (through the water), 154 NM via GPS (point-to-point over the ground).
Position at July 16 Noon was Lat 29deg 38min, Lon 131deg 122min.

July 16-17 Noon: 163 NM log, 144 NM GPS. Noon position July 17 was Lat 27deg 31min, Lon 132deg 40min.

On July 16 (Wednesday), we began to experience lighter winds, so we shook out all the reefs from our sails. Jim and Paul carried the heavy anchor from the bow and stowed in in an aft locker (as planned) since our anchor chain won’t reach the bottom out here (the depth is about 12,000 ft) and the lighter bow helps us sail better. The winds also began carrying us on a more westerly course, so we began adjusting sails to take us more south, where the winds are predicted to be more favorable. We are receiving daily weather information via email and traditional weatherfax, and it looks like our planned course remains a good one.

Today we also tried out the asymmetrical spinnaker, and had it pulling us at over 9 knots. Eventually, the wind picked up to where we decided to take the spinnaker down, since it was over-powering our Monitor windvane pilot, and we didn’t want to blow out this sail its first time out. Of course, soon after we struck the sail the wind dropped again. We ended the day running wing-and-wing with the jib poled out to port and the main set to starboard, with the wind coming from just to the port of our stern. This was a day of constant sail change.

We all got a bit sunburned today. The morning started out warm and overcast, and cleared up throughout the day. As the sun fell, the clouds came back, and we even got a very brief sprinkling of rain (just a few seconds worth).

Wednesday night’s dinner began with wine, salad, poached salmon and rice, with a dessert of peach and apple slices with Cheddar and Stilton cheese. All night we had light and variable winds and about 3 feet of swell from astern. It was hard for some of us to sleep (not for Jim though) as the main kept slatting all night long, shaking the boat every time it filled and re-filled.

July 17 (Thursday), the winds are steadier and we are maintaining our 200 deg magnetic course, running wing and wing with poled out jib under overcast skies. We are catching up on our sleep while we keep the boat headed for good winds. Somehow, Andrew has managed to receive breakfast in bed for three days running, so I guess that Daniel has been making the Starbucks run. Still trying to figure this one out… If we feel rested enough, we may try flying the spinnaker again. Or we may not. Our course is well south of the great-circle path to Hawaii.

We are heading for the tradewinds. Three terns payed us a visit this morning, circling around and looking like they wanted to land on on the boat. They would land on the water then return to chasing us. We got some videos — it will be interesting to see how they came out. These birds are white with black lines and beautiful long tails.

So far, no vessels sighted today. None on Wednesday, either. In fact, since leaving the Golden Gate, we have seen only one ship (a freighter, sighted by Paul), on July 14 at 1830 hours (6:30 PM PDT). We raised her on the VHF and they reported that they saw us visually and (we think?) she was able to see us on her radar. From our charts, we think she was on the Yokahama-to-Los Angeles run.

Love to everyone,
Andrew, Daniel, Jim, and Paul

July 15

Hi Folks
For Your Information – We take navigation measurements at Noon each day during this trip to Hawaii. They are the distance traveled in the 24 hours from noon one day to the previous day. This is measured in two ways. 1. The Log, a little paddle wheel that spins around as the boat moves through the water. 2. The GPS, the distance between two(2)
Latitude and Longitude points as measured by the GPS on the surface of the earth. These are measured in NM= nautical mile which is a little bit longer than a mile as you know it. The Log measurement is usually greater than the GPS because it also measures the additional distance traveled up and down over waves. So the greater the difference between the two the larger or more the seas we traveled over.

7/14 just after Noon – Lat. 32deg’s 51.3′ Long. 126deg’s 21.9′ LOG = 208 NM GPS = 187.4 NM

The skies were cloudy in the afternoon so the three 100 watt solar panels did not charge the batteries as much as it could have. Winds are blowing 15 to 20 kts from the north/northwest 7/15 just after noon – Lat. 30deg’s 59.55′ Long. 128deg’s 51.04′ LOG =
195 NM GPS = 168.7 NM

Skies continued to be cloud/overcast this morning. Winds were a little lighter 15 kts and shifted more NW during the night.

So enough of the boring navigation. It seems the Daniel and Andrew go out for Starbucks coffee every morning. We are not sure yet where they go to get it, but it gets their “engines” going in the morning. We have decided by democratic vote to hold 3 hour watches. Andrew, Daniel, Jim then Paul. We rotate by one watch each evening. Tonight it will be Paul’s turn to start the 8pm – 11pm watch, Andrew from 11 – 2, Daniel from 2 – 5 and Jim from 5 – 8. The 5 – 8 watch is great, you get to see the sun come up. Andrew & Daniel go out for Starbucks, the day starts with a late breakfast. Then its back to power naps, book reading, taking navigation measurements, more power naps, food. etc.

Today, as the winds had dropped a little, we decided to fly the asymmetric spinnaker, however, after getting everything ready to raise the sail, the wind came up again, so decided to continue on Staysail and Jib. we did raise the mainsail to the first reef point. Our speed thru’ the water is about 8+ knots now. Jim & Paul decided to remove the anchor from the bow. Its not needed out here as we don’t have enough anchor line to reach the sea floor!! Quite a site watching these two man mountains move this very heavy object along a pitching deck. Currently Paul & Jim are tweaking the Monitor Windvane blocks to make the lines running from the wheel to the Monitor go in a better line. This will ease the line tension and any possibility of chafing the lines.

Jim is currently tempting all the crew with CHOCOLATE. You just don’t know what’s coming next. After last night’s temptations of smoked salmon, Brie, Cheddar and crackers, followed by a salad and poached salmon. Who knows what is to follow?? It’s 5pm now, and the call for “What’s for Dinner” has gone out.

July 14

HI to ALL
Current position at 09:00 PDT is Lat N 33deg 08min, Lon W 126deg 03min

You can follow our position on the internet www.optitecture.com and clicking on position report and other links. Don’t worry if you don’t see our reports, though. There seems to be a problem with the way we are reporting, but we hope to have this debugged soon. Try “yotreps” first.

We crossed under the GG Bridge on 7/12 at 13:47 hours, under reefed main and staysl. Spent the next half-hour tacking out the channel, then turned through the south channel. The wind dropped to 12 kts, and we hoisted jib, put up full main. Light to medium fog first night, ran radar watches through the night. Wind picked up during night, reefed main to first batten, reefed jib.

Seeing lots of the jelly fish with the small translucent sail sticking above the water’s surface. So plentiful, a few washed up on deck. Crew is getting their sea legs.

7/13 — Wind strong all day, 20-25 kts. Medium swells, whitecaps everywhere. Seas a bit confused, but fairly comfortable with wind and swells slightly aft of the stbd beam. Sailing with reefed jib full stay’sl, and double-reefed main, we hit 10.8 kts (water) which is a new
record for VALIS. Average SOG 8 kts. Beautiful full-moon all night, clear skies. Day was sunny and nights are getting warmer.

Andrew was served breakfast (one of Jim’s scallion and cheddar cheese omelets) in bed this morning as he had the last night watch. We had a great chicken curry on a bed of white rice last night for dinner. Since it was blowing 25 kts. so we opted to eat it in bowls so most of it would get to our mouth.

At dusk Dan spotted what he though was the first boat out here even if it did turn out to be a rising moon on the horizon. Jim was listening to some 300 Beatles songs during his 11 to 2 watch.

7/14 — wind starting out at 20kts, seas smaller than yesterday. We are steering about 200 deg mag, which should take us below the Pacific High (monitoring it daily via email and wfax).

Best to all from the crew of VALIS, Paul, Andrew, Dan and Jim

Sat 7/12/2003 5:04 PM

It is now about 6:00 PM and we are approx 20 miles offshore, between Half Moon Bay and Pescadero (lat 37 deg 27 min, longitude 122 deg 47 min). It is foggy, but we are sailing fast. We were averaging between 8 and 9 knots after turning south from the GG Bridge, with the wind blowing about 20 kts. Now that we are in deeper water, the seas are
quite comfortable. The wind is now blowing 14 kts, and we are sailing about 7.5 kts approximately south.