Here are the emails that came from the Patches to friends and family as we made our way accross the Pacific:
July 10th 2011
Patches is off and running! The first 48 hours are always a bit of a shocker getting back into the offshore mode. This year was very pleasant with between 15-18 kts off the bow and clocking to due North.
Seas have been calm, in the 4ft range.
We started on Friday and held the #2 all the way out and around Catalina. Yesterday we put up the Jib top at 7:30 am with the genoa staysail. We held that setup for a while, finally pealing to the masthead A3 at 4:30am today and to the A2 at 11:30am.
Life on the boat has been… wet! We found ‘some’ leaks we didn’t know we had. And we made some leaks that weren’t supposed to be there! Regardless, we are all in good spirits and are heavily into crossing the ridge.
We have set ourselves up a little South to cross the ridge. There is a bit of a ‘hernia’ in the isobars along the ridge just north of us. The ‘hernia’ is most wide about 150 miles north of rhumb line. As we get lifted out of the ridge, it looks like we skirt it pretty close. We’ve been setting up to try and enter the ridge a little further south so our exit is a little further south than the routing software puts us. We are just a little worried that pocket of light air might grow and push south, especially with the big High so far North West. The only direction it has to go is back south and east! Hopefully our push south of the fleet keeps us in good breeze and gives us better angle on the gybe in a few days.
Of course the southerly route causes us to sail a little extra distance, but will be offset by the better breeze and gybe angle.
All of this has set us up in the standings well. We are currently sitting in 2nd in Class and 10th overall. With the lighter breeze down the course, we are hoping to chomp up the 70’s in the final ½ of the race. We are currently sitting further South than our fleet, so we are hoping as we spin around the lighter air to the North, we begin to extend forward and cut miles off of our distance to the mark.
Regardless, it is what it is and it be what it be! We are making the best of the situation and pushing hard. We are keeping all our maneuvers safe and slow.
July 13, 2011
Well, the last 36 hours have been interesting. After yesterday’s report, we know we are entering the last 3rd of the race in good position.
We have decided to play the west side of the fleet to leverage the easterly shift as we get closer to the Hawaii. The wind has lightened and we set a strategy to stay pointed towards the west side of the course. If the wind allows us we have been stepping down to the south to remove some of the leverage from the sleds that began gybing south yesterday night.
Over the last 24 hours the wind lightened even further and we have struggled against the front running sled, GI. We are now about 6 hours behind them on corrected.
Fortunately, we did well on the three other sleds that worked south, taking approx. two hours out of each of their leads.
We are now 20 minutes out of 2nd place overall. This has left us in a strong position entering the last 1/3rd of the race.
There are about 9 boats who are all reasonably close up here in the front pack on corrected time. We have a solid game plan and are going to stick to it as we get closer to the finish. The wind will be increasing to the 12-14kt range tomorrow and 15-16 on Friday. We are trying to set ourselves up to take advantage of the building breeze but not lose control of our class competitors. The sleds are a bonus if we can pick a few more of them off, but we don’t want to lose any leverage on our fleet.
That’s about all for now. We will keep updated tomorrow.
July 14, 2011
Well, we have played our cards and it’s time to put the pedal down. No matter how hard it was to stick to the strategy as we slogged along at 8 kts and watched the sleds peel off to the south, we stuck it out.
The goal was to cross a day long finger of light air to extend out into the west side of the course. Getting to the west side of the course would allow us to take advantage of the shifting wind and leverage against anyone who took the short term gain with more wind south.
At this point, we aren’t sure how it will completely turn out. The move cost us about 1.5 hours on the entire sled fleet, but we are now going 15kts in 16kts of wind with a wind angle of 70 degrees.
By comparison, we were sailing all yesterday in wind angles in the 40’s and 50’s and doing 8-9 kts of boatspeed in 10kts of wind. Painful and frustrating, especially when the fleet tracking showed the sleds doing 10.5-11kts of boatspeed after their dive south.
By extending out to the west, we have been able to gybe into more wind and point closer to the finish line than the boats that were south of us. (At least that’s how it appears from here, we will see if that’s actually true!)
Now we are pretty well set for the run to the finish. We have 720 miles to go. The winds are oscillating between 65-70 and we are forecast to have winds shifting further east to 75 degrees which will further head us at the finish line.
After a tough day yesterday, Jack finally had enough. Starting on our first evening watch, as the breeze (finally) began to increase, he grabbed the mainsheet and has been constantly pumped the main with the kite. If there are 4 on deck, one person drives, one trims the kite sheet, one grinds the kite winch and the 4th person pumps the main sheet by hand.
If there are 5 on deck, the same driver, trimmer, grinder setup, but the main sheet is pumped with a pedestal grinder. Much faster!
That’s it for now; wish us well as we row this thing to the finish line.
We need to take about 2 hours out of the sled fleet and 6 hours out of the overall leader. We currently sit 1st in class and 5th overall as Holua (SC70) gained a place on us. We have continued to gain on our fleet, with the exception of Vincetori, who leveraged South with the sleds.
Until tomorrow
July 15, 2011
The drag race has begun.
The plan was to get out to the West of the fleet and leverage the
easterly shift. We have succeeded in getting to the West of the fleet
and have gotten a good header this morning with more coming tomorrow
morning.
The next three places in our fleet have spread out on the course.
Katana, in 4th, is directly behind us at 177 miles. Vincetore , in 3rd,
is in front of our port beam, about 82 miles to the south east of us.
Criminal Mischief, in 2nd, is between the two extremes and dead upwind
of us and 140 miles away.
We are comfortable with our position on our fleet as we are protecting
the right side of the course from Vincetore's leverage to the south
east. Criminal is dead upwind, and will need to sail further distance
(and longer time) to cover the 140 miles. We will be keeping an eye on
them and possibly step down to the west one more time to take full
advantage of the heading breeze as we get a little closer to the mark.
The Sleds have done a great job in this race. The front running 4 sleds
all took a dip south for more breeze a few days ago, and have been able
to maintain (and slightly increase) their lead as they have compressed
back to our line. It was a gamble for both of us as to which strategy
would prevail, and while the outcome is still yet unknown, I am tending
to think the southerly route back on Wednesday may have been a tick
faster.
We will find out for sure when the full header solidifies for us
tomorrow and we can accurately gauge.
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