Roxanne, Day 3

Day 3 and it is now warming up. Wind is down a bit and we're headed more off the wind so it is pleasant sailing. We've been making better time than our software predicted. Just can't keep up with Hula Girl.

People are in shorts and in good humor. Ian says, "Room service sucks but the views are nice." He had a good birthday yesterday but a little wet. John says, "The boat really isn't bigger than it looks." Chuck says, "The first two days weren't in the brochure."
- The Roxanne crew

Putting miles in the bank -- update from Greg!

We had a wild night. Winds 20-30 with confused seas and constant waves washing the boat. We made good distance (about 166 as of 8AM)averaging around 11 knots. Hula Girl is well out in front but this point of sail is not our strongest. We're flying a small jib and reefed main. When the wind clocks further north as expected, we can fly a chute and see if we can make up ground on them. We're all wet and a little cold but everyone feeling good.

Everything coming together

After over a year of planning, we have less than 24 hours to our start and everything is finally coming together. We watched the start of the D class today and then sailed out behind them under the Golden Gate. We saw Criminal Mischief sailing back in as we were going out. Criminal Mischief is a Reichel Pugh 45 that is very cool. We get a two day head start on those guys and that may not be enough.

We had a great sail back in hitting 18 knots in 20-22 knots of breeze. All of us are anxious to get on our way to Hawaii. The forecast is looking good showing a stiff breeze for the first 24 hours and then moderate breeze most of the way to Kaneohe.

Glad to see another Northwest boat -- Raindrop with skipper Joby Easton -- doing well. They are double handing and were leading all boats as of this morning. Joby was crew on Reinrag for Transpac and is a great sailor and good guy.

We're collecting lots of weather info and routing advice. Right now conditions look good for a pretty fast crossing so we're optimistic.

This is our last post before casting off tomorrow. Send us your comments and they will get forwarded to us at sea.

-The Roxanne Crew

Technological Wonders

Like most of the boats, Roxanne will have a large array of high tech wonders. We have GPS, satellite phone, SSB radio, computer and the ability to gather weather information over the SSB or satellite phone. We can get the latest weather forecasts, plug them into our navigation software and it will tell us the optimum course to sail taking into account our boats performance and the forecast winds. At least that is how it is suppose to work, but we all know how reliable weather forecasts are beyond a day or two. So most boats rely more on the human navigator than the computer. In our case Bob is the naviguesser having done this race three times previously.

Click the picture above and you will see the current weather along with the "optimum course" forecast by our software. If we started today, conditions are relatively mild and the computer forecasts that we would take just under 11 days. The forecast for late next week shows stronger winds over much of the course so things are looking pretty good.

S Wright Optical Engineering

As a result of an industrial incident involving gravity and a hard surface, our main hatch required extensive maintenance. Here you see our chief optical engineer thermo-forming the new hatch to precise tolerances under cloak of darkness at KKMI.

Strum in Lahaina

I got a few pics of Strum as they took line honors in the Vic-Maui race. They finished around 6:30 Hawaii time July 4th on a beautiful evening right before the fireworks in Lahaina. Here they are about 7 miles before finish off the Maui shore near Kapalua.














Here they are just after arriving at the dock in Lahaina:














And getting decked out:

Reconnaissance

I just arrived in Maui (by plane, not boat). I'm here for spousal harmony and a high school graduation celebration for my son, Kyle.

I'm watching Vic Maui with interest. If they arrive before I leave on July 7th, I plan to watch Strum finish. She is from our neck of the woods and we've raced against her a few times. It's a very cool boat. The Vic Maui tracker shows Strum heading slightly north of west. Not sure why they would be doing that.

Winds are unusually light here and across the course. I hope conditions improve by the time we start.

Meanwhile Bob and Steve are in Richmond to greet Roxanne. Bob reported a little damage to Roxanne. One of the pads was carrying too much of the load and wore through. Repairs are underway.