Back in California

I'm back in Silicon Valley after a whirlwind three weeks in Hawaii. The reason of course was to rendezvous with Synthia after her amazing single-handed sail/race from SF Bay to Hanalei. Synthia ended up winning both her division (three boats) and class (eights boats). She really wanted to win the darn thing overall but the weather gods did not smile kindly on her. The entire fleet bobbed around in no air for 4-5 days which is TORTURE. Of course since it's a sailboat race the sailors cannot use their engines. So they sit trying to eke every tiny bit of speed out of their boat possible.

When the winds are light then the bigger boats make out because they are the first to hit the wind and the margin between them and the small boats gets bigger and bigger each day. The rich get richer.

As you can see there is NO F***ING WIND!











One night the breeze started to fill in and the squalls began to form in the distance. This was a sign that the Pacific High (i.e. no f***ing wind) was about the lift and the tradewinds were about to start blowing.

Synthia was able to set her spinnaker and begin sailing once again toward Kauai! The bigger boats arrived first. Synthia led the pack of the smaller, slower boats. She arrived about 11:00 pm on July 13th. She was followed a few hours later by two competitors with whom she'd had constant contact throughout the race. Her old pal Phil on Sail A Vie and her new pal The General on Harrier. The General (Ken) is 77 yrs. old and this was his 9th Singlehanded Transpac. It was a very busy morning! The General hit the beach at dawn and of course Synthia and Phil had to wait for his arrival:

It's never too early for a celebratory beer or Mai Tai!

My favorite story of the entire adventure was that Hesperus, the smallest boat at 23', lost her rudder about 150 miles from Kauai. Paul deployed the emergency rudder but that failed as well. It was not a good situation. There was still a boat close by, Carroll E., the second smallest at 24'. Chris aboard Carroll E. decided to stay next to Hesperus indefinitely while Paul experimented with various methods of steering the boat...various jib configurations, dragging drogues, etc. After a day or so Hesperus was able to steer without a rudder but at a very...slow...pace. Chris made the decision to stay with Hesperus the entire way into Kauai. Remember they have now been out at sea for about 19 days! It was an amazingly heroic decision for Chris to make, especially since his lovely fiancee Justine was in Kauai waiting for him. Synthia and I were scheduled to leave Hanalei Bay for Honolulu on Monday July 17th, but Hesperus and Carroll E. were not going to arrive until that day, so we and many others postponed our trips so that we could greet our comrades! Synthia serenaded them with her ukulele when they arrived on land.
Paul from Hesperus sure was glad to step on land and get his Mai Tai!!
It is a tradition to meet at "The Tree" on Hanalei Beach every evening at 5:00 to toast the new arrivals. Chris was proud to receive accolades for his good sportsmanship in staying alongside Hesperus.
The next day Synthia and I departed Hanalei Bay Kaui for Honolulu and had a glorious 24 hour sail across the Kauai Channel. We arrived in Honolulu at 4:00 am, napped a couple of hours, then got up and decomissioned our beloved Eyrie to be shipped home on a freighter. It was a terrible culture shock to leave calm, breezy, unpopulated Hanalei one morning and wake up in HOT, NOISY Honolulu the next.
But we got the boat packed up and ready to ship in record time, leaving several days to party with our Pacific Cup pals in Honolulu. But that's another story: