Billy's TransPac Blog

LastDayOfSabbatical

2010-08-29T22:49:00.000-07:00

Last day of Sabbatical So, just to catch you up. Two weeks ago we had a splendid “dock party” for Siwash. Here’s her cake made by the most wonderful bakers at Angel Maid in Culver City. It was all very festive, and yet sad. We were at the dock that used to belong to my Mom and Dad, but that is now for sale. Everything is in flux. And yet somehow, all those present

Farewell

2007-08-05T21:49:00.000-07:00

At my Mom's request, I moderated my Dad's memorial yesterday morning. Drank his bloody Mary recipe and saw all the old salts from his long life. Many, nay most of these old salts have lost other old friends, so they knew the routine, a lot better than I. I wasn't going to post another blog, but I forgot to sing this one last song, yesterday, so here it is. Dad used to sing this, as well as

TranspacBlog II-28: Crossing tacks

2007-07-26T22:00:00.000-07:00

A most amazing race, indeed. The race is over, and we STILL keep running into Farfar. Last night the Psyche crew (not Charlie) and friends enjoyed a luscious dinner party at the Outrigger Canoe Club, right on the Diamond Head side of Waikiki, courtesy of our captain, Steve Calhoun. His generosity overflowed. While we drank our Mai Tai's at sunset, the canoeists were racing down the waves and

Dad

2007-07-26T21:58:00.001-07:00

Dad 50 Originally uploaded by Sticky Tiny

TranspacBlogII-27D: WE WON!!

2007-07-25T15:46:00.000-07:00

Last email (sent the day after, but you can read it for effect) found us with a big question mark.Farfar racing along to save her time. We struggling not to let them do it.Beautiful moonlit night. Smooth sea. Wind, 18-24 knots. High tension on board. To sail all this way and not be able to beat them, had us all dry mouthed. The focus of the last 6 hours of the race was downright unhealthy (

TranspacBlogII-27C: Farfar Sighted?

2007-07-25T15:45:00.000-07:00

Just charging along the north coast of Molokai. Green lush, waterfalls, stark, lonely.Each of us taking 15 min steering turns, trying to break our records. Nobody does, but everyone is having fun. Gusts of 24.But we are always looking at the horizon, trying to find Farfar. Which of us is going to be the Division 6 winner, and which will be second?Oops, there's a white light in front of us. I

TranspacBlogII-27B:Delayed Gratification

2007-07-24T21:40:00.000-07:00

It is 8:31 PM, California time, making it 5:31 in the afternoon here in Hawaii.Our present updated ETA is around midnight.We jibed our way toward Molokai all morning. We barreled through a particularly long and rainy squall, and when it cleared, viola, there was Haleakala, the volcano of the island of Maui, rising up out of the clouds. We are presently sailing down this amazing coast. Charlie

TranspacBlogII-27: Homestretch handicap

2007-07-24T19:33:00.000-07:00

Finish time: a bit after midnight tonight, Honolulu timePlace your bets folks the horses have just rounded the backstretch, and are heading to the finish line.I have to give the newbies among you a little information on handicap for today's blog. Every boat in this race has a handicap. This is a number that determines how much time other boats "give" them. Psyche has a great handicap because

TranspacBlogII-26: Privilege vs heart

2007-07-23T19:25:00.000-07:00

Ok. When I left you yesterday, we were power reaching with the 1.5 oz bullet proof spinnaker, our bow aimed like a cannon at the transom of Farfar. We also had the spinnaker staysail up. All sails flying as we closed on our query. We were getting closer and closer. The wind was howling. Certainly the four crew on Farfar weren't as heroic as the five of us. We made countless sail changes,

ETA

2007-07-23T10:31:00.001-07:00

I meant to tell you all in yesterday's blog.Our estimated time of arrival at diamond head is Tuesday 24 July, around 9:30 PM local time. We are going to try like hell to make that a little earlier, so we can finish in the light, but the ocean is fickle.Hope to see any and all of you that are in Honolulu when we come in.Bill

TranspacBlogII-25: Transpac Dads

2007-07-23T09:26:00.000-07:00

22July07We've got Farfar in our sites. Just off the weather bow. We are both sailing on starboard tack, headed for a Molokai rendezvous day after tomorrow. She is sailing a slow low course, apparently blocking the "passing lane". Knowing that the easterly shift in two days will favor boats on the right of the course, we are inclined to let her get to our left. "No!", you all are crying. "

TranspacBlogII-25: Gribs and Gurus

2007-07-21T19:59:00.000-07:00

Two of the most important resources for getting to Hawaii ahead of our competition are the weather files (called GRIBS), which we download a couple of times a day by satellite telephone, and words of wisdom from the Guru of the Transpac, Stan Honey.On Psyche, in my blog yesterday, I admitted to being somewhat discouraged. Farfar was 30 miles ahead. That's 4 hours at 7 knots. That's a long way.

TranspacBlogII-24:The Motley Crew

2007-07-21T13:42:00.000-07:00

What kind of crazies would take a 40+ year old boat and race her to Hawaii?A Motley Crew.Steve Calhoun, the owner; Jim Barber and Bill Wright (the author of this blog) from Psyche's old transpac crew; Charlie Buckingham; and Andrew Campbell. We have a wide array of backgrounds. It is actually really interesting to consider what experience would lead a person to into a venture like this.Take

TranspacBlogII-23: Daily Life on Psyche.

2007-07-19T14:18:00.000-07:00

I haven't written much about everyday life on Psyche. Ok.Take today, for example. Steve Calhoun is off watch and is just now up on deck taking a bath. This is a pretty exciting affair. Not Steve, the bath. You go up on deck with a bucket and a bottle of camp suds and Prell (I just take camp suds), half, or completely, naked, depending on your level of insecurity. Ok, just so you know, Steve

TranspacBlogII-22: Sea stories

2007-07-18T18:41:00.000-07:00

So, my Dad dying yesterday, changes the hue of this race. Deeper blue.But beautiful as beautiful can be. We are on this planet for so short a time.Here's what I would like you all to do, those that know my Dad, Howard W. Wright Jr.I would like you to post a narrative about Dad.On the web page.Because now that he is no longer my dying father through my eyes, I would like to know more about who

Transpac Blog II-21: Sea Witches.

2007-07-18T07:41:00.000-07:00

The tricksters were out last night. The sun went down, and and the goblins had their way with us.The dark-as-pitchness was worse. The swell was the same. The wind around 15 knots. Really challenging keeping a boat under spinnaker on one track. At 4:30AM we went by the lee, and backwinded the mainsail, causing the boat to tip the WRONG way (away from the boom), like it was completely possessed

Contacting the Psyche

2007-07-18T07:21:00.000-07:00

You can email the Psyche, but please remember to keep your messages short, with no attachments (the signal is pretty wimpy), and don't be offended if they don't write you back. I guess they're busy or something...The address (in spam-deterring format) is: WDB9896 at sailmail dot comSara

Transpac Blog II-20: Moment in the sun.

2007-07-17T15:38:00.000-07:00

5:30 PM, 16 July, 2007Well the very good news is that we moved into 1st place in our class this morning.The bad news is we only made 169 miles to Farfar's 181. This clearly supports the idea that she has more wind, 50 miles to the south. The weather charts support that idea.And they are to our left, of course. You can't pass on the right on this course, remember? Well, maybe you can, but not

TranspacBlogII-19: depression

2007-07-16T11:03:00.000-07:00

We are clinging to our third place in class, and our narrow lead over Farfar. Worrying about whether to sail even further south to cover Farfar, wondering if the rest of the fleet would just pass us by.Suddenly things have gotten interesting.We knew there was a bit more wind to the south. Today the weather maps showed that there was substantially more wind to the south. More specifically,

TranspacBlogII-18: Mangle-day

2007-07-15T11:41:00.000-07:00

July 14: 3PMWriting in the leeward bunk. We really are in the trade winds now. Wind is coming from the NE, gusting to 18 knots! We love the trade winds. We have 1717 miles to go. That is a lot of spinnaker work.What's more, I am clean, and shaven, with nothing but clean clothes. Food is becoming a source of interest on the boat. Jimmy saw Steve eating one of the pounds of cookies laying

Editorial Note

2007-07-13T20:35:00.001-07:00

Happy Anniversary, Charlie!

TranspacBlogII-17: Pass on the left.

2007-07-13T20:31:00.000-07:00

Friday, the 13th July.I spend a lot of my workday in Los Angeles on the freeway. I know I've become a grump, but when I learned to drive, I learned that all slower traffic is supposed to stay to the right, and passing is to be done on the left. So why do all the SUV's sit in the left lane and go slow? Haven't they learned? Slower traffic to the right!!Well we seem to be slow to learn to pass

TranspacBlogII-15: A beautiful beat.

2007-07-12T20:49:00.000-07:00

7AM, 12 July 07Sitting to leeward in the forepeak just before the morning role call. Many of you know that this is a coded way of telling you that there isn't much wind.We have been beating or close reaching on starboard tack all night with a miraculously constant, but weak breeze.I wrote of beating to windward in 2005, but I simply must relate last night as an addendum. To remind you, beating

TranspacBlogII-15: We Lose the First Round.

2007-07-11T17:44:00.000-07:00

It has been said of this ocean race that it is really three races: the beginning is the race to get to the corner of the great high pressure zone. The middle part is just sailing down-wind in the trades, choosing jibe angles, and making clean jibes. The end is dealing with the intensified trade winds during the last day.I think of it as a prize fight. We've fought three of 15 rounds, we won

Editorial Note: How to Track the Psyche

2007-07-11T10:21:00.000-07:00

You can follow the Psyche's progress on the official Transpac website (link is over on the links sidebar of this blog). Go to the sidebar on the lefthand side, and click on Track Charts, and follow directions from there. Psyche is in Division 6.This is from the website: "Unlike previous Transpac Race the entire fleet has been provided Satellite Transponders from FIS Tracking Services LLC. These

TranspacBlogII-14; Adrift.

2007-07-11T07:43:00.000-07:00

Have you imagined yourself a sole survivor of a ship wreck in a small vessel with no power, drifting alone in the Pacific?Do it now.That's the Psyche most of last night and this morning. Calculating how many years until we would arrive in Honolulu at our various very low speeds. The best one was this morning. We had "goose eggs" on our knot-meter, but the Global Positioning System computer

2007-07-10T19:24:00.000-07:00

9July07N 33 degr 25.9 minW 118 degr 35 minYacht Psyche.We are off. A very nice sail to the west end of Catalina.We laid a big egg at the start. Blanketed by a 70 foot old schoolyawl, no wind 30 secs to the start gun. For those of you unfamiliarwith race starts, the race committee throws an anchor down for twobuoys, and then shoots a gun. 10 minutes later, the start is on. Youmust be on the

2007-07-08T23:17:00.000-07:00

TranspacBlogII-12: ghosting to HawaiiAaarghhhh.No wind on the horizon.Went to the Transpac Dinner tonight. Amazing dancers, but I hardly saw them. I had the distinct honor of sitting with Kurt Holland, who had just given an amazing weather briefing to the crews of the 70 sailboats heading to Honolulu over the next 6 days. Kurt's brilliance was matched by his brevity. No long-winded

2007-07-04T20:56:00.000-07:00

TranspacBlogII-11: Getting out of town.Went body surfing the last 4 days in a row (this after a surfing hiatus of more than 2 weeks!) with my one true love. Two things about that: 1) the south swell is gradually increasing, from the southern hemisphere.2) the wind swell is decreasing to almost nothing.We are so close that my surf-report web page, Wetsand is issuing their forecast for the wind

2007-07-04T11:16:00.000-07:00

TranspacBlogII-10: Ok this really is the last shark blog.Sharks really are amazing creatures. I give a shark lecture in my zoology class. It is a pretty popular lecture. Rob Rebstock's experience is one of the substories (see II-8), but there is another cool shark story that I tell my students. I heard this story from a young professor of vertebrate biology, Jim Ha, whose father was a famous

TranspacBlogII-9: Last Man Overboard Blog

2007-06-25T21:16:00.000-07:00

Peeing at sea.I have heard, and I well believe it, that the highest risk of falling overboard in the non-racing world is associated with drunkenness. Not surprising. But I have also heard that the riskiest activity among the non-inebriated is the act of taking a leak. Most of us much prefer urinating over the side of the boat, rather than going below. This act is always a pleasure, not only

TranspacII-8

2007-06-24T09:17:00.000-07:00

TranspacBlogII-8More on SharksThe other shark story I carry around in my head is from my high-school friend Rob Rebstock, way back in the mid 70's. A couple of years after the attack I am about to describe, Rob and his brother came up to Santa Cruz, and told us this story. Now, I first got to know Robbie as a full-back on the "C" football team (the smallest and youngest division; he was a

2007-06-23T00:59:00.000-07:00

Transpac Blog II-7Man Overboard II: Sharks.You've fallen overboard, the Psyche is gone from view. You are on the verge of panic. You begin to recall all you know about sharks. Sharks. These things give EVERYBODY nightmares. How unlikely it is, in our industrial world, to be seriously considered as lunch. Yet there is a decent possibility that any snorkeller in any out-of-the-way tropical

Man Overboard

2007-06-21T23:39:00.001-07:00

MAN OVERBOARD!!Go there in your imagination, and it sweeps you away. You imagine it happening while you're on the foredeck in heavy weather helping to take down the jib. Your harness isn't fastened right, a steep wave comes aboard green, knocks you down, and the next thing you know, you are in the water. By the time you come up, the boat is out of reach. If you aren't coughing you yell as if

2007-06-18T15:37:00.000-07:00

TranspacBlogII-4Command structure B. The net.This is what it sounds like sailing Psyche."What do you think about loosening the outhaul some? The main seems too tight," asks Bill. A beat while the crew considers the question. "I was just thinking the same thing," replies Steve."What's the windspeed now? " asks Jim. "We aren't pointing with our competition right now.""5 knots, down a couple

2007-06-14T14:15:00.001-07:00

TranspacBlogII-3Command structure A. The hub.In the Transpac Yacht race of two years ago, (see posted Blog Transpac 2005 on sidebar, if you will) when everybody had arrived in Honolulu, we all (the crew from a wide variety of competitors) sat around drinking and gossiping. What was it like on YOUR boat? What kind of skipper is so and so? He did WHAT? Are you joking? These conversations

Billy'sTranspacBlogII-2: Catalina Island Race Installment 2

2007-02-21T08:04:00.000-08:00

TranspacBlogII-2: Around Catalina Island Part 2So, we’ve beaten the CF 37 around the west end, hoisted our spinnaker before they did, and scooted down the back-side of Catalina Island. They mount a charge, but we fight it off. The wind lightens, the light fades, we change to the light-weight spinnaker. Things get quiet. We look at the imposing profile of the back side of Catalina on our

Catalina Island Race Part 1

2007-02-14T21:27:00.000-08:00

Billy's Transpac Blog II-1.Awake with a start (did I scream?). Whoa, where am I? Somebody pulling on my foot. Tense the stomach muscles, try to see. Pitch black. "We're jibing!" Oh. ok. yes. I am on board Psyche. Again. In my cave, where I was sleeping the sleep of the dead as the rest of the crew spinnakered down the backside of Catalina Island toward a head on collision with the "

Hi Grandad

2007-02-14T21:13:00.000-08:00