Med Viking II

Very early on Sunday night (the 25th of August), Med Viking II came back to port under the command of Captain Karine. Everything went well on the return trip except for a fishing net that was caught in the prop around sunset. The crew had to wait until the morning to dive and release the net. Karine braved jelly fish to get to the net.

The whole crew race crew plus most of the return crew (John went home right away) met at night for pizza.

Overall it was a 5200 nm trip from LA to San Francisco, Hawaii and back.

Aloha!!!

We made it to Hawaii around 2:35 PM local time (5:35 PM PDT). This gives us a total race time of 13 days, 5 hours, 55 minutes, and 23 seconds and 12d 09:07:51 in corrected time. We are last in our class (but 2 boats did not finish). This is 3 days shorter than the previous passage on the original Med Viking 10 years ago. This crossing was a bit harder than the previous one: less crew, bigger boat, a lot more squalls, some unexpected stuff breaking in the middle of the night, being 10 years older, etc…

The welcome at the Kaneohe Yacht Club (KYC) was amazing. There was even a choice of a (pre-ordered) non-alcoholic drink for Marc. The other 3 of us think that they overcompensated with the rhum in our drinks. We did not mind after 2 weeks w/o alcohol. We got the unexpected gift of 2 beautiful leis. One from Marc and Andrea friends at the Oasis sailing club and one from the whole Andrea’s family. Both leis had some very welcoming notes attached to them.

We also got a nice plaque as a memory of the race:

When we arrived, we were rafted up to another boat by the crane.

The port captain at KYC told us we would have to move the boat to the bay at anchor, but we just got moved to a slip. It still requires an anchor, but we are free to get in and out as we wish.

Now we start the process of cleaning up the boat and repairing the broken stuff to make sure that captain Karine gets a safe and fun trip back home. Rigger and boat mechanics have been scheduled.

Today is (hopefully) our last full day at sea. We should reach Hawaii and the Kaneohe Yacht Club tomorrow evening. Once again we had a lot of squalls during the previous night. We also lost all our instruments when Karine took over form me at midnight. The only working instruments were the compass and the wind indicator called windex, at the top of the mast). I initially decided to wait until morning to look at this problem but when the rest of the crew woke-me up at 1AM I decided to look a the situation. The problem is that you cannot see the windex from the steering wheel so Marc had to relay its position to Karine who was correcting the heading of the boat. After a few attempts the problem was found and fixed.

To enter Kaneohe Bay, we have 2 options: the Sampan channel, a shorter but very shallow route or the main channel. The main channel has plenty of depth for our boat but is an hour detour. The Sampan channel show depth between 7 and 8 feet and we need 7.5 feet… Whatever route we decide, an escort boat will take us to the dock at KYC.

The picture below was taken at the Richmond Yacht Club just before leaving for the start of the race in front of the St Francis Yacht Club.

Note: we may not post our arrival tomorrow as we will be busy with the approach.

Yesterday we spent a good amount of time trying to remove some twists and turns that developed between the spinnaker and the sock. We had to bring the spinnaker inside the cabin so that Karine and I could remove the sock and clean the situation.

Today we decided to put the spinnaker up early because the day before, we always felt that a squall was coming and never managed to do it. Our untwisting was not perfect because we could only get 99% of the spinnaker out but that was close enough. We had a nice run for a few hours and avoided squalls that were passing us left and right. Then we got a hit! The rain started to fall, and the wind started to build up. One big wind gust pushed the boat on its side (too bad the window in the guest bathroom was not closed because we now have to deal with wet toilet paper), so we decided to bring the sock down. We woke up Karine who was in her cabin and her and I went to the bow to work on it. Easier said than done… Marc was taking care of the lines in the cockpit. At some point a large wave projected me on the lifelines. I am not sure if I stayed on the boat thanks to the lifelines or my tether line, but whatever it was, it worked. The only damage is a bruised knee.

Obviously, as soon as we were done, the sky turned blue, and the squall was gone. We considered putting the spinnaker back but were too exhausted. A little bit later, Karine proposed to go back to our wing-on-wing configuration. That was a good idea. We first tried without the spinnaker pole, but it did not work well so we resurrected the pole. We have lost our topping lift but since we are not using the spinnaker, we used the spinnaker halyard. We double checked everything many times and we were very careful. The pole is heavy and can easily knock down some one. We found a few places where the lines were crossing each other the wrong way. We then hoisted the pole, and we are now sailing directly towards the finish line instead of having to jibe back and forth.

Right now, Andrea is preparing half the mahi mahi that we did not eat yesterday. She is making delicious tacos. Andrea also too a nice video of the moment we landed the fish yesterday.

It sounds like a broken record but last night we still had a lot of squalls. With the squalls come the rain so it got pretty wet. We also had to go back and put a wrench on the other shroud to make sure that we don’t lose the mast. We have been sailing all day without problem. The repair does not look good but it works!

The big news of the day is that we caught our first fish. It was a good size mahi mahi. Everybody got to take pictures and Karine spent a lot of time making filets and preparing a dish of “poisson cru”.

Here is a view of what it looks like steering the boat in heavy wind

Yesterday’s birthday celebration orchestrated by Andrea went also into the night. While I started my watch, Andrea, Karine and Marc came with a cake with ice cream and a candle. There were also colorful lights.

Later in the night, at 2AM, while I was off watch Karine and Marc woke me up. The mast was wobbling… For some reason, the turnbuckle lost tension and the lower shrouds were loose. Karine and I went on the deck to fix the situation. By morning the mast was still standing. We contacted the rigger in LA and got some advice from him. The tension was lost again in the afternoon, so we tried to find a more permanent fix. We will see if I need to wake up in the middle of my short sleep.

Despite the issues, we have some nice sunsets.

Big day today! It was my birthday. When I woke up, Andrea had nicely decorated the cabin with nice banner. In top of that I have choice of dinner (it will be lamb!).

We finally had a sunny day. That was good for our tan and for recharging the batteries. We did not run the engine today. So far, the 1/2 belt we saved is holding up enough to charge the batteries when needed.

We did not attempt to repair our spinnaker pole arrangement. This means that we are sailing quite slower than we should/could, but we are still making our way towards Hawaii. A few minutes ago, we passed the 2/3 of the way mark.

Last night we had some pretty big squalls. Squalls bring rain and a lot of wind. Luckily for me, I slept through the largest one. According to Marc, the wind was in the 30 knts range. On my watch I was not prepared for rain when the first squall came, and I got cold and wet…

On the subject of watches, we do 2 hours on and 4 hours off. My watches are: 4 AM to 6 AM, 10 AM to 12 noon, 4 PM to 6 PM and 10 PM to midnight.

Due to the situation with spinnaker pole and also our reduced crew, we are sailing slower that we would expect we are still making progress towards Hawaii.

This morning, we are contacted by the crew of Second Wind. They were close to us and told us that they lost their ability to steer the boat. They can only steer with their autopilot. They are in our class and that should disqualify them.

Our charging situation was improved today with a sunny day that allowed the solar panels to charge the batteries almost all day. Right now, we are charging the batteries with the engine running on half of the alternator belt that was left. While we are generating power, we also make water. Our tanks are almost full, but this is good precaution. Here is the list of things we use power for (in parentheses the amount of energy the system use:

– Freezer (high)
– Fridge (high)
– Watermaker (very high, used as needed)
– Pump for freshwater and flushing the heads (high, minimum use)
– Radio in standby (low)
– Satellite phone in standby (low)
– Lights inside at night (low/medium)
– Navigation lights at night (low/medium)
– Navigation instruments (medium)
– Music (low)
– Starlink Internet (high, on only a few hours a day)
– Microwave oven (very high, rarely used)
– This computer at the navigation station (medium)
– Autopilot (high, not used during the race)
– Electric winch (very high, not used)

We still run the boat on Pacific Daylight Time, but we are already 2 times zone away from Orange County. Hawaii will be 3 times zone away but only 2 hours difference because they do not observe DST.

At around 7PM (6.5 days since start) we passed the halfway point to our destination. This is a good milestone. This is also when things started to not go so well. Ready below

We had a good run all night but then the wind started to build up in the early morning, so we decided to bring the spinnaker down. That was not easy. Karine and I had to fight the wind on the foredeck. We setup the spinnaker pole (no spinnaker) on the genoa to go wing on wing. Soon after, we noticed that a block had fallen from the mast. This is the block that allow the topping lift line to exit the mast. The line was immediately broken.

As the wind was still building up, we decided to remove the spinnaker pole (which by now at no topping lift). That was another adventure. At this point we are not sure what is out best option for sailing downwind. We will decide tomorrow.

The day also brought some other issues related to charging the batteries. The generator is erratic, and the alternator mounted on the main engine would not charge. We are currently looking at these issues. Right now, we are getting some success with the main engine.

Last night we had very light winds and a few small squalls with rain. Time to get the rain gear back on deck. Around 6 AM the wind came back and seems to be established for the duration of the race. As the wind build up, we removed the spinnaker that had been on for about 2 days. Karine and I went on deck to bring the spinnaker down. That was not easy because by then the wind had built up nicely.

Right now, the wind is stable at about 20 knots with very confused seas. If you follow our track on YB, you can see that we are taking a mostly west route before going south in about 2 days. All of this is obviously subject to change.

In the previous post we mentioned how rare it is to meet boats at sea. Today we met one of our fellow racers on Jeanneau 43 named Shadowfax. They have a crew of 7 and were sailing much faster than us with their symmetrical spinnaker.

On the subject of weather, we download GRIB files (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GRIB) twice a day. These files give us a condensed form a preview of the weather for the coming days.