Voyage of Traveler / Blog

Traveler’s Position Report for July 13 at 0200
26-00 N, 138-54 W
COG 220 M, SOG 6, wind 8 to 10 knots true from the NE
1076 miles to go to Diamond Head finish line

At 2100 hours last night we jibed to get more southing in on our position on the course, relative to the rhumb line and the other boats in our class. This is a tactical investment, as we are sailing more miles to do so. Also, our bearing to the Molokai Channel is 246 M, so our velocity made good (VMG) while sailing a course of 220 M suffers a bit, but just in the short term. This will likely hurt our standings for the daily position report for 7/13 (posted on the Transpac website at about 0800 PDT), but will hopefully put us in position where we will be able to steadily gain on our competition over the next week. The other boats in the Aloha Class, generally, will be sailing a more northerly course in lighter air, at least that’s what we’re betting on.

This is another light air year for the Transpac. No records will be broken this year. We still have half way to go, and we should have a faster second half. But we now expect to finish in 16 days, late at night on July 19 or early on the 20th.

At the Half Way Party at sunset last night, we celebrated with mai tais, BBQ’d pork chops, a gift exchange and “Paper Plate Awards.” These awards included: Best New Driver to Jim Borgman (his first offshore race), Most Improved to Eric Flanders (he has found his groove and able to keep the kite full and the boat speed up, even at night), Waterman Award to Ric Sanders (for diving overboard, knife in his teeth, at first light on July 5 to cut kelp away from the prop and rudder), Fisherman Award to Larry Wilson (for his dedication with the rod and reel, but so far we have only boated one bonita, so this is mostly for effort), and the Navigators Award to David Lee (he said it is a tad premature and let’s see what happens over the next week.)

And now for the BIG NEWS: After all the awards and other gifts were exchanged, I took a knee and gave one last gift to Barbara. It came in a small jewelry box. “Barbara Lynn Burdick, will you marry me?” She said “Yes!”

Oh, you want details about the ring? It is a beautiful stainless steel one inch hose clamp, which I adjusted to fit her ring finger perfectly with a screwdriver. I promised to take her shopping for a proper ring while in Waikiki.

Popping “The Question” during a Transpac Race and midway between California and Hawaii has to set some sort of a record as this is the farthest possible place away from land anywhere in the world. It’s also appropriate, given that we met on the dock at the Hawaii Yacht Club following the 2005 Transpac, and we have spent much of our six years together onboard Traveler sailing around the world.

Still Living the Dream,
Michael