Tiki Blue Wins in Love

Tiki Blue upon arrival at RYC at 1am today, crew Rune Storesund was greeted by his girl friend Anna Pender at the dock. An embrace of epic proportions lead to the kiss of the century and low and behold the next day they were engaged. Knowing both of them and their love of life and of each other makes the burden of safety and return from the ocean so compelling. Fate has a way of making life decisions that later make so much sense!

This was not a rash decision from being out at sea for weeks and having pirate, lustful, whimsical fantasies, but actually Rune had plans for a proposal at the HALF WAY mark to 1035 miles west of SF via SSB/sat phone/VHF/smoke signals. "Fortunately" for Tiki Blue's electrical issues, Rune made his proposal in person up close early this morning. She accepted and both full of smiles and ready for the Islands and festivities at KYC. Family will be there and you will see them at most of the KYC parties, wish them the best! Tiki Blue is in flight mode for Oahu and will be the first of division B to arrive and will fully great the Pac Cuppers as they arrive, Aloha style!
Cheers Capt'n Gary

Tiki Blue ponies back to the barn

Its 7:15pm and we just crossed the continental shelf where the deep abyss transitions to depths of 250 ft or less. As we did we were escorted by several pods of whales broaching, fluking and just frolicking about. i believe its a small gift from Neptune to ease the disappointment of having to turn Tiki back just 3 days into the race.

We have been motor sailing back making good time and conserving our batteries so we can make a safe return through the shipping channels with running lights, AIS and VHF. Then under the SF Gate around midnight tonight with predicted small craft advisory inside the bay, which means a fun ride back to RYC! In spite of our dilemma our moral is good and just simply enjoying the last day on the ocean and talking about plan B, securing cheap one-way airline tickets to get to Hawaii and great the fleet of boats as they arrive. We look forward cheering on Tiki J for the coveted Tiki award, and tracking Denise, Coyote, Sapphire and all RYC boats .
Its ironic that this trip we have all this water however one little faulty regulator keeps us from using the water for hot showers which we could use after 4 days of sailing. The sat phone is fully charged so we will be able to get this last Tiki report out about thirty miles off the coast.

We did have our half way party and enjoyed all the gifts and party trinkets. The 7 Tiki rum was a hit and we watched Captain Ron on Rune's IPAD. We will be posting some more pics to the Blog when we get back and share some of the issues we were faced with.

We look forward to sitting on a lounge chair at KYC with a Mai Tai and being the first there to great the captains and crew and listen to all the great stories that are part of crossing the pacific in small sailing vessels where nothing is predictable.

LHK to all,
Capt'n Gary, Torben, Judy, Rune and the youngster Ricky and Tyler

LATE BREAKING NEW- TIKI BLUE RETIRES FROM RACE

Today we encountered one potential issue with our charging system that runs all of the electronics on the boat (including the beer fridge). We ran some diagnostics and THOUGHT it was a minor issue. However after working 7 hours on determining that we have a regulator blow out, trying to work a fix that would last for 10-12 more days without starting a fire or other electrical issues, captain and crew decided for safety sake to return to home port.

It was not an easy decision and was made with great disappointment by all however sailing the ocean is always a challenge and safety is paramount with family and good friends on board. We just had our half way party and are on back to SF.

So now, race activity is gone, working on the 2010 Pac Cup theme song, even though we're not an official participant in the race. Team Tiki Blue, looks forward to many more races in the future.

Whale of a day! (Day 2 - July 7)

Kel, we got your message and all is well. Ricky has some minor sea sickness and we had a long slow night with very light winds and a lot of sail slapping. Today we have been crusing along about 5 knots with 7-9 knots of wind. We are not going as far north as some fo the others in the fleet. I think we are in 6th place so we need to make up time. With all this food and water the boat is low in the water and Tiki needs at least 10-12 to get her in giddyup gear.

We had phenom whales interaction today with five different whales. Three of them so close to the boat that we had to dive down to avoid hitting one. It was really exciting and also nerve racking as two crossed under the boat and I'm thinking whale strick soon. Fortnunately NOT. They were just playing with Tiki and keeping skipper and crew on their toes.

Our only on board issue is software malfunction with our AIS and nanvigation system. We are trying to fix it with land support from Steve and we hope to download a fix via sat phone later. Rune has a plan C if that doesn't work.

Good news is we have plenty of water and food this trip. Probaly enough for the return if we can keep it frozen. Tyler had a revalation today: Hey dad this is the first time in my life that looking in any direction i don't see land! ....Funny this reminds me of my first ocean trip with my dad when I was about 10 yrs old on a passenger ship from Hawaii to SF and having that same revalation and then the ocean being a part of my life from that point on.

Torben is keeping us in check as far as focusing on sail trim, speed, direction and on going strategies. Rune is assiting with all and not only the on board IT guy but also photographer and documentarian. Tyler is abosrbing the challange and starting to get comfortable with the long range sailing activities. He played his guitar today. Ricky is sailing the boat fast in marginal conditions and off watch reading a book. Judy is still the light air sailor queen and keeps us organized and makes us wash our hands and sit down to use the head..ha ha..

I still can't believe that send off with the SF Fire boat spraying water hundreds of feet in the air with you guys all on board. Hell of a time from both perspectives. Tiki sends love to all and we keep sailing on! G.

Day 1 (Tuesday July 6)

Tiki Blue was cheered off the docks by friends and family this morning as she headed to the start line at the St. Francis Yacht Club (thanks to everyone who showed up for the sendoff party). After passing Alcatraz, Tiki Blue was greeted by the San Francisco Fire Department's fireboat at the start line *(a great surprise to everyone)....a true Pac Cup sendoff! Thanks Gary Massetani and SF Fire Dept.

Winds were blowing about 17kts at the start, but gradually decreased once outside the Golden Gate. Wind speeds around 6kts for most of the afternoon into the evening (which gave us the opportunity to watch the wales swimming around the boat). We launched the spinnaker at around 6:30 pm, with a heading of 240 degrees (north of the Farallones and Fanny Shoal).

We settled into our watch schedule (2 on and 4 off) in the early evening. We dined on some fabulous pizza as the sun set into the marine layer (well, we didn't actually see the sun go down, it was pretty overcast). We look forward to a fun night of playing the spinnaker in these light air conditions.

Its now 10:30pm and sailing about 6 knots. Tyler ia at them helm and doing well. We sailed through school of fish which lights the ocean with phospherescents and looks like underwater fire works. Looks like Pandora my (Cap'n G) favorite planet. Off to sleep for a while until my one am duty..

Last minute stuff

Feverish last minute communication techno stuff in process with Dr. Rune.... Will we make it??? We will see
Capt'n G