Tiki Blue return completed in record 16 days

Tiki Blue return crew Captain Dennis Ronk (Pacific Cup Warlord) Joe, Andy, Michelle did a terrific job sailing her back and safely into RYC home port. Yes the Warlord and Andy bonded evidenced by the departing hug and kiss.. Funny!! Wives and husbands were there to great them. I enjoyed tracking and reading their blog posts. Yes I was NOT on the return trip but fooled a lot of people. Now lets get ready for 2016 Pacific Cup race to Hawaii. Cheers Gary

final entry

This is the final entry for Dennis and the Pac Back crew. We're less than 5 miles outside the Golden Gate. Seeing the lights of the city and all of the vessels around us makes it seem like Christmas. We've already opened our shared present - our adventure together. It has been a great trip - We've created memories that will last a lifetime.

Thank you to our spouses, family, and friends who helped make it all possible. Truly, we couldn't have done this without your support.

We're close to home and looking forward to seeing all of you.

This is the sailing vessel Tiki Blue - signing out.

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#3

We found a stowaway today among the lines on the cabin top. It was a little gecko that somehow came aboard while we were in Hawaii. Poor thing looked starved (don't ask - but we all agree he looked starved). He didn't scurry when we took a closer look - in fact, he moved toward us. We caught him up in a class, put in a couple drops of water and a few small pieces of cabbage and then set him in a safe place. Joe checked on him later and he had a piece of cabbage in his (her?) mouth! We saved him!

Sighting #3. About 10 dolphins, which were a different type of dolphin than earlier, playing off the port beam. This one I get to keep all to myself. Everyone else is taking their afternoon naps in preparation for that last sprint to the Golden Gate.

A little more than 70 miles to go. But hey, who's counting?

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Very cool

We have had our second dolphin spotting of the day! The firsts time was 10 or 12, including a mother and babe, swimming along side the cockpit and zooming toward the bow. The second was a pod of about 30 playing in the currents off the bow. They were leaping across bow, swimming underneath, playing in pairs and threes. Andy & Michele ran to the bow to watch them play (I mean, slowly and carefully with PFD's and three-point tethers clipped in at all times they made their way safely to the bow.). They were so close that you could hear them take in air when they surfaced. They stayed with us for about 20 minutes.

90 miles to go....

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Home stretch

We're in sustained 18-20 knots, 8-9 knots boat speed, double reefed, and 30% furled jib. One hundred miles to go and coming home as fast as we can!

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almost less than a day

We've decided to take a little side trip to Monterey before we come home...

There we we're, cruising happily along at 8 knots until mid-morning. Winds shifted and began to vacillate. The winds came up to 20+ with gusts up to 25. Rather than beat up the boat and ourselves, we reefed the main, furled the jib in a bit and turned down, pointing toward Monterey. It was still pretty rocky but manageable plus we were still traveling at 8+ knots. Around 15:00 things began changing back to where we want - slowly. The winds have been in the 16-18 range and we've been able to come up and point again toward home. All in all, this was a 160 mile day - too bad it wasn't all in the right direction. We're hoping this little foray won't change our arrival time too much and that we stay in the running for shortest return trip.

The interesting note of the day is the jellyfish - millions of them. We sailed for several hours today with jellyfish as far as the eye can see on both sides of the boat! The have little fins that stick up out of the water and act like sails. A couple were washed onto the boat during the higher waves and we got a chance to look at them up close. Under the sail, they were the same color of blue as the ocean. Pretty cool.

After several nights of cloudy skies, the stars are out in force tonight. We are again able to see the Milky Way in all its glory. We're hoping to catch some of the meteor showers but the moon is big and bright and overpowering the weaker stars.

Everyone is settling in for sleep, except the person on watch. We are under 200 miles from home. We're counting the time by "last times" - tonight was the last time that I had galley duty or tonight is the last time I will have to get up for the 02:00 watch. I will write one more blog tomorrow.

Tomorrow, we get to take showers! Ah, the little things that make us happy after 2+ weeks on a boat! We're looking forward to seeing our greeting party on the dock.

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(no subject)

Today we covered about 140 miles. The day started with dying winds at 01:00 where we ghosted along at 5.5 knots for a couple of hours. Then, when we couldn't take it anymore, we performed an early morning refueling. Luckily, we are still on Hawaii time so we had plenty of light. We motored - again - through the morning but then the wind found us. We've been sailing along with the wind off our beam at 8 and 9 knots for most of the day. The winds are now up 16 knots and we hope to hold that at least through the night. Today was simply a day on the water, surfing small waves and enjoying a little different wind angle.

Now that we are so close to home - everyone is anxious to finish the trip and rejoin their family and friends. We're hoping for a big band at Richmond Yacht Club when we arrive. But, if not, we understand. We'll just be happy to be home with our spouses and children (both the four and two legged kind).

See you all soon.

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(no subject)

After another great breakfast - this time is was Andy's homefries. Michele, Joe and Andy spent the morning napping. It really is amazing how many naps a person can take in a day. We changed places with Dennis and he went down for his turn. The winds held and we cruised along at 8 knots. Andy and Joe spent a couple of hours yeehawing and woohooing as we rode over the crests of waves and drove down the backside. Then, naptime came again. Joe took up residence on the starboard (low side) lazarette and Andy settled into the crook of the starboard hip stanchions. Michele simply watched from her high side perch, enjoying the antics of her companions and the personality of the sea.

We're starting to talk about the end of the trip and transitioning back to our regular lives. It's been an easy trip overall (aside from that whole fishing net and rope around the prop incident)and we plan on enjoying our last three days together.

It's 20:00 and the winds have lightened a bit although we are still able to maintain 6+ knots. We were able to average 8+ knots during the day and saw as high as 9. The winds were 12 - 14 but we saw as high as 17. As of 18:00 this evening, we had traveling 150 miles today. We're hoping to see the higher winds again tomorrow but perhaps not until the afternoon.

We're all excited that we have under 500 miles to go!

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BTW

Forgot to add - 4 to 6 foot swells just off port bow. Nose up, nose down. Just like being in a rocking chair.

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FYI

Cruising along. 8 knots of boat speed in steady 13 knot of breeze. Just lovely!

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sailing at last

After motoring for 4.5 days, we began sailing at 15:00! We spent the first half of our Sunday (after that great breakfast) being quite lazy. Naps were taken, books were read, a little main tweak here, a little traveler down there. The seas were gentle rolling swells. We started getting ready to go for a swim when lo and behold the wind began to freshen. We're now happy to be sailing 7 knots in about 10 knots of breeze, heading straight for home. Now we have to get used to moving around on a heeling boat again! 600 miles to go. We'll be seeing you all soon.

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Happy Sunday

A good omen. The shift change from Joe to Michele came at 06:00 and for some reason, everyone roused for the day. Joe whipped up delicious French Toast with applewood bacon and we spent a few hours in great camaraderie. Our winds have shifted to a consistent NNW and though still too light to sail - give us hope for this afternoon. It portents to be another good day on Tiki Blue.

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another day

We're finishing another day on Tiki Blue, motoring in warm breeze, on calm seas, under a nearly full moon. We've all developed favorite constellations (There's an app for that!). Each of us will always know where to find Scorpio and where Saturn and Mars appear in relation to the moon as well as the name of that little star just to the right of Mars (Spica). It's somehow comforting to see them each evening.

Yes, we are still motoring. Based on reports from other Pac Cup return boats, we hope to find wind tomorrow. Today has been a banner day for spotting things. It was our busiest day for the garbage report. We successfully avoided a number of things (netting, rope) that would again debilitate the boat. Among the other usual debris, we saw several barnacle encrusted egg crates (likely from the Tsunami), and an intact plastic deck chair followed closely by a fully inflated exercise ball (perhaps a frustrated cruise ship exerciser?). However, on the plus side of spotting things, Dennis and Andy saw an early morning pod of whales. They thought it was perhaps a group of 10 or more spouting their way off our port beam. And, best of all, for the second time, eagle-eyes Michele spotted a Japanese glass ball! Two glass balls - yeah! The first one went to Michele and this one goes to Andy. We're keeping our eyes out for more.

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addendum

Thoughts from Joe: After days of relatively clean seas it is disheartening to now, 1000 miles from anywhere, to see the ocean weeping garbage. We are in an area like the outskirts of a dump, where pieces of human crap float by nearly continuously. Seeing this affirms that we are indeed fouling our nest.

We also wanted to let you know that we are not able to see your responses to our blog posts. We look forward to reading all of it when we return.

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today's adventure

So, if you recall from the last blog entry, all was idyllic on the lovely Tiki Blue. And it was - momentarily...

Sometime around 03:30, Dennis noticed our speed had reduced from 6 to 3 knots, in investigating why, he played with the engine throttle and discovered that we had something wrapped around the prop. The crew came up and we saw fishing net floating behind the swim step. We knew we'd have to wait until sunrise to do anything so we stabilized her as best we could and talked about a plan. At 06:30, Andy tethered up, put on the motorcycle goggles he just happened to have and, knife in hand, went into the water to check things out. He discovered that we had a serious problem - he spent 45 minutes in the water cutting away what was around the prop. What floated up was a wad of fishing net that if you spread it out would be twice the footprint of the boat. We kept it attached to the boat because it acted as a drogue to minimize boat movement. When you see the pictures, the mass is actually longer than Andy is tall. He also found about 12 foot of 1 inch rope entangle in both the net and the prop shaft. What ensued was 4 hours of Andy and Joe taking turns diving to the prop and cutting away at what they found. Dennis and Michele ran things topside. What they cut away was an incredible amount of rope, plastic, and netting. As we bobbed, we were all appalled at the amount of garbage and debris we saw float by. We had clearly entered a large debris field. Ironically, as we mentioned in an earlier blog, we are recording the garbage we see for a survey - we had lots to enter in the log today. But, back to the boys - they did an outstanding job. It wasn't an easy task. At 10:30, the final rope was cleared and we started clearing the the lines and tethers in the water. A silver lining to the morning - as we cleaned up, we spotted a large (16 in?) Japanese glass fishing ball. We fired up the motor and went after it. Another irony, if we hadn't gotten tangled in the debris field, we probably wouldn't have found this treasure.

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half way

We are celebrated our halfway mark today! Hula girls, fire dancers (this is a gender equality boat), and beach volleyball. Don't worry, Gary, we'll sweep up the sand. A dinner of Joe's delicious chicken teriyaki and Michele's tasty but port heeled cheesecake (as goes the boat, so goes the cheesecake). We toasted Tiki Blue for her wonderful sailing, Gary for sharing her with us, Skipper Dennis for imparting his wisdom and years of knowledge, First Mate Michele for organizing and managing the trip, and Joe and Andy for their enthusiasm for learning. Good food, good wine, and good spirits abounded (thus the delayed blog entry!)

We have been motoring through the high since 02:30 yesterday but it's been sunny and cool and we can go the direction we want to go. We slowed up a bit this afternoon to refuel and thought perhaps we could sail but no go. Andy gave it a valiant effort and gets those extra points from Tom for carving his initials in the Pacific Ocean. We're motoring again.

Unfortunately, we are also seeing more garbage - mostly in the shape of buoys but a tire floated by early this morning as Dennis and Michele traded watches. We are participating in a marine debris survey and are collecting information everyday that we'll send in once we return. So we at least feel like our garbage sightings are helpful.

Well, it's 02:30, the boys are snug in their bunks, Dennis is top side, the seas are calm, and my bunk is calling my name.

All is well on Tiki Blue.

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1/2 WAY?

We believe we are half way home (actual calculations would take a bit more motivation than is actually present on the boat) so we are celebrating with chicken teriyaki and cheesecake tomorrow night. It has been an sunny, consistent day. We started out with a long line of squalls deftly driven by Andy. He handled the helm through the wind for about an hour and a half with 18 to 20 knot winds and gusts to 24. He has now been renamed Squall Tamer! We have maintained an average boat speed of 7 knots and some of that in as little at 10 knots of breeze (Thank you, Tiki Blue!). We saw a pod of 20+ dolphins cross our bow heading somewhere as they jumped and played. And the sunset this evening started with a pale pink and ended with a beautiful scarlet red. Even though the boat looks as though it's in the 5 knot wind barbs, we have another series of squalls that will keep us moving (and Andy is again on the helm!)

Joe wanted to add: "Home is where the heart is and we are half way there. Love and thanks to everyone for the safe passage and good thoughts. Looking forward to sharing this great experience with you soon. As someone once said, live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.

Andy says we should get parrots, sail away and become pirates. We are considering it.

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a struggle

Yesterday was spent motoring which meant lots of napping but today has been a bit of a struggle. We've had high seas for most of the day which made Michele green around the gills and high winds (18 to 20kn). Unfortunately, early on, those winds wanted to take us to San Diego. We tacked over but still couldn't stay on the course we wanted so we're heading NNE in hopes of getting high enough to tack for home. The seas have eased and Andy of the cast iron stomach (who sends greetings to his folks in Fort Lauderdale) whipped up Beef Stroganoff. We'll keep trying to make headway and hope for more cooperative winds to come.

Dennis and the PacBack crew

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Hard to complain

We've just finished another day and night of clear weather sailing. Beautiful blue sky with puffy marshmallow clouds during the day and clear sky with just enough clouds to give us breeze at night. We were able to make 7 kn of speed in 11/12 kn breeze. We owe it to a great boat and perfect trim (Yes, Jack, we have perfect trim!). Everyone's favorite watch seems to be the night and early morning hours. We're sailing along the Milky Way, following it's path. We watch the constellations move across the star ladened night sky and watch the florescent algae as it looks like hundreds of Tinkerbells flying in our wake. Flying fish have jumped into the cockpit for a visit on a couple of occasions. Joe gallantly tossed his visitor back into the water while Michele screamed like a girl when she tried to pick up her visitor. Who knows what will happen if squid come visiting! We began motoring at 9:30 this morning to skirt through the bottom of the high and are hoping to catch bigger breeze on the other side. Everyone sends greetings.

Until tomorrow,
Dennis and the PacBack crew

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Day ?

Last night was amazingly star filled. Dennis and Michele were able to identify Mars, Saturn, the Scorpion and a few other minor constellations. In the early morning, Joe thought he spotted an aircraft carrier on the horizon, only to realize it was the bright and beautiful Venus. There is an app for that and we all used the Ipad app Star Guide to find all sorts of fun stuff in the night sky. Our daytime held a solid 36 hours of steady consistent winds (we were able to reach 8.5 to 9 knots in 12 knots apparent breeze)but alas, the wind gods have retreated. We began motoring at 6:00 this evening. At least we were able to escape a number of big, nasty looking squalls because Tiki Blue handles sooooo nicely. The boys have renamed us; we are no longer squall chaser but now wind chasers. We haven't decided if we'll go above or below the high as of yet.
The crew wanted to pass on some personal greetings:
From Andy: Thank you to my whole family for this once in a lifetime trip. Only once? Boppa Loves you. Happy Birthday to Little Addisyn,just a little late. Sorry, but Boppa went wandering again..
From Dennis: Happy Birthday, Becky.
From Joe: I hope Haven and Terry are having a terrific couple of days. And a huge welcome home to Dana.
From Michele: Habibi, give Oliver and Matilda extra loving. Miss you much.

Until tomorrow,
The Pac Back crew

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another fine day

we are finishing another fine day on Tiki Blue. We've successfully avoided 2 or 3 large squalls thanks to how well Tiki Blue handles even under auto helm. Everyone on board wants to give a shout out to Gary Truxel for allowing us to use such a well-tuned vessel. She holds a true course and simply glides through the waves. We are loving being her crew.
It is a day for shout outs - Joe was able to reach his birthday girl daughter and send special greeting from far away. The crew is settling in for the night watch schedule as we enjoy another fantastic sunset. All of us greetings to friends and family.

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