Day 2

the Tiki Blue Pac Back crew have completed another day. We just watched a lovely sunset off the port beam. It's been a day of steady 15 to 17 knots with 3 or 4 squalls. The boys have begun calling us Squall Chasers. You can tell where the squalls were by looking at our track. It's a little squirrelly as we sailed to avoid the harsher ones. Michele cooked the first diner on the rocking stove!

Everyone sends greetings to their families.

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One day down

We're just finishing our first 24 hours on Tiki Blue and been a fairly uneventful trip so far. We had 10 to 15 knots for most of the day and 16-20 knots last night. We've passed through a few squalls with no incidence. All of us, except Dennis, are still getting our sea legs (if you know what I mean!)We did manage to find the Tiki Blue binoculars - Dennis very excited. It's still adventure,

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Ready to leave

Tiki Blue is filled with gas, water, food, and good spirits. We have enjoyed our time at Kaneohe Yacht Club but are anxious to get underway. We leave tomorrow morning - our weather looks good and we don't want to miss it. Our thanks to our spouses and everyone who has helped us get to where we are now and where we'll be in the following days!

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2014 Pacific Cup Awards Ceremony

Tiki Blue receives 3rd Place trophy in B division and wins team trophy with RYC team Encore, Green Buffalo and Tiki Blue. Yeeeeehaaaa!

2000 mile ocean match race. Tiki Blue and Coyote 2014

This picture says it all for 2014 Pac Cup Race! We pushed our well prepared boats everyday and every night to their maximum capacity. Skippers and crews never gave up! My full respect goes to Steve Hill and his crew. A HUGE thanks to my fantastic crew. It is a race and adventure forever etched in my mind!

Now on land with Kelly my sweetie and starting land based activities and helping the return crew prepare Tiki Blue for the journey home to its safe harbor at RYC. Oh...and a few Hawaiian parties at the beautiful Kaneohe Yacht Club!

44 to go- what a long haul its been!

Yes the wind lightened up again with just 45 miles to go. Just a reminder how this race started. Last night was tough. We had 36 knot winds and at the helm hit 17.2 knots. Second best to the Judge. We also broke a spinnaker shackle that stop our progress for 52 min while we repaired it around midnight under sail. Coyote got past us and we worked hard the rest of the night to get back side my side in the AM. In fact so close that Stuart crew from Coyote deployed is drone and took aerial vidios of both Tiki Blue and Coyote racing side my side just 100 miles from the finish. Looking for the last patches of wind to get us across he finish line and the KYC. See you soon! We hope :)

Cheers Capt'n Gary, Stubble Beard (Chris), Warlord (Dennis), Honorable Judge (Murray), Navigator Extrapolator (Tom, Chef Wrench men (Larry)

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240 mles to go with a Coyote barking at our door

This has been one hell of a race with Coyote as I'm sure you can see by the tracker. They are right on our Okole and it has been a real dog fight. In light air they are faster in stronger breeze we have an edge but ever so slight. One minor change on sail trim and things can change quickly. It is exciting to have a RYC buddy boat and friend to race to the very end. While the race on paper is pretty much over on the rating issue, the first to line is still compelling enough for us to carry on with conviction.

We all had fresh water showers tody and used the last bit of water in the forward tank. We still have about 20 gallons left in the aft tank and some bottled water. It should be plenty to get us thru. The crew has been joking that the dinner meals are so scrumptious and massive that soon after, the crew has the pulse rate of a lizard on a cold slab. Shortly thereafter a food coma sets in and everyone wants to sleep and when they do the snoring is a collective crescendo that rattles the rigging and keeps the whales at bay.

Still seeing gobs of flying fish and the nights have been clouded over and dark with some rain. Last night wasn't as difficult as the night before. We also have entered the military Rim Pac war exercise zone with the US, Japan, China and other countries involved. We have a list of assets from destroyers, aircraft carriers, submarines from participating countries and it is in the hundreds. I'm sure we will see some activity tonight. We have had four container ships come by pretty close at night. AIS is great for identification and I hail them on VHF to make sure they see us. Then we have a quick chat and everyone knows where we are headed. Safety first. We are changing our watch schedule until the finish with essentially two alternating teams of 3 on deck for 4 hours and reverting back and forth until the finish.

We are all very excited to see our loved ones, family and friends. We are craving a cold iced down umbrella drink and/or COLD draft beers.

Cheers Capt'n Gary

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