44th Transpacific Yacht Race - Day 11

Cirrus had its day; is it Pyewacket's turn now?

Sometime late Thursday or early Friday the big dogs led by Pyewacket will start blowing by Cirrus, whose ladies and gentleman won't mind at all. They've already lived their moment in the 44th Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii.

"Don't miss [Wednesday's] press release," someone on the boat e-mailed to their fans. "Cirrus faster than Pegasus! Cirrus [sailed] one mile farther than Pegasus. You can talk to your grandchildren about this day. Yep, I guess Stan Honey wishes he had Cirrugator on his boat."

But that was when even world-class navigators were struggling in a quagmire of light wind that made this one of the most challenging Transpacs in memory. As it was, two more boats---Delicate Balance and Lucky Dog, both in Division 4---dropped out in frustration, following earlier retirements by Gaviota and Ginny, all before they had sailed half of the 2,225 nautical miles. That left 69 of the 73 starters still competing.

"Too far to go, too many days out already," was the Delicate Balance report.

Did they bail out too soon? The picture became much brighter starting late Wednesday into Thursday when the leaders rediscovered the reason for the century long popularity of this race.

As Philippe Kahn reported from Pegasus 101: "We found the trade winds! High five! Now we’re going [in] 12 knots of wind, the kite and staysail up and 10.5 knots of boat speed pointed straight at Honolulu. The nice trade wind cotton puffy clouds are unmistakable. We’re pushing the boat hard and the reports are going to get shorter. It gets pretty physical. There is only one way to Honolulu: surfing."

Pyewacket also hit its stride, logging 336 miles in the 24 hours leading to Thursday morning's roll call---tops for this Transpac---at an average speeds of 14 knots and at times as fast as 18. That no doubt brightened Roy E. Disney's outlook as he waited restlessly in Waikiki, but the 94-foot winged wonder has a lot of time to make up to beat the record of 6 days 16 hours 4 minutes 11 seconds set by Morning Glory two years ago.

To do that, Pyewacket would have to pass Diamond Head by 5 a.m. PDT Sunday (2 a.m. Honolulu time), which would require an average speed of 18 knots over the last 1,240 miles.

It's possible. The communications vessel Alaska Eagle, less than a day's run in front of Pyewacket, reported 22 knots of breeze, and the modified Pyewacket had reported sailing faster than the wind in sea trials.

Ed Feo's Locomotion spoke for most of the boats: "Better spirits on board this afternoon than at daybreak, as we have finally broken free of the stagnant, drizzly air mass associated with a passing front last night. Enjoying some stunning sailing in bright blue skies and matching water. The master plan is to tap into the northern edge of the equatorial trades and hopefully not pay too high a price in distance sailed to account for the speed increase."

Cirrus has no such concerns. Bill Myers' 34-year-old Standfast 40 continues to lead the Aloha B division by more than 100 miles over the next boat, Lady Liberty, the slowest-rated boat in the race. There are no all-woman boats in this Transpac but Myers' all-Hawaiian Cirrus is close.

"I'm just along for the ride," he said. "Lindsey and her mom have taken over the boat. When you're in charge you've got knots in your stomach 24 hours a day."

Lindsey Austin, 22, is the skipper who landed on her feet after missing the last cut for Disney's Morning Light team. Her mom Donna Austin is a watch captain. Both have 100-ton Master's licenses and have done numerous boat deliveries. Other crew members are Caroline Heinrich, commodore of the Hawaii Women's Yacht Racing Association; Nancy Piper and Christi Shacat.

Myers messaged: "If you check the chart it is almost impossible to find Cirrus in the mob of high- performance bigger boats crowding around since we've been doing so well. Lindsey claims we held back to be polite. Amazing how many friends you have when you're number one."

Transblogs from the boats

On The Edge of Destiny (Sean Doyle): We just doused the symmetrical kite, gybed and set the white asymmetrical all in one smooth move in pitch black. Beat that ML! We have had to sail so far south to get around the high that our course to Hawaii is WSW, about 250 magnetic. We have about 1,350 miles to go and were hoping we don't have to gybe again. We dropped the lure earlier this morning and are hoping for a bite so we can have some fresh fish instead of the foil packaged stuff we have been eating.

Pegasus 101 (Philippe Kahn): As we were sailing today, Richard and I were thinking this racing boat is the ultimate Gizmo and it is full of gizmos. Everything including two types of satellite communications systems, water resistant barometers, radio transmitters, waterproof phones, iPhones, iPods, toughened computers, real-time sensors, sunglasses and it goes on and on. This morning about everything that could fail failed. Not the sailing part. That always works. And we were down to the sails and the good old compass. That actually felt good.

Locomotion (unknown): Salt water showers are the order of the day as water temps are finally tolerable, and B.O. the inverse. It's shaping up to be a prolonged battle with class rival Pendragon IV as she reported only four miles closer to Honolulu at [Wednesday] morning's roll call, and we seem to have similar speed with them thus far. We haven't seen any other boats since yesterday dawn (Cheetah) and in fact haven't seen much commercial traffic.

NOTE: Wednesday's report from Psyche of the death at home of a crew member's father was misinterpreted to relate to skipper Steve Calhoun. The crew member was Bill Wright. His father was Howard Wright Jr., who was the Los Angeles Yacht Club commodore in 1962. The press officer regrets the error and the loss. More at transpac07.blogspot.com

The Transpacific Yacht Club has joined with Casio Computer Co., Ltd., in a sponsorship agreement to make the company's Oceanus watch the official timekeeper of the 44th biennial race. The Oceanus is a solar-powered chronograph watch with a time signal-calibration function developed by making full use of Casio's advanced electronic technologies.

Transpac supporters also include the Long Beach Sea Festival 2007, Gladstone's Restaurant, Ayres Hotels and L. Gaylord Sportswear.