Friday, July 1, 2016

The Finish Line

We have planned our route as best we can ahead of time. We have a couple different kinds of weather information. We even know how to get detailed start line weather and Kathy tells me that she has tidal current charts to help us out under the Golden Gate.

What is there left to do? Well, the Finish Line would be one example.

Unlike the Transpac Race (That is held on odd numbered years.) our race does not finish at the Diamond Head Buoy off of Waikiki. Instead, our finish line is in the open ocean off of Kaneohe Bay on the east side of Oahu.

Kaneohe Bay

 The orange cross marks the approximate location of the Pacific Cup finish line. The picture below shows this part of the chart in more detail.

Detail of the Pacific Cup finish line.

The finish line consists of that part of a line through the aeronautical beacon on Puu Hawaiiloa (On the Marine Corps Base.) and Pyramid Rock that extends NNW from the yellow cross where the line crosses Latitude 21deg 29min.

This is a little different than previous years because there is a new rule that boats are not permitted to cross the part of Latitude 21deg 29min that is indicated by the horizontal red line on the chart. You can easily see why. All those little dots cluttering up that part of the ocean represent the locations of different kinds of experimental machines for producing electricity from wave motion.

So, when we are finishing we will pass just north of a temporary buoy located near the yellow cross on the chart. Our official finish time will be when we cross the line from Puu Hawaiiloa through Pyramid Rock. Then we will follow the green arrows to the "Sampan" channel and on into the bay. It will take us about a half hour to reach the Kaneohe Yacht Club where we are expecting a big reception.

2 comments:

  1. That is very clear. Thank you!

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  2. Thanks for the information Bill, very interesting. See you soon.

    ReplyDelete