If this isn't nice I dont know what is

Today was great. The sun came out with blue sky, and the Big P was a deep crystal azure. The winds were favorable 20knts and we sailed the entire day wing n wing clogging along t 7-8 knot. Jorge did his job and kept us on course, while we talked about movies and conspiracy theories and traveling in Tokyo. Did you know we didn't actually ever land on the moon AND that octopus are smarter than a 5th grader?
Today was captain Lad's bday, which we somehow overlooked his wife's hints to alert us. We were able to gather some items together and have a nice time out in the cockpit just before sunset. The moon and stars also appeared. Kathy and I watched the full bright moon dip and dive behind clouds in a dramatic fashion. Mars is visible too. This is the Pacific Ocean night sky I've been waiting for! A squall blew through and knocked Kathy and I out of our moon daze, Winds picked up to 33 knots and we had full main and headsail flying. It was a hairy few minutes but the boat and crew are fine. The squalls will be occurring with regularity the closer we get to Hawaii. Did I mention Hawaii is far? Its is the most remote chain of islands ON EARTH I am told. Farther away from land than any other islands. We sre more than halfway, and can see the finish line approaching here in just a few days. Stay tuned in. And for those of you leaving comments, we love them but cannot respond back. But keep cheering us on and saying hi, we love it.
I'm going to go back on my 2am watch now and look at the night sky in the middle of the ocean. If this isn't nice....

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Best Day Ever

I think we are figuring out sail trim on a ketch; George, the windvane auto pilot is treating us really well (he even steer us through squalls); and we are still on course. The sun came out today, there may be stars tonight! So far we have had only one clear night, and a few nights where the moon peeks through dramatic clouds creating spots of light on the ocean.

Thanks again for all the encouragement, especially from you office bound ones. There's no place else any of us would rather be. All systems continue to be highly functional and if there is any "breakdown" the crew is so skilled we get the thing problem solved and fixed within about a half an hour. We hot wired the engine to get it started. We recarpentered a bunk shelf this afternoon.

We have cleaned everything on the boat but ourselves; it's been a bit cloudy until today, when we started sailing without our foulies, even when it's raining. And we love the rain! Shadowside handles high winds (25 to 30 knots is the most we encountered) like a champ, with a real easy, rolling motion.

Tonight or tommorow, sun showers!

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Favorite Bill Murray movie

7/19 Our halfway party was dinner with ribs, chips, and champagne. We toasted to a 1000 miles of sweet sailing and 1000 more to the finish. Hawaii is really far away. The weather continues to be overcast and a few squalls have blown through, but nothing too dramatic. We have all gotten into our watch routines and can shorten sails at a moments notice. Jorge, our Hydrovane self steering system is my favorite thing on the boat. Alejandro and Kathy like to hand steer on their watch. I prefer to snack. Living in a small sailboat with strangers you run the gamut of conversation topics. We have gone through all "best of" or "favorite fill in the blank" questions. I wouldn't want to be with a different bunch of rag tag crew. Kathy is hysterical with crazy travel and sailing stories and ALejandro continues to be the international man of mystery and is our go to guy when we need any help with anything. Captain is calm and good humored even when we accidentally gibe the main violently. We are looking out for j and having fun.
Shadowside is chugging along on a 255 COG at 7.0 knots over ground. She is a sturdy, heavy boat and I feel really safe when the wind picks up. The seas have been 10-12 rollers that toss the boat 30 degrees to port and then back to starboard, sometimes so steeply that my stomach drops. The rest of the fleet seems to be much farther North than us, but we are making good time and might even rank!

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Mind the nachos!

We re all wondering when the sun is going to come out. Its been cloudy and overcast for days and nights now. Every so often the sun or moon will show themselves and we are washed in a brilliant light across the sea. But, even in the absence of the sun and stars, The Big P (Pacific Ocean) is so beautiful. We are currently on a down wind slot running with the main alone until watch change and we will set the jib u for wing on wing which should give us an extra knot of speed. Even while typing this in the nav station, I am being flung side to side with the pitch of each wave. These last few days we have all gotten a fair amount of bruises. Alejandro made nachos for lunch yesterday and they we amazing. While we were chowing down, and probably because we were cowing down, we jibed. "Mind the nachos!" I yelled. Cause, when as sea, you need to watch out for precious resources.

We are halfway and are going to celebrate today! We are also working on posting some pictures, but its been low priority cause we are exhausted from this washing machine of a course we have been on for 24 hours. Ocean sailing is exhausting and at times down right hrd. BUT BUT BUT...then you go sit in the cockpit and watch the waves and move cross the sea with only the wind, literally in the middle of nowhere. Its serene, sublime and surreal, and worth every bruise and lost hour of sleep.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Adventures at Sea

It's wonderful to be on a boat where everything works! And if it breaks, Kimber, Alejandro,or Lad can fix it. I'm halfway decent at downwind driving, so I can keep the boat steady while they do what they need to do to set up the spinnaker, wing out the jib, trouble shoot one of two auto steering machines, or write blog posts. Lad makes navigation look easy (since the system was set up by Bill Myers, it is easy!) and we are on course for the partys in Kaneohe. Lad is great at team building and making sure we all get plenty of rest, food, and hydration, and that Shadowside is organized and clean. We are all loving sailing on a ketch--it track so well down wind, the motion is really comfortable (Kimber just said she hates the galley. That may be for any galley under way, so she's strapping in right now to the West Marine kitchen strap.) Fortunately, Alejandro is a chef so we have had iron chef meals from the great provisions organized by Donna. I do want to note that we made such good time the first day because Kimber and Alejandro were all over making the appropriate sail adjustments as conditions changed--reefing, furling, raising and lowering sails as needed in bumpy conditions. Thanks so much for all your comments. We love our ground crew! This is a dream come true for all of us, and it's great to listen to each other's stories on night watch and get to know each other. Cheers, Kathy

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Day 6 and no flying fish

1:17am on 7/16. Our position is currently N 31.26 W 133.35. We are cruising along on a beam reach at 7.2 knots COG 251. Its been overcast and mild temperatures as we head toward the half way point. The moon tonight would occasionally make an appearance and shine a brilliant light on the otherwise black sea. Ill be excited when the clouds part and we have some sunshine and stars. We changed sail configuration a few times today to adapt to some shifty wind. We didn't fly the kite today and instead chose to continue with our downwind set of wing and wing. Shadowside is a heavy boat and takes the waves like a champ. She has a very sea kindly motion and all the crew are always excited for off watch hours to fall fast asleep, even in the middle of the day we sleep like babies. There is a radio hour everyday at 5:00 where all the boats in the fleet an check in and hear undated info and get the latest standings. Regrettably three boats have left our division which leaves only 4 boats to compete against. We are still listed at last place but not by a big margin AND these standings do not account for corrected time. So we have a chance of winning some accolades at the awards ceremony. The crew just keeps chugging along with our watch schedules and reminding each other to drink water and eat some snacks. I wouldn't want to be with a better group of people. Everyone is working together, and given that we are living in a space as big as most of your home kitchens, we are keeping our good humor and rallying together when we need to quickly respond to something happening on deck.
Kathy heard there was a revolution happening in Turkey, but other than that, we are oblivious to what is taking place on land. Our world revolves around the wind, waves and what to eat for dinner.

Until the next witching hour.
Kimber signing off

p.s. Respond to the blog. We really love hearing from you.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Going where the wind takes us

Howdy land lubbers! Shadowside here with another report from day 4? of he race. Time tends to meld together out here in the open ocean. Between watch schedules, sail changes, and the incredibly hard task of making scrambled eggs in a rolling sea, one tends to forget the day. We are currently N32.09 W131.06 course over ground 225 drifting along at a measly 4.6 knots. The wind has shifted to the aft of and we are waiting for watch shift to set up a whisker pole so we can fly wing and wing. The weather and sea conditions have been favorable, although we are all still dawning our foulies. We can feel the warmer weather approaching, and Ill be able to put away all of my Patagucci technical warm clothing. The night sky is overcast so there are no stars or moon to speak of. Just the black black horizon. George, or "Jorge" as we also affectionately call him, because not only do sailors give their self steering gear names, we also give them nicknames. Jorge has been doing less steering downwind and the actual humans onboard have been hand steering. Its quite a strange feeling driving a sailboat through the dark black ocean.
The crew remain in good heath and spirits. We have been eating well and getting enough sleep with our 4 hours on/4 hours off watch schedule. We are currently last in our division BUT that has not dampened our fighting spirit! We are the bad news bears of the race, the mighty ducks of the Pac Cup!! The era of the ketch is not over.

Hope all is well and good out there on dry land. Until next time. Same bat channel time same bat channel.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

Spinnakers and meatballs

Hello friends and family from the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Shadowside's current position is N 33 44.880 by W 127 59.634 with a speed over ground of 8.1. We enjoyed much calmer seas today after having our feet put to the fire the first night with much gustier wind and a big sea state. Shadowside is taking good care of us and we are all enjoying sailing a ketch rigged boat with all of the sail configurations we can make. The crew is in good spirits and have settled into life on a 40' boat. With some of the crew having a hard time eating the first 24 hours, our first meal was a real blessing. Pasta and meatballs! For those of you that have never tried to cook at sea, just know that any meal preparation is a trial of defying gravity.
We have set up our 5th crew member, who we have named George. George is a Hydrovane self steering system that will steer the boat for us while we sit there and look at waves, make sail changes, or just try not to spill our morning cup of coffee all over the place. We love George and imagine he speaks in the third person like that Seinfeld episode. "George loves sailing!" We will try to update the blog daily, so stay tuned to more tales of adventure. Until then, know (mom) that we are safe and having a great time. Don't forget you can comment on the blog and we will receive your messages.

Adios and good night from the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
-kimber

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

2016-07-12-1200 PDT

They are doing great.

On the Pacific Cup tracking page LINK it shows them with 1921 nm to go and moving at 7.3 knots.

That means, only 11 days to go. That would be Saturday the 23rd, a whole week ahead of the finish deadline. Not bad.

LINK to a fantastic starting line photo.

Day 1 - 22;45

78 miles down course - Sailing down our course line under reefed jib and mizzen wind 20-25 knts NW waves about 10 feet.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

2000 and ready to go

After a challenging day of preparation the Shadowside is ready to set sail. Special thanks to Bill and Donna for their efforts on our behalf.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

GG Bridge, calm and clear.

Less than 24 hours to go.