Tony Chapman (Neil's Chapman's cousin) is currently sailing the Transpac to Hawaii aboard Pipe Dream, a CF 37, he sends this special report for Boatshed.

July 18, 4.30pm

Aloha everyone out there.

We have now been racing for over a week and anticipate we are about half done in terms of time after the slow start. We expect to cross the half distance mark sometime this evening. The daily check-in reports indicate we are mid-fleet in terms of our north-south position on the course, which was part of our pre-race strategy. We are 2nd in class, but significantly behind the leader, So Far, a Swan 48, who are ahead of many of the boats in the Aloha A fleet in terms of distance covered. We have decided that we have spent enough time going south and are know heading for the barn door and hoping for the best. We will keep our eye on the weather to try and avoid running into any dead spots like last time.

We have run into variable winds the last 24 hours and have changed to the 3/4 oz spinnaker for the lighter breezes. The staysail was repaired after the clew blew out yesterday but the repair only lasted until early evening yesterday and the sail is now buried in the lazerrete. We tried out the light #1 jib as a staysail for a while this afternoon and it worked in the breezy conditions but de-powered the spinnaker when the winds lightened.

We only managed 152 miles in the 24 hours ending this morning at 8.00 am, a result of some the light morning wind. We are now sailing at 7 to 8 knots in 10 to 13 knots of wind. The forecast for tomorrow is for stronger winds below the 25N meridian. We are currently at 25 degrees 46 minutes latitude.

We continue to be well-fed, the tamale pies being a big hit for dinner last night and John's Special being served this morning. The menu for dinner is now determined by whatever happens to be on top of the ice box. The ice box was originally arranged in a pre-arranged order for each meal but that all went out the window when the first night's Macaroni & Cheese went awol and someone emptied the cooler. Now when anything cannot be found it is said
to be with the Mac & Cheese. We did a crew weigh-in prior to departure to see who loses weight on the trip but I am unsure any of us will. The tamale pies created their own breezes last night, everyone being thankful we are now able to sail with the hatch open in the calmer seas. We have also been fishing this afternoon as fish tacos seem like a good idea and expect to catch some mahi-mahi at dusk. Matt is confident that we will catch fish.
The water temp is up from 64 at the start to 70 degrees. Today was the first day that we have seen flying fish. Joe was amazed that they actually fly just above the waves and not just jump out of the water.

We had been concerned about diesel consumption up to today, so everyone was being conservative in their use of electrical power to avoid running the engine too much to charge the batteries. We dipped the fuel tank and have plenty of fuel and have since been listening to CD's on the new stereo.
We started with the classic Neil Young Harvest album and just finished listening to Sheryl Crow's The Globe Sessions. The music is creating a good jovial atmosphere, hopefully without detracting from the racing.

Team Pipe Dream checking out until tomorrow.

http://www.transpacificyc.org/

Owner: John Davis
Sail number: 47560
Rig: Sloop
LOA (ft.): 37
Draft (ft): 6
Beam (ft): 12
Hull color: White
Yacht Club: Seal Beach
Hailing port: Long Beach , CA USA
Class or type: CF-37
Where built: Long Beach
Year launched: 1974

Rating and Division Assignment:
Transpac Rating (TPR): 257.821
Racing Class or Division: Aloha B

Skipper : John Davis
Navigator: Tony Chapman
Watch Captain: Lou Schweitzer
Crew: Matt Reavis, Scott Smith, Joe Martony